If your closing was postponed recently, cybercriminals may be to blame.

In mid-July, Cloudstar, a cloud-hosting and data security provider to title and settlement firms, was one of the many companies to fall victim to a sophisticated ransomware attack that rendered its systems inaccessible.

The company has retained the services of third-party forensics specialists Tetra Defense to assist with the recovery efforts; negotiations with the hackers were said to be ongoing.

A company statement from a week after the attack said that Cloudstar was working "around the clock to assess the recoverability of customer data." As of early August, Cloudstar reported that it was continuing restoration efforts, and expected that the majority of its customer data would be recovered.

At the same time, the company warned that the process is "very complex ... Due to the extensive impact that this event had on our systems, we are unable to provide a definitive ETA. We expect that this overall process will take several weeks."

Cloudstar operates six data centers in the United States, serving more than 42,000 users.

An illegal grow house in your neighborhood could make your house less valuable. But when recreational and medical marijuana is legal, new research suggests that home values are likely to increase.

For every $1 million bump in tax revenues paid by legitimate growers and sellers, home values will increase by an average of $470, a study by Clever Real Estate found.

Once sales begin in the five states that most recently legalized recreational weed -- Montana, New Mexico, New York, Virginia and Vermont -- home values are predicted to increase by an average of $61,343, according to the research.

The study found that between 2017 and 2021, property values rose $17,113 more in states where recreational marijuana is legal, compared to those where it is illegal or limited to medicinal use. With each new dispensary added, whether medicinal or recreational, property values increase by $519, it said.

As of July, 36 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for recreational use, medicinal use or both. The industry is projected to be worth $30 billion by 2025. Pew Research says 91% of American adults believe marijuana should be legal in some form.

If you felt like someone was looking over your shoulder when you visited an open house recently, you may have been right.

About three in 10 sellers are using hidden cameras to spy on visitors -- and not just to protect their belongings, according to a new survey by LendingTree. The No. 1 stated reason: to gain a better understanding of what potential buyers like and don't like about their homes so they can make adjustments.

Sellers also resort to spying to gather information they could use during negotiations and to find out what their agents are really saying about their houses. And unbeknownst to their own agents, some are watching to make sure they are doing their jobs.

Using such devices may or may not be legal, depending on local laws. But it also may be counterproductive. Nearly half the buyers queried said they would back out of the deal if they discovered the seller had secretly recorded them.

If you are working from home, whether by choice or not, you might want to consider your workspace a satellite office of your employer and ask for compensation. At least, that's the thinking of one real estate executive.

As long as space in your home is used solely for work, and it is used for the majority of your work, you can claim a home office on your federal tax return. But Tamir Poleg, co-founder and CEO of The Real Brokerage, says your employer should be paying you for using space that otherwise could be put to other uses.

There are tax implications to working from home, as well as labor and employment law implications. For example, a shift in an employee's location across state lines can result in new wage and hour rules, and/or potential double taxation for employees living in one state and working in another.

"It is only fair that employers take responsibility for all of the above and find a way to compensate, or at least share expenses with, the employees for using their residences as the company's satellite office," Poleg told me.

A new rule from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is designed to help servicers -- aka companies that manage your mortgage payments -- to quickly process deeply delinquent loans. That way, they can focus on borrowers who still have a chance to save their homes.

The idea is to stem what some expect will be a flood of foreclosures. But not everyone is of that thinking, at least not entirely. Moody's Investor Services believes that if borrowers who are delinquent or in foreclosure list their homes for sale evenly over the coming months, as opposed to dumping them on the market all at once, the result would add only a meager half-a-month's supply to the inventory-starved market.

Because of climate change, Spencer Glendon -- a senior fellow at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, one of the world's most respected climate think tanks -- said recently that it may not be long before every homeowner in the country will need flood insurance.

But every homeowner in the country should have flood coverage already, because floods can happen anywhere, anytime and for practically any reason.

Glendon said that once-in-a-century rain events could become once-in-a-decade because the air is warming to a point where big rainstorms contain around 20-25% more water. For every degree warmer the air gets, he said, it holds 7% more moisture.

"That's why storms are bigger," he told an Urban Land Institute meeting. "This is not an opinion. It's science."

Rain is certainly the major cause of floods, but there are others: Water mains collapse, dams break, snow melts and water runs off from nearby construction projects.

Even an inch of water can cause $25,000 worth of damage to your house, according to the National Flood Insurance Program, a federal agency that writes the vast majority of flood policies. And your regular homeowner's policy does not cover flooding.

Flood coverage is required if your place is located in a high-risk flood area and you have a government-backed mortgage -- that is, one purchased from your lender by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, insured by the Federal Housing Administration or backed by the Department of Veterans Affairs. It's not required if you live outside a high-risk area, but your lender may still compel coverage.

Whether it's required or not, though, you should consider it. Unfortunately, most people don't, according to analyst Chris Moon at ValuePenguin.com, a personal finance website.

Moon's look at the 100 largest cities found only four active policies for every 10 houses located in what the Federal Emergency Management Agency designates as 100-year flood plains. But those are concentrated in regions like the Gulf Coast and Florida, where owners are well aware of the potential for flooding.

"Homeowners in 100-year flood plains do not realize their homes have a 26% chance of being flooded," Moon says.

Worse, perhaps, there are fewer than two active policies for every 100 houses in high-risk flood areas such as Detroit, Cleveland and Minneapolis.

Moon says the average annual cost of a flood policy is $708. But the good news is that you are no longer limited to a sometimes-expensive government policy: Private insurers are quietly moving into the market.

Thanks to a change in the rules, according to Scott Giberson of CoreLogic, a data analytics firm, written flood premiums by private insurers have increased more than 70% nationwide, and more than 200% in some states. Now, it is estimated that some 80 players are offering coverage, including a few giants like Lloyds of London.

In an effort to underpin the private market, states are getting into the act, too. Giberson reported at a recent Mortgage Bankers Association conference that 20 states have passed laws or are considering bills supporting the market. Florida's law, which allows the state's insurance commissioner to certify that private policies are in compliance with federal standards, is considered a model statute.

But there's a rub: Lenders do not have to accept policies that fail to meet Uncle Sam's requirements. Lenders and their regulators are still ironing out the rules, but private policies must include the same 45-day cancellation period found in NFIP policies.

Some private policies give their clients just 30 days' notice, warned Stacy Christian of RoundPoint Mortgage. "Is 30 days really enough time for borrowers to find another policy?" she asked at the MBA meeting.

We'll leave that question to greater minds. But it's a good idea to know exactly what's covered by any private policy you're considering. Otherwise, it may not be as good as the government alternative.

"You really do need to do your homework," said Jane Mason of Clarifire, which helps lenders automate their business processes.

"Watch out for exclusions," said Christian. "We're seeing more and more of them. Lenders will be looking for them, too, but you should be proactive."

One example of a dubious exception: Some private policies exclude mud flow, which is defined as a river of liquid flowing on the surface of normally dry land and carried by a current of water. NFIP's policy says that's a covered event. So is erosion caused by waves or currents exceeding normal tidal flows.

In other instances, though, private outfits are doing the government one better. Whereas NFIP gives its insureds just one year to file suit if a claim is denied, some private insurers grant people two years to act. And while there's a 30-day waiting period for federal coverage to go into effect, some private outfits offer shorter waiting times.

Something else to consider: The survival of private insurers does not depend on the whim of Congress. Lately, the NFIP has been funded in short-term spending bills. While it is doubtful lawmakers will ever let the program lapse into oblivion, it may not be able to meet policyholders' claims if lawmakers are slow to act.

But it could be "problematic" if you drop a government policy for a private one and then decide to go back, Mason said in a phone interview. You'll still have to wait the 30 days, so she advises keeping your private coverage in force "until your federal policy kicks in. You have to manage the timelines proactively."

If warranted, Mason also suggests adding a private policy on top of the government policy, because the maximum coverage is $250,000. In other words, if your place is worth, say, $400,000, you might want add some extra coverage.

And never, ever miss a payment on a required policy or let it lapse. If you do, your lender could put another flood package in its place, and that could be extremely expensive. "Force-place insurance is costly," Mason warned.

Many homeowners, especially rookies who are new to the game, have no clue what their homeowner's insurance policies cover.

Buyers know they must have insurance, or their lender won't provide the financing. And they should know they must keep coverage in place, or the lender could call their loans due and payable in full. (As an alternative, the lender could put a policy in place at a much higher premium, tacking the extra cost onto the owner's monthly house payment.)

But as for knowing what's covered? Most people don't even read their policies.

That's understandable, considering most policies are written in legal gobbledygook that few of us can understand. But when you don't know what's covered and what's not, you could be in for a big surprise when the time comes to make a claim.

Here, then, with a nod to the Insurance Information Institute and other sources, is a basic primer on insurance coverage.

A standard homeowner's policy has four types of coverage: the structure itself, your personal belongings, liability and additional living expenses.

Structural coverage pays for repairing or rebuilding the house if it is damaged by fire, lightning, wind, hurricane or other disaster listed in the policy. The most popular policy, known as HO-3, offers the broadest coverage, protecting against 16 enumerated perils.

The personal belongings section covers your furniture, clothing and other personal items if they are stolen, or if they are destroyed by an insured disaster.

Liability coverage protects you from lawsuits for injury or damage caused to other people by you, your family members or even your pets. It also pays for the cost of defending you, as well as any court awards, up to the policy's limit. And it covers not just your house, but you -- anywhere in the world.

If your house is uninhabitable because of damage from a listed peril, the insurer typically will pay for your hotel, restaurant meals and other living expenses while the place is being rebuilt. If your house is a rental, and your tenants are unable to live there during repairs, the policy may even cover "loss of use" -- meaning it will pay you the rent you couldn't receive during your tenants' absence.

While an HO-3 policy is the most popular, others are available. An HO-1 policy sets bare-bones coverage, while an HO-2 offers slightly more (but less than an HO-3). An HO-4 policy is for people who rent single-family houses, and covers their personal belongings against all 16 perils. And an HO-6 policy is for those who own condominiums, covering their belongings and the parts of the structure they own.

As important as what's covered by your policy is what's not covered. Floods are not, for example, so you'll need a separate policy for that. Sometimes, flood coverage is required to obtain and maintain financing, but even if it's not, it's a good idea to give it a long, hard look. Floods can occur anytime, anywhere -- and not just from gigantic storms.

Other typical exclusions include damage from earthquakes, war, pollution, nuclear accidents, intentional damage, normal wear and tear, construction defects, vehicles parked on the property, frozen pipes and vandalism.

Once you settle on the specific policy, you need to choose one of three levels of coverage:

-- Actual cash value: Pays to replace or repair the home and replace your possessions, less a deduction for depreciation.

-- Replacement cost: Pays the same as above but without deducting for depreciation. Note: Whereas replacement-cost policies cover the structure, they do not cover anything above the actual cash value of your possessions.

-- Guaranteed or extended replacement cost: As the highest level of protection, guaranteed coverage pays whatever it costs to rebuild the house as it was, even if it exceeds the policy's limits. An extended policy pays for a certain percentage -- usually 20% to 25% -- over the limit.

While this protects against sudden increases in construction costs when there's a shortage of materials after a major, widespread disaster, it won't pay to bring your place up to current building codes. For that, you'll need an "ordinance or law endorsement," which will help pay the extra freight.

Obviously, the more coverage you purchase, the higher your premium. The amount you pay also is governed by your deductible: The larger the deductible, the lower the rate.

But you shouldn't stop there. Beyond flood coverage, you'll want to add riders, aka endorsements, to your coverage to cover any items you may have that are excluded from your standard policy.

The list of excluded items is a long one: jewelry, business equipment, wine collections, luxury rugs, antiques, furs, silverware, watercrafts and fine art, to name a few.

Once you put coverage in place, it's a good idea to perform an annual insurance checkup to make sure your property is still protected at its current value -- up or down -- as opposed to what it was worth when you put the policy in place. To protect against that, consider an inflation guard endorsement so that coverage is automatically increased every year.

Your annual review should also cover your riders. Maybe you no longer own that beautiful mink coat, for example, or perhaps you bought a van Gogh to hang on your living room wall.

NEXT WEEK: Flood coverage.