Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you need Life insurance, health insurance, home owner's insurance?

Title insurance is this best priced insurance in town, for a one time premimun you are covered as long as you have an interest in the property. Ask your car insurance company how much they would charge you one time to cover you as long as you own your car. When they're done laughing you'll be told its not possible.

Your title policy covers you for things that no amount of searching and examing can find, forgeries, incompetency, and unknown heirs for example.

Sent while I'm working on a bunch of title insurance claims.

Thanks for giving us the official industry propaganda. Title insurance payout rates are around 4-6% (in other words, for every $1000 in premiums, the industry pays about $40-$60 in claims). It's massively overpriced.

But title insurance isn't like other types of insurance. Title insurance companies prevent claims before they happen, using considerable man hours (in most cases numerous attorney hours). The equivalent would be how much would you pay your homeowner's insurance company if they fireproofed your house for you before selling you the policy. Claims payout is low because hundreds or thousands of dollars of legal work is put into preventing claims before you buy.

I should also point out that title insurance is one of the few fields where people expect not to pay if their transaction doesn't happen. 20-40% of all open title orders never close (home inspection issues, appraisal, cold feet). The title company still puts in hundreds or thousands of dollars, but no one expects to pay for some odd reason.

For those reading this, ask yourself if your refinance didn't happen because of an appraisal issue, if you thought to call the title company and offer them payment for the work (and out of pocket expenses), they actually incurred. I'm not saying that title companies should charge, I am simply suggesting that part of the reason title insurance is perceived to be expensive is because you are paying for the cancelled transactions.

Another thing to remember is that the title companies work hard to clear title before closing - part of the premium helps with the cost of the title search and clearing problems found before closing. I don't think other types of insurance carriers would perform services which would ensure you never have a loss and they wouldn't charge a one time premium either.

Anonymous wrote:You can also negotiate the rate. I got about 40% knocked off. Shop around.

I am in VA.

We have a house and had a title problem come up about 7 years after purchase. Title company handled the entire issue and ended up having to pay some heirs from a sale in the 1960s off.

Anonymous wrote:Do you need Life insurance, health insurance, home owner's insurance?

Title insurance is this best priced insurance in town, for a one time premimun you are covered as long as you have an interest in the property. Ask your car insurance company how much they would charge you one time to cover you as long as you own your car. When they're done laughing you'll be told its not possible.

Your title policy covers you for things that no amount of searching and examing can find, forgeries, incompetency, and unknown heirs for example.

Sent while I'm working on a bunch of title insurance claims.

Thanks for giving us the official industry propaganda. Title insurance payout rates are around 4-6% (in other words, for every $1000 in premiums, the industry pays about $40-$60 in claims). It's massively overpriced.

Do you need Life insurance, health insurance, home owner's insurance?

Title insurance is this best priced insurance in town, for a one time premimun you are covered as long as you have an interest in the property. Ask your car insurance company how much they would charge you one time to cover you as long as you own your car. When they're done laughing you'll be told its not possible.

Your title policy covers you for things that no amount of searching and examing can find, forgeries, incompetency, and unknown heirs for example.

Sent while I'm working on a bunch of title insurance claims.

Buy it. When we bought ours, we never imagined that we'd end up needing it. Two years later, we refinanced and found out that a past mortgage lender had never released the deed for our house. It was an easy thing for our title company to clear up, but, without title insurance, I think we would have been responsible for dealing with the issue ourselves. BTW, if you refinance your owner's title insurance is still valid -- it stays with you until you sell the house.

In some ways it's a "scam" in that the settlement company does a title search anyway and is supposed to iron out any issues. So by buying title insurance (which the settlement company happily sells to you and receives a nice commission), you're basically working under the assumption that the settlement company can't do a title search properly.

However, everyone still gets it since you don't want to take that minute chance that there is an issue that crops up later.

I bought two houses in the last year, and title issues were revealed on both (basically sloppy paperwork in the past about clearing liens from a previous owner) and both were caught by the settlement company and dealt with before settlement.

So in short, suck it up and get it just to be safe.

Anonymous wrote:You can also negotiate the rate. I got about 40% knocked off. Shop around.

The premium is NOT negotiable in DC and MD. There is minor variance from one company to another, but it is usually insignificant. I did use to be negotiable in DC.

You can also negotiate the rate. I got about 40% knocked off. Shop around.

If the house was sold under 10 years ago ask about a reissue rate.

Isn't there also a possibility of a contractor putting a lien against the home for unpaid work - could be a direct contractor or sub. I don't know if title insurance covered this but someone I know in another state had the wrong lot number on the mortgage documents potentially from being incorrect on survey so the taxes this person paid was credited toward a neighbor and their taxes were not only considered unpaid but went to some sort of auction and someone had a claim because of paying off the tax lien. All of this came to light when the person was selling the property.

Like pp mentioned as much as it seems you are paying a hefty sum for not a lot of anything all you need is to be that one in a thousand that has a problem to feel a penny wise, a pound foolish.

You need it. Unfortunately, it's criminally overpriced. But you do need it.

I think it's worth it. All that needs to happen for you to wish you had coverage is for someone up the chain of title to come back and say their signature was forged on a deed transfer. And all you need for that to happen is a crooked or simply not diligent notary.

So, the odds are remote that you will need it, but you will be utterly fucked if the scenario above happens to you.

Do we really need it? Seems like a LOT of money when a title search is already being done before we close.....