Online Signature Lawfulness for Building Services in Canada

How to eSign a document: online signature lawfulness for Building services in Canada

[Applause] [Music] hey folks Todd Tremonti here with market experts Realty in the Tatra Monty home selling team with another weekly Q&A video this week our question is what is an escrow account now this word escrow gets used a lot throughout a purchase or sale or even an investment transaction and it can be used in a few different ways today we're going to focus on this idea of an escrow account and I'll give you a little bit of context around kind of when that would be used and why but the short answer to the question is an escrow account is a bank account that holds funds in sort of a neutral third party type situation in Texas most escrow accounts are really managed through title companies in a residential transaction and it's where money like earnest money would be held now we have another video on what is earnest money so I won't get into that too much but it's money that's being held kind of in between the buyer and the seller and and those funds what's done with them is dictated by the terms of a contract if this then the con then those funds go here if that then those funds go back over here or if this and then that then the funds are applied this way so it doesn't really matter what all those if the ends are because there can be hundreds if not thousands of different scenarios what matters is for you to understand that funds can be protected in a transaction between two parties now our goal and most good full-time agents have a goal that transactions are not confrontational it doesn't feel like buyer versus seller seller trying to take advantage of buyer but inevitably there's always some skepticism some lack of trust I'm not really sure I know that person well enough to write them a check and just let them hold on to it so those funds can sit in an escrow account and be held by a neutral third party who's simply tasked with making sure the terms of the agreement are acted upon and that those funds go to the right place when those things happen there's one other major scenario that are relevant to escrow accounts and I would want you to know about if you were trying to get an answer to this question as a potential buyer seller or investor and that is the other most common time an escrow account is used is when you pay more than your principal and interest in your mortgage payment now this is very different than the buy or sale process this is typically after you've already purchased a home and you're making payments for a mortgage most mortgage payments include principal and interest the amount you owe on the loan and the interest you're paying on the loan and then it isn't entirely common it happens a lot that you would also pay taxes and/or interest every month in your payment people call it piti principal interest taxes and insurance or a pity payment piti payment so the tax is an insurance piece of your monthly payment are only paid once per year when they come due but you pay in every month and they build up in an escrow account that's managed by the company that services your mortgage we have another video on what a mortgage servicer is also but for now let's just assume you pay principal and interest every month you also pay taxes and insurance every month and those add up and by the 12 month you're servicing company pays the full insurance payment for the year or your full property tax payment for the year that money as it adds up is held in an escrow account by a neutral third party that is tasked with making sure that money gets to the right place so hopefully that helps you understand what an escrow account is there are definitely other uses of escrow accounts those are the two most common and when that question gets asked usually they're coming from one of those two places so hopefully this was helpful for you if you have other questions about this or anything else real estate related drop it in the comment box like this video share it with someone you think it would be valuable for and then definitely subscribe to our Channel talk Tremonti home selling team on youtube or head over to t th st dot TV and we would be happy to make sure you get other videos like this one that are intended to help educate you of course if we can ever earn your business at the top Tremonti home selling team let us know that would be happy to help as well have a great day