Buying a house without title insurance?

[Matthew Mucker]

Believe it or not, I'm actually considering this.

My father-in-law owns a house he is interested in selling that I think would make an excellent rental property.

He's owned the property for 10 years.

According to county records, this piece of property has had only 2 prior owners: my father-in-law's father, and HIS father.

It's hard to imagine a more risk-free property to buy w/o title insurance. Title insurance in Texas is quite expensive. I'm debating whether or not I might want to save $700 by not getting this insurance.

So, knowing this will spark a healthy and educational debate... what do y'all think? :D

[Ryan Webber]

Having a cloud or having a "break" on the chain of title definitely makes it extremely difficult to sell a property, but not not getting title insurance on a property when you buy it doesn't necessarily mean you will have any title problems.

When a title company issues title insurance they will do a title search on the property to make sure that the title is clear. The title insurance is merely an insurance policy against any clouds in the title that the title company may have missed when they did their search.

Either way title insurance will insure that you have clear title, but not getting title insurance doesn't mean you have bad title. It just means you don't have insurance guaranteeing good title.