We ProvideComprehensive
Title Services
We provide a full range of real estate title services. Whether you simply need to verify ownership and liens, need to clean the title up to make it marketable, or you are working with a portfolio of properties we are here to help.
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The Importance ofTitle Services For
Both Buyers & Sellers
If you are buying real estate, you’ll want to make sure you are buying what you think you are and that no one else has an ownership claim.
Is the person selling the property the actual owner? Do they have the right to sell it?
Is the use of the property limited by deed restriction? Are
their liens on the property?
Your transaction wouldn’t be the first to be delayed due to title issues.
You don’t want to have to decide between living in a hotel for a few weeks, while the seller gets title defects cleared, and having to find a new home to buy.
Do you have clear title to your house? Are their any liens? Were they filed fraudulently?
If you are selling or refinancing real estate, title issues such as contractor liens, defects in the chain of title, inheritance issues, tax liens, and HOA assessments can create expensive and time consuming problems.
Title issues can take a long time to clear. You don’t want to get a great deal on your house and find out there’s an issue with the title that could delay the the closing and potentially cause the sale to fall through.
Have a quick title search done and find the issues before you put your house on the market.
What We Do
Title Services We Provide
We research the title to a property. If we find that a title has defects, called a clouded title, we work to resolve those defects. The process of resolving title issues is called curing title. Some title issues are minor and relatively easy to fix. Other issues are fairly difficult to correct; taking weeks, possibly months, to fix, and could invalidate ownership rights.
The goal is to provide a title that is considered to be marketable. This does not mean the title is clear of all defects. There may still be minor issues; such as, typos, or other minor mistake. What it does mean is that it is clear of any issues that ownership that can not be cleared at the closing of the transaction.
- O&E Reports, 30, 40 & 60 year title searches
- Chain of title review for defects
- Municipal and UCC Lien Searches
- Liens & Judgments Search
- Title commitments and guarantees
- Lender, basic and extended owner title insurance
- Clear title defects and encumbrances
- Prepare corrective deeds & quiet title actions
- Deed preparation – Warranty, Trust, Corrective etc.
- Document preparation and filing
It Can Get ComplexWhat Is A
Real Estate Title
Most people confuse a deed with title. A deed is simply evidence of a transaction. It is not the title to the property, and the deed by itself may not establish ownership of a piece of real estate.
Title to a piece of property is not like a car title where one single piece of paper concretely establishes ownership.
Ownership of a piece of property is far more complex. Unlike a car, where either you own it or you do not, real estate has a number of rights, obligations and restrictions that go along with ownership.
For instance, you could own a property but not the mineral or water rights associated with that property. You could also be obligated to allow road access across your property to another property. Or, what you can legally do with that property could restricted.
Ownership, title, knowing what you actually own can get pretty complex. So, in the case of real estate a title represents a bundle of intangible rights that you the owner have in the property.
However, a real estate title is not reduced to a single piece of paper. The closest thing to a piece of paper that establishes ownership of real estate is the Opinion of Title.
A real estate attorney prepares this document after reviewing the title abstract and any relevant documents in the documentary record to determine ownership rights.
This complex system was designed to protect buyers from fraud and secret deals. Every right that affects your ownership, such as a lien or encumbrance,
needs to be publicly recorded so that it can be included in the title abstract and so that anyone can evaluate all ownership claims before purchasing a property.
This means that all records relating to a piece of property are publicly available. An abstract of title is a summary of the publicly available documents relating to the ownership of a piece of real estate.
However, sometimes there are mistakes in the title abstract. Sometimes there are competing claims of ownership to a piece of property due to the complex transactional history of a tract of real estate.
This is why title insurance exists.