ANGIE KNIGHT WITH GSLG CHECKS IN 7/7/26

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Time to drop the gavel. It's legal talk with Angie Knight from the Grand Strand Law Group on the Liz Callaway Show next summer. Talk for the entire Grand Strand.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

All right, here she is, Angie Knight of the Grand Strand Law Group. We were just chatting real estate. Because that's part of their areas of lore. What's wrong with me today? I can't talk. What did you say? Maybe I should give this up for a living.

SPEAKER_00 0:30

No, you said something today. I was like, oh, straight out of Boston. I was like, smart.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Oh yeah, I'm smart. Look at me, I'm smart. I'm on the radio. I'm smart. So real estate law, estate planning, probate, business law, personal injury law, prenuptial, post-nuptial, or antinuptial. That's what we learned from Bailey. Antinuptial and cohabitation agreements, very important.

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Did we ever figure out if there's midnuptial agreements? That's it. Dang it.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Angie and I were talking about, you know, buying second homes. And in the past we've talked about how when you get your title insurance, you don't always have the title fraud or theft protection in that title insurance, and that could really, you know, expose you. And uh you offer a complimentary 30-minute review of your second home title protection. So um, you know, for people who have second homes, uh why are they additionally exposed in some cases?

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Well, for one, um n typically an investment property is gonna get what's called a homeowner's pol I mean an owner's policy and not a homeowner's policy, so they're not covered for th title theft. But you know, with it when it's a second home, you're not there as much. You're not there as often. Um sometimes it might even be just land, but you're not going by there, you're not checking, and you know, you're not you're you're not able to see that note on the door from the foreclosure office that says, Hey, you didn't, you know, pay your loan, and you're like, wait, what? Um so it's it's just there's just not as much com organization and and um information right at your fingertips as there would be if it was your primary residence.

SPEAKER_01 2:19

You know, buying a second home is you know, it's like scary. Yeah, a little bit because you're like double exposing yourself. Um and some people uh I was just talking to relatives yesterday, they bought a second home, but it's a condo, and they rent it out, you know, they let the condo place rent it out and then they go and visit it and they say they're doing well with it.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Yeah, I mean that's what I do with my Tennessee house. You know, we rent it out and we use it for our own enjoyment as well. Um, you just gotta make smart choices when it comes to the numbers, right? You gotta make sure that it can pay for itself. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

And when you do that, I mean, do a lot of people do it to really earn income, or is it kind of like a long-term plan, investment?

SPEAKER_00 3:02

I think some people do it to earn income, you know. Some people have a slew of of investment properties and that's what they do for a living is they take care of their investment properties. But you have to crunch the numbers. You gotta crunch the numbers, you gotta make sure that it's a good investment. And you know, you want to make sure that even if you're even if you're not really buying it to rent it out per se, if it's really just gonna be a second home, you want to make sure that it's gonna turn a profit when you do decide to sell it.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yeah, absolutely. All right, another thing that we hear people talking about, and I just had this conversation also yesterday. Um, we were talking about, you know, when you have parents, you you're you're, you know, you're up in your 50s and sixties, your parents are aging, you're trying to have this conversation with them, they don't have a will in place, and you're like, well, let me just make something on online for you or something, you know.

SPEAKER_00 3:53

Oh yeah, it's it can be dangerous though. You know, you know, guys, I always you all know I always say, you know, if the computer's only as smart as you are as it relates to the answers that you input. But the other day I was thinking too, if let's say you you don't you don't know the consequences of the answers you're putting in, right? So you don't know the tax consequences specifically. So you could make a decision to leave everything to your grandchildren, not knowing that you've got generation skipping taxes that would be involved, and you're not planning for that. So it's about you know it's not just about not knowing what to enter or what not to enter, it's about knowing what the consequences of your entries are. That's very interesting. I'd never even heard of that. Generation skipping taxes? Yeah, yeah. If you leave if you skip a generation, so let's say you skip your child and you leave everything to your grandchild, that's generation skipping. And there's taxes associated with that.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Like m like uh in other words, if you were to leave it with your children, are there no taxes or less taxes?

SPEAKER_00 4:54

There's no generation skipping taxes because you're not skipping that generation. Um there's very few. Because they want to tax it at every angle and you skipped one, right? You skipped one.

SPEAKER_01 5:05

Oh my gosh. Choose the possession. Oh that's my mantra. You're gonna get screwed anyway, right? Anywhere you go. Okay, so can you say that on the air? I don't know. Angie doesn't mind. Um no, she doesn't like but okay, so so doing the will online, you think that okay, they're answer they're asking me all these pertinent questions. I'm I'm bound to have a will. So now you have the will done, and you don't you start to second guess yourself. Now you're listening to this and you're like, can you review my online will? I mean, how does this work? Uh you know, I know, I won't. You won't? I won't, no. Okay. So they have to start from scratch, but if they already made a will online, does that one stand? Like how does it work?

SPEAKER_00 5:53

Yeah, I mean, if if they've executed it properly, then it's then it is legal. And that's what we have to deal with if they don't get one done by an attorney.

SPEAKER_01 6:02

So they'd have to exit out or revoke it or something.

SPEAKER_00 6:06

Typically the new will will say, I hereby revoke all prior wills and codicles. That's how they all say, right.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Yeah, and um that's very interesting. Um now, is that when you're doing an online will, is that particularly susceptible to fraud?

SPEAKER_00 6:24

I mean, maybe. I mean I don't know. I mean, I guess it depends on what platform you're using, right? And where you're putting your information in. They could, but then it would probably be a family member in that scenario, right? Family member makes a fake will for you and then you die, and then all of a sudden they found this fake will. Yeah. They would still have to have it executed. So there's still the execution part.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

They would have to have some other signing and there's a there's a a hard paper part of it with notary or something.

SPEAKER_00 6:57

Oh yeah, you still have to sign a hard copy. There's no just create it online and think it's done. It's you gotta print it off, sign a hard copy. Okay. But again, this is not what I suggest. No, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:08

No, I mean there's so many nuances and every situation, and people say, Well, I don't have a lot of assets. Well, that may be true, but your family dynamics are complicated.

SPEAKER_00 7:20

Sometimes we need to plan even more because you don't have a lot of assets, right? Right? Maybe there's something we need we can do to help you that you don't know about, right? That's why we want you to have that conversation with us.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Yeah. And some of it can, you know, could be even exist and live outside the will. Right. Not, you know, the will is for certain things, and then you may have investments already that you've planned with beneficiaries.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

So for instance, you may think, Okay, and I've created this will and it says everything to my child, right? But you didn't dis you didn't the computer didn't tell you and you didn't think about the fact that you have a life insurance policy out there that says it's going to your spouse. Right? Right. Or to your sister, because at the time you did it and created that life insurance policy, maybe your child wasn't old enough yet. Maybe they weren't 18. Right. Or maybe you did not just leave maybe it does go to your child, but your child isn't 18. You're not thinking about those consequences, big huge deals, right? If you don't know what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

And have someone look at it. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:25

Okay. Uh, if you have any questions, you can budget blinds, text line us at 843-798-talk 798-8255. All right, so tell us a little bit about um, you know, by the way, Angie Knight has an office in um Myrtle Beach on Broadway Street, North Myrtle Beach on Highway 17, and in Lawrence on Main Street. Uh, tell us a little bit about, you know, you did hire a new lawyer. You were handling, is it corporate?

SPEAKER_00 8:54

No, um, we do handle we do handle business law aspects. So we create LLCs um or S Corps or C Corps, right? We do buy sell agreements for people who are buying and selling their business and um and you know and legacy planning. And legacy planning, yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:10

It's really important.

SPEAKER_00 9:11

It really is, you know, you start thinking about oh, I want to retire, but how am I going to when you own a business, right? So we help you through that.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Yeah, and and also if you have a partner with if you're in partners with uh a business, you have to have like life insurance, like you need to have a key man policy.

SPEAKER_00 9:27

I mean, there's a lot of things you got to do to plan. So we help businesses with all those things, trying to figure out navigate those waters.

SPEAKER_01 9:34

All right. So let's talk about the real estate industry. Um, because you have your finger on the pulse with all the closings um that you oversee. What how how are we doing? How's um how's our market going?

SPEAKER_00 9:47

What is your temperature on it? Well, I I mean, you know, August, what what wait month what month are we in? July. July, yes. July. I'm already in August in my head. Um, you know, July's a usually a pretty good month. Um it's it's an up month over like January, February, but it's not the busiest month for um closings, actually. That would be more of a May and October. Really? Okay. Those are the busiest. But July, August, September, they're all really good months.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

Okay. And and what have you seen moving through your office? Like what are any issues or contract?

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Well, we have there's a lot more title problems, right? Because when the market is um when you're trying to buy something that's maybe out in Loris, right? Um, air's property potentially. Um, so we're having to clean up a lot more things for folks, um, having to do a lot more quiet title actions um to clean those things up and get them ready for sale. Now I've heard of quiet title. What does that mean? So essentially it means, hey, judge, I want you to make a definitive decision on who owns this property. We're gonna make everybody quiet. Shut them all up.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Yeah, yeah, exactly. I mean, it does get a little crazy sometimes. Um, you know, a lot of people um like to buy land as well. Do you do closings on that as well? Yeah, yeah. Just just land closings and maybe building along the way. Have you been doing a lot of closings with new homes or do you focus more on resales?

SPEAKER_00 11:16

We focus more on resales. We don't do a lot of new homes, we do some. Um, but mostly we're doing resales, land, refines. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

And some people don't realize that you need an attorney for those things. Oh, yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

In South Carolina for especially refines, like you wouldn't think you could just handle it with your uh mortgage company, but and well, and and I have had friends and family and clients and and uh patrons who will say, Oh, I did a refi, and I'll say, Oh, who'd you do it with? Because they didn't use us, and it's they have they called up some lender that they found online, and that lender did essentially a witness only closing where they sent them the docs and they said, Hey, we're gonna send somebody to your house to be your notary, and they signed it. So essentially they close without an attorney, and that's not allowed in South Carolina. Oh, you're not supposed to close without an attorney. Huh. So we're there to protect you, we're there to make sure your rights are protected. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 12:12

And um, you know, I was talking to my son who wants to buy a house up here, and we were talking about cohabitation agreements, but does the person let's say you're just having a person live with you, not necessarily quote unquote buying the house with you.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Um then you need a lease. Right? So if they're just living with you and they're not buying the house with you, then you need a lease.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

And what are their relationships towards it? So that would be like l in the form of a rent payment.

SPEAKER_00 12:42

That's a lease. Yep. It would be rent. Okay. Right? But if you're gonna own the property together, then I want us to have a cohabitation agreement. Even if you are not necessarily cohabitating, right? So you and your son buy a house together, he lives there. I still want you to have a cohabitation agreement because to to address all of your rights as owners. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Okay. And then you help also guide people. Um, you know, if they have uh, you know, living girlfriend or boyfriend, right?

SPEAKER_00 13:10

There's the biggest mistake every single one of every single person in this universe makes is we let somebody move in without a lease. Okay. We do it all the time. All of us, we do it, we think, oh, it's gonna be fine, and then we regret it.

SPEAKER_01 13:24

So you know, and then also the person who ends up leaving, you know, leaves with less than sometimes, and you put a lot into it. Right. So you should document all that. Right. So you could be made whole.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Well, and let's document it that it's lease and and that it's rent so that they don't have any interest in your home.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Yeah. Right. Absolutely. All right. Well, if um you have any questions for the Grand Strand Law Group, you can make a call for yourself at 843-492-5422. They have those three offices in Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle, and also Loris. You can go to Grand Strandlawgroup.com and schedule your 30-minute um consultation on your title insurance on your second home and also estate planning. Yes. You can um help them. What should they prepare for that?

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Uh we want to know names, addresses, phone numbers of all the important people in your life, and we want to know about what your assets are worth and who owns them.

SPEAKER_01 14:21

Okay. And uh once you come with all that, they can uh say, Hey, this is this is what you should do. You should do, yeah. And we're gonna give you all sorts of tips and tricks. All right, sounds good. Angie Knight, thanks for coming. Thank you, everybody. Have a great week. Thank you.