BUYING TIP

INTERVIEW BY LAURA MANN

December 1, 2006

"Consider how the deed will be titled. New York has very little homestead protection unlike states such as Florida and Texas, where the home cannot generally be subject to creditors' claims. If the buyer is married, titling as husband and wife as tenants by the entirety allows the greatest form of overall protection against creditors in New York. For example, if the claim is against just one spouse and that spouse dies first, the surviving spouse takes the house free of the claim."

David J. DePinto, partner in the law firm of DePinto Nornes & Associates, in Melville