Month: September 2019

Do you and your employees work remotely?

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Check out these network tips for remote employees

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Our office has been involved in workflow studies for the offices of our attorney agents, and one point that comes up often is that allowing employees to work at home increases employee satisfaction and retention. We’ve witnessed many paralegals permanently move to remote locations and successfully retain their jobs. Telecommuting seems to work successfully in many instances.

In our own office, all our employees have the capability to work remotely. We learned when our office building suffered a fire in 2012 that the ability to access our network from remote locations allowed us to continue our business without interruption. The day after the fire, we disbursed the funds for a large commercial transaction for an agent from my kitchen at home!

And since South Carolina routinely finds itself within the maze of the spaghetti models during hurricane season, the ability to work remotely is important if not necessary to maintain contact while taking care of school children and hunkering down at home.

American Land Title Association (ALTA) published an article on September 5 attaching The Center for Internet Security, Inc. (CIS) Telework and Small Office Network Security Guide.

This 25-page paper provides useful, up-to-date guidance on keeping your networks safe when employees are allowed remote access. The guide provides recommendations for buying equipment, setting up networks, setting up devices, securing home routers and protecting against digital threats.

The ALTA article refers to a Forbes study that found 38 percent of teleworkers lack the technological support they need to do their jobs. Securing devices and networks that allow telecommuting is critical. The guide includes a network security checklist and tells users how to map security configurations to provide cybersecurity protection at remote locations.

Thanks to ALTA for pointing us to this valuable resource, and thanks to CIS for publishing it!

A glimpse into the future of residential real estate sales

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Here’s what may happen when iBuyer companies enter our market place

iBuyers

I read an interesting article from Forbes recently by John Wake entitled “The Surprising Way Real Estate Agents are Adapting to ‘iBuyers’ Buying Houses Directly From Sellers.” I invite you to read the article in its entirety here.

The article focuses on residential real estate sales in the Phoenix market which the author calls “ground zero for the iBuyer explosion.” What does he mean by that? Apparently, the largest iBuyer companies, Opendoor, OfferPad and Zillow Offers, either started their operations in Phoenix or concentrate their efforts there. He estimated five to six percent of houses that change hands in that market are sold to iBuyers.

The article focuses, as its title suggests, on how real estate agents are adapting to this disruption in their market. But I find the article instructive to South Carolinians on the topic of how these internet sales are orchestrated and how they might affect sellers in our market when this disruption migrates east to us.

The author says that a homeowner who seeks to sell a house via an internet company must first complete an online form. An offer is typically made within two or three days. If the homeowner accepts the offer, inspectors will be sent to the house and will come back with a list of repairs and estimated costs for the repairs that the buyer requests before the closing.

As in our current process, the seller can agree to make the repairs, to reduce the price of the house to cover the cost of the repairs, or to terminate the contract.

The author suggests that real estate agents commonly complain that iBuyers tend to offer less and to ask for more repairs than traditional buyers. In other words, the seller makes more money in traditional sales involving local real estate agents.

The flip side of that coin is, of course, that closing with one of the iBuyer companies is more convenient than the process in our marketplace. A seller doesn’t have to get the house ready to sell, stage it, keep it clean for showings, or leave home for showings and open houses. The closing date may be more flexible, and there probably will not be contingencies for appraisals and financing.

How are real estate agents in Phoenix adapting? According to Mr. Wake’s article, real estate agents are assisting sellers by obtaining multiple iBuyer offers, analyzing and explaining the offers, discussing the options of accepting one of the iBuyer offers or beginning to market the home in the traditional manner, and coordinating everything with the iBuyer or traditional buyer, including repairs.

In short, real estate agents are attempting to become iBuyer experts in addition to traditional home sale experts.

Real estate lawyers, we need to be ready for this disruption when it hits us. We will want to be able to explain the changes in the market to our clients as well as to educate our real estate agents on how to stay in the game. Let’s keep our eyes and ears open! I’ll help!

FCC Publishes Scam Glossary

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FCC Seal

The Federal Communications Commission recently published a Scam Glossary, which you can access here. The glossary provides a helpful description robocalls, spoofing scams and related consumer fraud.

The FCC tracks these nefarious items through consumer complaints, news reports and notices from other governmental agencies, consumer groups and industry sources.

The glossary includes links to more detailed information posted in the FCC’s Consumer Help Center and trusted external sources.

Here are a few of my least favorite schemes from the glossary:

“Can You Hear Me” Scam: Scammers open by asking a yes-or-no question, such as: “Can you hear me?” or “Is this X?” Their goal is to record you saying “yes” in response. They then may use that recording to authorize charges over the phone.

Flood Insurance Scam: After floods, scammers may target hard hit areas with fake calls about flood insurance to steal private information or money. They may spoof a legitimate flood insurance company to appear more convincing.

Google Listing Scams: Some scammers claim that they can add or remove you or your business from Google searches or similar services. These callers, unaffiliated with Google, seek payment for services they can’t deliver.

Jury Duty Scams: Callers pose as local law enforcement, claiming they have a warrant for your arrest because you missed jury duty. They may instruct you to pay a fine by wiring money or using gift cards.

Porting: A scammer gets your name and phone number, then gathers other identifying information that can be used for identity theft. Pretending to be you, they then contact your mobile provider to report your phone as stolen or lost, and then ask for the number to be “ported” to another provider and device. They can use your number to gain access to your financial accounts and other services with two-factor authentication enabled.

Smishing: Short for “SMS phishing”, smishing often involves text messages claiming to be from your bank or another company. The message displays a phone number to call or a link to click, giving scammers the chance to trick you out of money or personal information.

Wangiri/One Ring Scam: When your phone rings only once, late at night, you may be tempted to call back. But the call may be from a foreign country with an area code the looks deceptively like it’s in the U.S. If you dial back, international calling fees may wind up on your bill. Such cons are known by the Japanese term “Wangiri”.

Check out this useful list, share it with your office and your family members. And be careful out there!