 | Jeff Otto is Branch Manager of Lawyers Title Insurance Corporation which is a member of LandAmerica Financial Group, Inc., a premier national provider of title insurance and settlement services. Lawyers Title has been in the local marketplace since 1955. Jeff has been with Lawyers Title for 34 years, the last 24 right here in Wichita. You may contact Jeff at (316) 682-9600 x 201 or by e-mail at jotto@landam.com |
Real Estate
2005-12-29 14:04:00
Why go through a title company?
ANSWER: So… you've decided the time has come to sell your house that you've lived in for 7 years, and make that move to a newer one with that 3 car garage and a finished basement. You contact your real estate agent who sold you the home, and the appointment is set for listing the home. With this done, the sign goes up in the yard, the lockbox is on the door, and the house is clean and spotless. The buyer is produced in about 6 weeks, and your realtor takes you out to your favorite 3 homes he's located for you while your home was being marketed. You pick out your most favorite, and sign a contract to purchase that home, with the closing date coinciding with the closing date on the home you're selling. Everyone's excited! With both transactions now proceeding very smoothly toward closing, everything appears to be alright. Your buyer is pre-qualified, you are pre-qualified, and you're getting things packed up for the move. You go to the title company at the pre-arranged time to close the sale of your present home. Done! You head over to the closing at a different title company for the closing of your new home…your attorney meets you there and tells you that a problem has come up. Yesterday, as your attorney just completed examining the title for your new home, he now says he just discovered that a number of years ago, a cousin of the Seller made a claim that the Sellers had stolen part of the land that their new home was built on, and is now demanding that he be paid off on that claim. The sellers have already moved away to another state, and have pre-signed the closing papers through their relocation company handling their sale to you. Your attorney waiting until the last minute to examine the title?…bad deal! Your agent calls the relocation company to see if they will allow you to move into the new home on a rental basis if you sign a hold harmless agreement with them. The answer is a resounding no! You have all your furniture on a moving truck due to the fact that you had to give possession to the buyers of your home at closing. They're moving in to your previous house today! You're now homeless! What can you do…where can you go…? Friends? Relatives? Motel? What a situation. You rent a motel, pay rent on the storage of your furniture, and pray that the title problem can be resolved. Who dropped the ball here? The realtor faxed the contract to your attorney at your request immediately after execution by all parties. The attorney handling it for you didn't examine the title until the day before closing, saying that he didn't anticipate any problem with that. He apologized for waiting so long to examine the title, but that failure to examine the title promptly created a huge last minute problem that took an additional 2 weeks to correct, allowing the seller to be able to give clear title. In any real estate transaction, ask your attorney or your real estate broker to have the title examination started as soon as possible to avoid this kind of serious last minute surprise. Title Insurance companies actually begin to examine the title immediately upon receiving a copy of the contract from the office of the real estate broker. If there's a problem with the title, the sooner it is discovered, the better your chances of closing that sale on time…Fortunately, the title insurance company was able to get the title problem resolved to everyone's satisfaction, and 2 weeks later, the deal closed... more next month.
