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Title Insurance
- Protecting your Real Estate Investment
Buying a home is one of the largest investments one can make in one's lifetime. By purchasing title insurance through your real estate lawyer, you will be ensuring that this large investment is protected.
title is the legal term for ownership of property. when buying a home, there can be many unforeseen factors that can affect your ownership of the property and/or future marketability of your title.
For example, at some point after your purchase transaction has closed, you may find out that you have been the victim of fraud, that is, the seller was not the real Seller but forged the true Seller's identity, and now the real Seller is asserting that he or she is the true owner.
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Other factors or risks include:
Zoning / by law infractions
Encroachments onto Neighboring Property
Survey Errors
Liens / encumbrances of the property.
For a one time premium, you can protect yourself against the
devastating effects of these risk factors, as the title insurance
company will assume the risk for all covered problems, protecting
your rights and ownership to the property for as long as you
own it.
Another benefit of title insurance is that it may reduce
your legal expenses by eliminating some disbursement costs
your lawyer would have to otherwise incur as certain searches
which would otherwise be mandatory, would not be required,
if title insurance is purchased. The cost of the title insurance
policy (typically in the $200-$350 range) therefore, is often
offset by the savings in disbursement costs.
In addition, a title insurance policy may save you the cost
of having to obtain a new survey ($700-$800 range). If your
purchase is being financed by a mortgage, the lender will
often require that you obtain a new or up to date survey as
a condition of the loan.
In most cases the Seller does not have an up to date survey
and the existing survey may be very old and may not show any
additions made to the land since the original survey was prepared.
The lender may not accept this survey and may insist on a
new survey being prepared. For many home buyers, this may
be a substantial cost that may not have been anticipated.
Title insurance does not replace the role of the lawyer.
Lawyers still must search title and certify the status of
title before a title insurance policy can be issued. Title
insurance simply provides an added level of protection for
the buyer, as it provides broader coverage than a lawyer's
opinion on title.
When purchasing a property, you should discuss the option
of title insurance with your lawyer who can purchase the insurance
policy on your behalf prior to the closing of your purchase
transaction.
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