People mean different things by the term “foreclosure.”  The common meaning is the process of a lender declaring a default on an obligation secured by real property and moving to reclaim the property.  But there are really two “flavors” of foreclosure, judicial and non-judicial. The way lawyers typically use it refers to a judicial foreclosure. …

In Arizona, a lender on real estate has the option of using a Deed of Trust to secure the loan.  Deeds of Trust were first adopted in Arizona in 1971.  The Deed of Trust: Arizona’s Alternative to the Real Property Mortgage, 15 Ariz. L. Rev. 194 (1973).   Deeds of Trust are by far the…

Beneficiary Deeds are useful tools in estate planning. A Beneficiary Deed is provided for by Arizona Revised Statutes 33-405. Simply put, it means that real property passes automatically at death to the people designated as beneficiaries in the deed. It’s much like joint tenancy with one improvement: the Beneficiary Deed does not pass an immediate…