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That is interesting, but isn't there a point in the house selling process where they look for every party that might have an interest in the house and such? I
by bertjk 8y ago
That is interesting, but isn't there a point in the house selling process where they look for every party that might have an interest in the house and such? I mean I think that is part of the chunk of paperwork that realtors / title search companies or whatever do, right? What happened then?
- jcoffland 8y agoThe paperwork that realtors and title companies do is a joke. When we bought our house I signed close to a hundred documents. Many of which were the same. Some documents were repeated 3 or 4 times. It's all a game where they try to convince you how grand and thorough and official the whole processes is. It made me realize how incompetent the banks really are.
- oihoaihsfoiahsf 8y agoWell, you buy title insurance so that even if the process wasn't thorough enough you don't lose a whole bunch of money. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_insurance https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_insurance
- DubiousPusher 8y agoThat's the idea but it's a lot more complicated than, I buy a title search, I buy title insurance. I'm covered 100%.
- fredophile 8y agoThe insurance companies aren't stupid. It's not quite as easy as just paying some money for the insurance and being done. Normally title insurance is something you pay once and it's valid as long as you continue to own the property. When I bought my current place my real estate lawyer had to do a bunch of digging because there was some ambiguity in some documents 3-4 owners back. The title insurance company would only offer insurance for 1 year if this ambiguity wasn't resolved.
- WalterBright 8y agoMany of those documents appear to be required by law.
- jcoffland 8y agoBut they are only required once.
- brightball 8y agoThat's one reason why some states don't allow title companies and insist this type of work be done by actual real estate attorneys.
- modells 8y agoIt's a (un)necessary hazing ritual to justify how much all these MITM attacks by realtors, brokers, title corp, etc., pinch off for themselves.
- rossjudson 8y agoFor our most recent house purchase, the title company was invaluable -- not for a claim, but for the wealth of information they produced when they did the search. We found out about easements paperwork that we had no idea existed (even from the perspective of the property information system in our area). I actually called the title insurance company at one point to ask what the heck something was, and was connected to an experienced person who was very happy to fully explain what they'd found. My guess is that because the history of our house was pretty complicated, the title searcher was relieved to have something out of the ordinary to work on. The upshot? That title search is really important, particularly if you're buying a property that predates electronic property systems.
- dbatten 8y agoWe recently sold our house. I discovered a typo on our deed. The previous owner's deed also had the same typo. These deeds had been reviewed by at least 3 lawyers, at least 2 title insurance companies (who had a financial interest in not screwing it up), and at least 3 realtors. Nobody noticed the mistake. It was hell on earth trying to sort it out, and the sale almost fell through because of it. The real kicker was that our lawyer basically told me he wished I hadn't noticed it because the sale would have just gone through and nobody would have cared... but since I did, we were legally obligated to fix it.
- unimpressive 8y ago>It was hell on earth trying to sort it out, and the sale almost fell through because of it. The real kicker was that our lawyer basically told me he wished I hadn't noticed it because the sale would have just gone through and nobody would have cared... but since I did, we were legally obligated to fix it. Perhaps this is why 'nobody noticed'?
- windows_tips 8y agoWouldn't that be unethical of the lawyers and title companies?
- rand_r 8y agoEthics don’t pay the rent. In the real zero-sum game world out there people do what’s practical and what keeps the lights on.
- windows_tips 8y agoAn ethical breach by a lawyer is grounds for banishment from the profession. An ethical breach by a title insurance company likely violates its bylaws, and at the very least opens them up to liability. It seems like this is a title error so the insurance company would be responsible. I don't see why a lawyer wouldn't report the error to the insurance company. It's billable time that the insurance company would need to pay for and they'd be working to keep their industry with clear deeds instead of faulty ones.
- marcosdumay 8y agoI imagine those would have to show some evidence they own some part of the house. It's not hard to imagine that nobody could gather the evidence.