Rob sat down with Yaritza Ruiz of Absolutely Clear Title Agency, LLC to talk about all things Title Insurance.
For starters, what is Title Insurance?
Title Insurance is how you protect yourself from financial loss and related legal expenses in the event there is a defect in the title to your property that you own (or are closing on).
Example: You close on a house, and are living in the house and someone comes to your door that there is a $70,000 lien on the property. If you have title insurance, you’re covered. If you do not you have to pay as you are now the owner of the property. Yes, this happened to Rob, which is why when he had the opportunity to sit down with a title expert, he took it.
Why do you need Title Insurance?
Title insurance is your security of ownership. It ultimately tells the person that’s purchasing the property, whether it’s for themselves or as an investment that any event that happened in the past from that day that they owned it all the way. We actually go back about 60 years on a transfer of a purchase. Wow. That any, any problems, any typos, any missteps will be covered for them legally and monetarily. So that can be anything from a judgment that wasn’t found a mortgage that was never released of record, or it could be in air. Like I, I’ve seen plenty times where you have, you know, husband and wife own a property and they have a few children. Two of those children are the responsible ones and they step up and they wanna, you know, let’s take care of this house, you know, let’s do what we need to do. And, and, and then they just sort of like omit the existence of the other siblings. That can be big problem <laugh>. So that happens a lot. So it it’s things like that. It prevents anyone from coming to your door and saying, Hey, um, my grandmother or my aunt owned this and, and you shouldn’t have purchased this property or you shouldn’t be the owner of it without giving me, you know, blank amount of money or blank interest. And, and that’s really what it is. It covers you monetary. You’ll never have to step foot in accord if that does happen. And that’s the purpose.
When is the best time in the home buying process to talk to a title agent?
When you make your offer, even before it is accepted. Form your team for this investment, and choosing a title agent is a part of that team.
What happens if that title is not clear? How does that process work?
So what if the title company, I guess, is, I’ll say the title company made a mistake or oh yeah, whatever Definitely happens. Um, so what will happen is the person that is the insured, which would be the buyer or the new homeowner, or even the lender, depending on the situation would then start up a claim. So as agents, we are the people that do all the work or the leg work and our underwriter issues, the policies us that claim was then is then brought to the underwriter and the underwriter will then begin their investigation really on, on us to make sure that the agent did everything that they needed to do to prevent this claim. And then they determine whether it’s a valid claim and, and they’ll go through the legalities of that for the owner and decide who needs to be rectified, whether it’s the, the buyer or whether it’s the person that’s bringing the claim.
Breaking down that word “title”…
If you are purchasing a property, you’re going to hear the word “title”, “Your title is going to be X amount of dollars”. But what is the breakdown, what does that mean?
It means so much more than just your security because it also includes other fees, securities, and other taxes. There is a lot that falls under that umbrella of the word title. Because there is so much underhand going on and the reality of it is this attorneys are allowed to be a title company just like they’re allowed to be a notary without that extra education. This is where things can get tricky.
The question to ask yourself while going through the title process is “Who is paying for this service?” If you are paying for it you have a right to know what you’re paying for and why. You are in control of the transaction and it is important to remember you have control of the situation and ultimately, it’s your money that is being protected. Ask the questions, get clear answers. Can’t find someone who can properly answer those questions? I can guarantee there is someone out there **cough cough Yaritza** who would be more than happy to get those questions answered for you.
To see the full conversation with Yaritza, visit our YOUTUBE Channel!
