Title Insurance…Why You Need It | Wasilla Real Estate News, Valley Market Real Estate

Title Insurance…Why You Need It April 29th, 2008

I often have people question the need for title insurance. They feel that they can easily go down to the state recording office and find out any thing they need about a property.

I would never want to purchase a property without title insurance. There are so many ways to cloud a title that I am constantly learning about new ones. After 17 years in the business, I still find out about new title issues.

Here are some of the possible problems that title insurance will protect against:

Invalid Deeds…I once talked to a couple who purchased a property as husband and wife even though they weren’t married. They did not go through a title company and did not have insurance. Of course, I declined to list that property knowing that the only way to clear the title was for them to admit to fraud.
Unknown Easements: Often easements will be granted across a 160 acre homestead that is later subdivided. Will you recognize that the 50 year old easement now runs along your one acre lawn if you do the search yourself?
Incorrect Legal Description: It is not uncommon for a property to transfer with an incorrect legal description. A title company will catch that and help to correct it.

Those are just a few problems, there are many potential pitfalls in the transfer of title that a title policy helps to avoid. Here is a list of 27 possible nightmares.

Mat-Su Title in Wasilla has an informative website. They also include some helpful forms.

Written by Marty Van Diest 1 Comment »

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 6:18 am and is filed under For Buyers, For Sellers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.