The Anatomy of a “Cash Back” Mortgage Fraud Scheme…

Cash Back Mortgage Fraud Scheme Busted

A cash back mortgage fraud scheme puts the loan at a greater risk because it originates with negative equity in the property.

In March 2011, seven people were arrested and indicted in a mortgage fraud scheme. For approximately two years the defendants had perpetuated their scheme in more than 18 transactions. The indictment says they “knowingly and willfully devised, and intended to devise, a scheme and artifice to defraud lenders … to obtain money from lenders by means of material facts and fraudulent pretenses, representations, and promises, and by intentional concealment and omission of material facts.”

Here’s an example of how the scam worked.
The loan officer lured in a straw buyer by telling him he would be paid $10,000 for every house he purchased without having to put any money down, along with additional money when the homes were resold. Sounds great, right? The ring leader would remodel the house and rent it out. After two years, the house would be resold to the renter. The rent payments were applied toward the mortgage payments.

The straw buyer agreed to lend his name and credit to a transaction. The parties closed on the purchase of one property on a Wednesday for $550,000. The straw buyer obtained a mortgage for $495,000. The loan application contained the following material false statements:

  • Inflated monthly income
  • Inflated bank account balances
  • Inflated assets

The lender wired $502,041.34 to the escrow/title company. The escrow/ title company issued a check in the amount of $144,861.78 to a shell company the ring leader owned. This disbursement was not disclosed to the lender on the HUD-1. The straw buyer was given $9,700 cash in a paper bag by the loan officer after closing.

On Thursday the ring leader withdrew $66,500 from her bank account and converted it to a cashier’s check. The cashier’s check was provided to the escrow/title company as the down payment and closing costs purporting to be from the straw buyer and not third party funds.

Did you notice the timeline? The file closed before all the funds were in. This is what facilitated the scheme. The $144,861.78 is released to the ring leader who deposits the funds into her account so she can turn around and provide the down payment check on behalf of the buyer. No one is out any cash up front.

The perpetrators were indicted on 14 different charges. Their scheme qualified them for almost $13.5 million in fraudulent loans and received over $2,907,452 in ill-gotten gain from the proceeds of these loans and real estate transactions.

Here are some of the other details from the indictment:

Straw Buyer Mortgage Fraud

A “cash back” scheme is one variation of mortgage fraud. In a “cash back” scheme, the perpetrator of the scheme offers to purchase a property for more than the

seller’s asking price and submits a contract to the seller for the inflated price. The seller agrees to the sale because they are generally receiving the full asking price.
Often a “straw buyer” is used to facilitate the “cash back” scheme. Generally, a straw buyer is someone recruited by the perpetrator to take out a mortgage and purchase a house in their name. The straw buyer normally does not live in the house or have the intent to reside at the house.

A Uniform Loan Application, also known as Form 1003, is prepared for the straw buyer. A lender uses this form to record relevant financial information about the applicant who applies for a mortgage. Misrepresentations are made to qualify the straw buyer for a mortgage. In signing the loan application, the straw buyer acknowledges that “the information provided in the application is true and correct.”

This scheme could have never been pulled off without the escrow/title company. The indictment goes on to identify the role of an escrow/ title company in a real estate transaction:

Generally, a straw buyer is someone recruited by the perpetrator to take out a mortgage and purchase a house in their name.

A title or escrow company is used in which the subject property is deposited for safekeeping under the trust of a neutral third party (escrow agent) pending satisfaction of a contractual contingency or condition. Once the conditions are met, the escrow agent will deliver the property to the party by the contract.

After receiving the loan documents facilitating the buyer and seller signing, escrow agents prepare a final HUD-1 wherein details of the actual receipt of lender funds and fund disbursements are listed for the records of the lender, seller and purchaser. The escrow agent is required to disburse funds according to what has been indicated in the HUD-1 settlement statement.

The escrow agent received the down payment from the ring leader in transaction after transaction and never disclosed them as third party funds. The disbursements were also hidden since the ring leader was paid out of the escrow file without being disclosed to the lender on the HUD-1. The escrow/title company who handled these closings is now closed.

A cash back scheme puts the loan at a greater risk as the loan originates with negative equity in the property.

All of this information was crucial to the lender because a “cash back scheme puts the loan at a greater risk as the loan originates with negative equity in the property.” To summarize, “the co-conspirators artificially inflated the sales contract prices … the defendants concealed from the lending institutions by intentionally withholding from the lender that payments were made to unrelated third parties to the transactions or omitting on the HUD-1 that at the close of each sale a portion of the loan was paid to an unrelated third party to the transaction. Additionally, in some transactions, the parties failed to disclose to the lender that the straw buyer or purchaser of the property received cash back from other members of this conspiracy for the use of straw buyer’s credit to purchase the property.”

Moral Of The Story
All receipts and disbursements must be completely and accurately disclosed on the HUD-1 and to the lender. Making disbursements to individuals or entities who are not a party to the transaction is completely unacceptable. Seller proceeds should be disbursed to the seller only and not their LLC or members of their LLC.

Domestic Partnership Law in Washington State

Domestic Partnership Law in Washington State took effect  Thursday, June 12, 2008.  This law does not create a legal relationship that is equivalent to marriage, but does create property rights that previously applied only to married persons.

Domestic Parnerships Washington

Domestic Partnership Law in Washington State

Who can enter into a Domestic Partnership?
Two people of the same sex of any age over 18 and capable of consent or two people of the opposite sex, at least one of whom is over 62 years of age.

Almost every statute that addresses rights of married persons relating to real property has been amended to also apply to State Registered Domestic Partners.

This includes:

  • Community property rights including automatic presumptive community interests
  • Homestead rights
  • Inheritance rights
  • Dissolution in Superior Court

Domestic Partnerships are established in Washington by simply filing with the Washington Secretary of State’s Office.

Useful links:

DomesticPartnerships
Frequently Asked Questions
Domestic Partnership Declaration.pdf

More Resources:
Seattle City Clerk’s Office – The City of Seattle’s Domestic Partnership Registration program allows unmarried couples in committed, on-going family relationships to document their relationships. Couples may consist of a man and a woman, two men, or two women.

Domestic Partnership Registration is voluntary, and does not create any new or different legal rights or responsibilities, or any contractual relationships or obligations between those registered.
http://www.seattle.gov/leg/clerk/dpr.htm

What happens when you scan our QR codes… Best practices we use.

QR codes are still a bit of a buzz in the real estate community. At every sales or social – tech event, there’s at least one person who has a presentation about them. And whether you like them, hate them, use them, or don’t understand them, they’re here and people are talking about them. We’ve talked about them here before, explaining how we have used them in our marketing and how we generate the qr codes, etc… But we haven’t quite covered the best practices that we have adhered to in our usage of them.  Here they are…

Title Insurance and Escrow Order Form Optimized for Mobile Devices

An example of an order form optimized for mobile devices

Mobile Optimization – The question smart phone users ask subconsciously before they scan is, “Where are you taking me and will I have to squint?”  If someone takes the time to scan the fuzzy little code on our flyer or postcard we better give them a legible and usable experience! What this means is that when we direct someone to a website via qr code, that webpage should be optimized for the small smartphone screen. As an example, we have created a very simple, mobile optimized page for placing customer service and title & escrow orders. Test it out by scanning the code below to the right:

Is anyone scanning them? Tracking QR usage
As with all marketing activities, we need to measure the reach of each campaign to determine what our return is.  For QR codes, we track the number of scans by using the goo.gl URL shortener. This accomplishes two things for us. Firstly, because it shortens the URL, the resulting QR code is less complex, making it easier to scan from far away or when printed small. Secondly, goo.gl automatically counts the number of visits to the URL. All we have to do is log in to our Google account, go to goo.gl and it will tell us how many visits and when those visits occurred.

Order Title & Escrow

Scan the code above to see a mobile optimized title & escrow order form

Where we place them
What are the best locations for qr codes?  We have used them on filers, t-shirts, fortune cookies, and scan-to-win games at networking rallies.  In general they should be placed in a location where users will be close enough to actually scan them.  The ultimate goal is to provide an easy link for clients to watch an informative video, follow us on Twitter,  like us on Facebook, place orders, or request property info.

Where we don’t place them
In general, we don’t place qr codes online or in places where it’s impractical for users to scan them. QR codes on billboards may be impractical for obvious reasons.  And this may be stating the obvious but if we have a user already on our website, it doesn’t make much sense for us to ask them to scan a code (unless of course it is to illustrate a point as in this post).

Those are some of the ways you’ll see us using this technology moving forward.  So if you see one, give it a scan and look for the best practices mentioned here.

If you have suggestions or feedback, please let us know by commenting below!

$1.5M Foreclosure Fraud Scheme Busted

During a routine title exam, Lisa H. uncovered a forged quit claim deed. After a more thorough investigation, Lisa discovered the deed was one of many recorded by two brothers who were recently charged with a $1.5 million fraud scheme.

Foreclosure Fraud Lisa works for one of our sister companies as a title examiner. She was examining the chain of title for a residential sale of property in San Bernardino County, Calif. with a $350,000 sale price when she came across a deed she was sure was forged.

These were the signs that made her question the deed:

  • To avoid the payment of transfer tax, the transfer was declared a “gift” on the face of the deed
  • It was an uninsured deed and not recorded by a title company
  • The deed was handwritten
  • The handwriting matched the signatures on the document, including the signature of the notary
  • The notary stamp reflected the notary’s last name as “Desahagun” however the notary clearly signed his name as “Deshagun”
  • The notary’s name was listed on the office postings as a suspect and all documents containing the notary’s stamp should be scrutinized
  • The grantor’s signature did not match signed documents recorded previously in the chain of title
  • The “when recorded mail to” name and address was neither the grantor’s nor the grantee’s
  • Lisa ran a search on the grantee’s name, David Zepeda, and found approximately 70 other properties in which he was suddenly the owner

Lisa brought the deed to the attention of the advisory title officer and together they called the escrow officer to provide their detailed findings and to notify the escrow officer our underwriters would not be issuing a policy for this transaction. The escrow officer in turn called the property owner to find out if he in fact executed the handwritten deed. It turns out he did not. Lisa was right, the deed was a complete forgery and the true owner stated he had no intentions of selling his property.

The property owner then reported the incident to the District Attorney’s office. As it turned out, he was not the only victim of David Zepeda. The District Attorney’s office confirmed that David Zepeda and his brother, John Zepeda, were being investigated as part of a ring of suspects involved in a foreclosure scheme known as the David Zepeda Trustee Foreclosure scam, which so far has claimed hundreds of victims.

This story is an excerpt from our parent company’s Fraud Insights newsletter.  To read the entire article, click here.

A Proactive Approach at Ticor Title Northwest
Our seasoned Title Officers, Examiners, Escrow Officers, and Escrow closers in Ticor’s Puget Sound operation are trained to operate with the highest standards of conduct.  We are proactive in our efforts to identify potentially fraudulent activity in any transaction.

Questions or comments?  Please share by leaving a comment below!

 

REO Transaction? Watch for these details when setting client expectations…

Checklist for REO Transactions

Buying an REO (or Real Estate Owned) property involves a slightly different escrow process than your standard home sale. Realtors and Buyers need to remember that they are in escrow with a Bank/Lender (the “seller”) and the Bank/Lender has strict procedures in place that must be followed during the process.  Understanding certain details can help you set the proper expectations with buyers and help ensure that your REO escrow goes as smooth as possible.

Here is a glimpse of the details to look out for if you’re in an REO transaction.

Tips for smoother REO Transaction

Click the image above to download tips for REO transactions.

The Seller – In an REO transaction the Seller is an “out of state” Bank. The Bank contracts a 3rd party “Asset Management Company” which represents them in the transaction and approves the final escrow closing documents. All correspondence is done by email or by their website.

Title Commitment (prelim) – Escrow will handle ordering title to insure it is ordered from the appointed “title company”. This could be a local or national division depending on the arrangements the Seller has made.

Home Owners Association (HOA) – If you are aware of an active HOA, please be sure Escrow is also notified to insure all delinquent dues are paid current at time of closing.

Loan Documents – Should be delivered to Escrow five working days prior to closing. Once loan documents are received and Buyer’s Lender has approved the estimated HUD Settlement Statement, escrow can set an appointment for the buyer. The earlier the documents are available, the better the chances are of an on-time closing. A HUD Settlement Statement should be available to the Lender 24 hours after receipt of Loan Documents.

Proactive Communication

Our seasoned escrow staff believes that clear, early, and frequent communication with our clients is critical with every escrow closing.  With that in mind, we provide the information here to our clients immediately when an REO transaction is opened.  Being aware of potential roadblocks early in the process allows time for all parties to be better prepared and sets the stage for a positive closing experience.

Courtesy Signing – If the Buyer is unable to sign with the assigned Escrow Officer, an approved Mobile Notary will be required and an additional fee could be charged. Your Escrow Officer will arrange for the courtesy signing once the loan documents have been received.

“Seller documents cannot be sent until Buyers documents have been received.”

Seller Documents – Seller documents cannot be sent until Buyers documents have been received. The REO Seller and their 3rd party Asset Company may require 24-72 hours to approve the HUD after ALL demands have been received.

Courier Fees – Buyer courier fees will be “estimated” at time of signing and adjusted to the actual cost of courier fees at the time of funding.

Buyer / Lender Funds for Closing – To meet closing deadlines, we highly recommend wiring the funds. If you send a Cashier’s Check it will need to be held in the Trust Account overnight before we can record. If a Personal Check or Official Check is presented, it could require a 10 day hold before we could close and disburse funds.

Funding – Escrow will coordinate with the Buyer’s Lender on the Bank’s HUD approval before funding can occur. (Changes to the Seller’s side of the HUD require additional Seller approval).

Have you been a part of an REO transaction where one of these potential hurdles was cleared because an escrow officer alerted you? Please share by commenting beow!

Water Boundaries & Title Insurance

waterfront boundaries and title insurance
The Realtor® has a great listing – it’s beautiful beachfront property. But, the buyer wants to know what she actually gets for the premium price. Is the beach hers? Can anyone else walk along the beach in front of her house? Can she put in a dock for her boat? If the beach starts to erode can she put it something to stop it? Will the title company guarantee her rights to the beach?

tipTip: Click the keyword links in this post to view the definition of the keyword (i.e. click on: navigable waters). Click the link again to hide the definition.

There are three main areas of concern to the buyer

  • The first is title – that is, who owns the beach?
  • The second is the location of the boundaries – how far out does the owner’s title extend, where is the boundary between the upland and the beach, and does the upland boundary extend straight out into the water?
  • The third is use – what can the owner or others do on the beach or the water?

These waterfront issues are complicated, and the Realtor® should never assume anything about who owns what and what rights the upland owner has to use or control use of the beach.

Who owns the beach?
On navigable waters on Puget Sound, the title company will only insure land that was deeded by the State. But for non-navigable lakes or streams all upland owners would own not only the “beach” but also the submerged land out to the center. But then, where is the location of the side boundaries that extend out into the water? If a dock is built, how can the upland owner know if it extends over the line? That issue will likely require a survey that will satisfy both owners.

What use can be made of the beach or the water?
A waterfront owner has riparian rights to use the water but so do all the other upland owners. None could, for example, dam a stream to create a pond or re-route the course of a stream or dredge or add fill to a lake. Water itself is not owned privately – it’s a natural resource, so the public can often also use the water.

Also, the state or federal government has broad regulatory authority under the public trust doctrine affecting both the water and the uplands to the extent it is necessary to protect water quality, fishing resources and public commerce. So a bulkhead intended to preserve upland property, or a dock into the water or even a house on the uplands can be regulated or prohibited altogether.

“A waterfront owner may be out of luck if there are changes to the course of a stream that eliminate access to it.”

And nature will take it’s course…
It’s also important to note that nature can impact title to the land. For example, a waterfront owner may be out of luck if there are changes to the course of a stream that eliminate access to it. More importantly, if a stream is the boundary, owners on both sides might either gain or lose land. If the change is sudden (a man-made or natural mudslide, for example) title won’t change, but the land may be high and dry with no access rights. But, if it happens gradually over a long time period, the boundary line might also move – meaning one of the owners gains land and the other one loses land, but water access would remain for both.

water boundaries and title insurance

The title company will only affirmatively insure title and boundaries of waterfront land to the extent they’ve been established of record, and if not, will take exceptions to such matters. And, no use rights will be insured. Instead, exceptions for possible rights of other riparian owners or the public will be in the title policy.

Have you dealt with a water boundary concern on a real estate transaction?
Please share by leaving a comment below!

Using ‘Google Places’ for better search results…

As a part of our continuing effort to provide better service to our clients, we have taken the time to set up Google Places pages for each of our escrow branches in the Puget Sound area.

Recommend Ticor on Google Places

Click to rate Ticor Title Seattle on Google Places

What is google places?

In a nutshell Google places allows a company to “claim” their business in Google’s index and subsequently provide accurate information about the company including phone, address, website, hours of operation, parking, amenities, photos of the building, videos and more.

A google places page should give consumers a good impression of the company,  make it easy to find, and make it easy to provide feedback, and claim promotional offers.

The Results…
The result for our clients is that when they do a google search for “Ticor Seattle“, “Ticor Puyallup“, “Ticor Gig Harbor“, or any of our other locations, one of the first search results they should get is a street map with accurate information about each particular branch right next to it.

Ticor title seattle

A Screenshot of Ticor Seattle Google Places Info in Search Results

The Numbers…
When we first claimed our pages and filled them out, our main intention was to simply provide accurate info to google and hopefully boost our search engine presence by telling Google more about our escrow branches.  But we really had no idea what to expect in terms of views, clicks, and consumer search behavior.  And now that we have had a chance to view our page views and click metrics over a year, it’s quite amazing to see the numbers.

What can we learn about our clients / prospects?
When we log in to our google places dashboard we can learn valuable information about our clients (or potential clients).  Here’s a list of info that Google tells us about each of our Place pages:

  • Number of page views
  • Page views by day of the week / month
  • Number of clicks for more info
  • Number of clicks for driving directions
  • Number of clicks to our website
  • Top search queries
  • Where driving requests came from

What can we do to generate leads?
Like Yelp.com, Foursquare.com and other location-based social sites, Google places gives us a place to provide offers, discounts, coupons, etc.. For example we can add a coupon to our places page that reminds people of the discounts we offer on title and escrow when orders are placed electronically or when title and escrow are opened at the same time, etc…

A good place to be…
So in a nutshell, Google Places is free, it provides us with a means of providing accurate business information to people searching for us, it helps us to make a good impression, it tells us a bit about consumer search behavior, and allows us to generate leads.  It makes good business sense, and that makes Google places a good place to be.

Have you used our google places pages to find one of our branches or provide directions to a client?

Let us know by leaving a comment below!

Real Estate Legal Descriptions in Plain English

Legal descriptions of property, those all-important components of a Purchase and Sale Agreement, fall into two basic categories: platted and unplatted properties. Of course, there are many variations in each category! For your reference, we have put together a quick reference with examples below.

Click on any link below to see examples of various types of legal descriptions & the maps that go with them.

Platted is a general term for properties where a subdivision involving an approved survey map and plans that describe each lot or unit and that are recorded with the county. Subdivisions, shortplats, and even condominiums are under this umbrella. The “description” part of the legal description is a sort of shorthand that provides location and dimensions by referring you to a specific parcel on the recorded map.

  • Subdivisions often have “Lot and Block” legal descriptions which reference one or more lot numbers, sometimes a block number, the subdivision name plus the volume and page that it was recorded under in County records. In some cases the legal description may reference a recording number rather than volume and page – this is common with newer plats in Pierce and Snohomish counties. Click here to view an example of  a Lot & Block Map.

Example of a Lot & Block Legal Description

  • Shortplats usually involve fewer lots than a full subdivision (or “long plat”). The legal for a shortplat will typically involve a lot number or letter, and the recording number. Often it will include the city or county planning department’s file number as well.  Click Here to view an example of a Shortplat Map.

Example of a Shortplat Legal Description

  • Condominium legals reference Unit number, sometimes a Building number, and the subdivision name with the volume and page that it was recorded under in County records plus the Condo Declaration Recording Number.  Click here for an example of a Condominium Map.

Example of a Condominium Legal Description

Unplatted refers to all the other lots that don’t have an approved plat recorded. (It’s never a perfect world so there may be some exceptions to this rule.) These legal descriptions are all about location and dimensions.

  • Unplatted legals typically reference the Section, Township and Range that the lot is located in, plus quarter-section and sometimes a whole series of quarter-quarter details. These numbers refer to the public land survey system that covers the whole country into square-mile Sections. They allow us to pinpoint the exact location of a lot. Click here for an example of an Unplatted Parcel Map.

Example of an Unplatted Legal Description

  • Unplatted legals may take the form of metes and bounds (distances or dimensions from point to point that literally describe the lot).  Click here for an example of an Unplatted Parcel Map as described with Metes & Bounds.

Example of a Metes & Bounds Legal Description

Example of a Metes & Bounds Legal Description

  • Finally there may be references to other features (shorelines, roads, existing plats just to name a few) that may help to identify location or dimensions.

If you have questions regarding a legal description on your purchase and sale agreement, our property information specialists are prepared to assist.

If you have questions or comments, let us know by commenting below.  Or Contact us today at 425-255-6969!

Also, please click to view our related article: What Makes a Real Estate Description “Legal”?

Keys to a Successful Escrow Closing

Keys to a successful escrow closing - have your ducks in a row

Getting your ducks in a row for a smooth escrow closing

Closing on a home can be an exciting and stressful process all at the same time. With so many potential speed bumps it’s important we make your closing flow as smooth as possible. At Ticor we believe one of the easiest ways to accomplish this is by educating buyers and sellers as they prepare for the big day. In particular we’d like to highlight some of the simple steps a buyer/seller can take to expedite the process.  We call these steps the “Keys to a Successful Closing”.

Prior to Closing

Buyers:

  • Check that all conditions have been met by your Loan Officer.
  • Send the names of your lender and homeowner’s insurance company to your Escrow Officer.

Sellers:

  • Gather the following and deliver to your Escrow Officer:
  • Your forwarding address
  • Any existing mortgage information
  • Identify leased equipment
  • Homeowner Association information
  • Utilities (if they are to be paid out of escrow.)

Buyers and Sellers

  • Confirm with your agent that all contingencies have been satisfied.
  • Keep your agent informed of any vacation plans or times you will be unavailable.
  • If you plan to have your documents reviewed by an attorney, please notify your Escrow Officer at least 48 hours prior to signing.

Before Your Signing Appointment

  • Expect to sign at the escrow company one or two business days before the closing date.
  • If funds are required to close, be prepared to bring the monies in the form of a cashier’s check 24 hours before recording or wire transfer the same day as closing.
  • Have a valid photo identification available at your signing appointment: Driver’s License/State ID, Passport, or Green Card.
  • Expect the signing to last approximately one hour if you are the buyer and 30 minutes if you are the seller.

If you have questions or comments about the closing process, please share by commenting below!

Yours, Mine & Ours… Homesteads in Washington State

John and Jane Dough just got married and put in an offer on a house, but John’s credit isn’t too hot. As it happens, Jane has good credit, so Jane plans to buy it in her name alone. But, the bank still wants him to sign as well.

American Gothic

Can’t it be her separate property?

The answer is yes – but that’s not the issue for the bank. Washington has two separate statutes dealing with who must sign a Deed of Trust – one deals with community property and the other applies to homestead property.

  • Community property is acquired after marriage or after registration of a state registered domestic partnership and is jointly owned.
  • A homestead is where the couple lives or intends to live and it’s automatic (RCW 6.13.040).

Jane can own the property as her separate estate and in that case John wouldn’t need to sign the Deed of Trust – unless it is or will be their homestead. That’s where the other statute comes into play. RCW 6.13.060 requires both spouses to execute a Deed of Trust (and a deed for that matter) of their homestead, or else it isn’t a valid lien. It makes no difference if it’s separate property of one spouse. So, the bank isn’t asking John to sign in order to encumber any title he has – he doesn’t have any – but rather to encumber his statutory homestead rights in that property.

More importantly, if John doesn’t sign the Deed of Trust the bank would not even have a valid lien on Jane’s interest.

“The homestead of a spouse or domestic partner cannot be…encumbered unless the instrument…is executed and acknowledged by both spouses or domestic partners…”

John’s credit isn’t good – the house can be Jane’s separate property – John still has to sign. How is all this resolved? Well, typically the bank won’t insist that John be on the title, and won’t have him sign the note – thus avoiding using his credit. He just needs to sign the Deed of Trust.

Oh, by the way, the borrowing spouse can execute the Deed of Trust on behalf of the non-owning spouse using a power of attorney. In Washington, RCW 6.13.060 specifically allows this.

Yours, Mine & Ours Review Points:

  • Community Property is property acquired after marriage or registration of a state registered domestic partnership
  • Homestead is where a couple lives or intends to live (RCW 6.13.040)
  • A spouse or partner can own separate property, but if the property is a homestead both husband and wife or partners must execute a deed of trust; otherwise it is an invalid lien (RCW 6.13.060)