Title Insurance: More Important Than Ever

Ryan at closing
Starting a closing with Ryan Stuart
Understanding the tenets of title insurance is especially important considering the turmoil in the real estate industry. Title insurance is intended to protect the insured from improper titling, including defects in foreclosure proceedings, forgery, or impersonation or cases in which no title is legally conveyed. Other defects are partial, such as a neighboring fence or garage encroaching on the insured person’s property. The title insurance industry recently set down strict guidelines for when and if they will insure a title to a property on which there has been a foreclosure. The buyer should be equally vigilant, insisting on a 60-year search and paying for an owner’s policy as well as the lender’s policy that the bank will demand. Source: Washington Post, Harvey S. Jacobs (11/27/2010)