Abeyance

So, the owner of a property died. Who owns it now? Well, we actually don't know. Since we don't know, the property is said to be "in abeyance," which is another word for Viagra-For-Lawyers, because it means endless dollars will be spent adjudicating who gets what, and when. We have a pretty good feeling the answer will be, "the lawyers, with the candlestick, in the kitchen." Er, sorry, we meant, "the lawyers, lots of cash, and soon."

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Finance: What is Escrow?7 Views

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Finance a la shmoop what is escrow so leave it to the French they'll cook and [Man and woman cooking food]

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eat anything horse hoof pig snout and yes finally snail but wait that's

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different oh okay well escrow is a financial state

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of being akin to the pearly gates where st. Peter is a you know checking you out [St Peter appears in the clouds]

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there's a transaction a contract a whole bunch of signatures a commitment and

00:28

then a holding time our waiting period or cooling period will the transaction

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be allowed through the gates or in Dante fashion will it be sent back to the pits

00:38

of hell to be renegotiated fixed or suffer eternal damnation yeah those are

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the questions escrow is that special place where your dough hangs out until [Escrow definition appears on 100 dollar bill]

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the grander powers that be decide whether or not that dough can be you

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know shoveled along forward selling your home well it's likely the buyer first

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puts their dough into an escrow account which only gets released to you once [money transfers into a piggy bank]

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those pesky socialist termites have been eradicated by Clint Eastwood and if the

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termites win well you won't be able to afford cooked snail any time soon and

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we'll just put it that way so its escrow your money just kind of sits there until [Escrow piggy bank waiting at traffic lights]

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gets a green light all the contracts are signed everything's good then the money

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just wires into your bank account and then you can move on with life

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)