Seller (illegally?) requiring title company

[Brandon K.]

I submitted a SFR contract that got accepted as-is over the weekend except with an addendum (counter) that we use the seller's title company that was specified on the private section of the MLS listing. We'd prefer to use our own that we normally use instead of their title company that we haven't heard of that has pretty bad Yelp reviews. We tried negotiating the seller to cover our title costs to use their place but they are unwilling to either cover our title costs or let us use our title company.

It seems according to the RESPA rules we should be able to choose our own title company: "Section 9 of RESPA prohibits a seller from requiring the home buyer to use a particular title insurance company, either directly or indirectly, as a condition of sale."

The deal is probably not worth walking away from over this but is there any other avenue we can pursue?

[Russell Brazil]

@Brandon K. I wouldnt even liken to something as serious as speeding. Yes buyers get to decide on the title company....but sellers get to choose who they sell to.  RESPA can not force a seller to sell to you if they do not like the terms.  If you are that intent on the title company, I would suggest offering them more money. I would absolutely take more money for a property to switch title companies.   Also 95% of title companies are the same. There will be 1 or 2 that stand out above the rest, and 1 or 2 that are atrocious, but you would likely be unable to tell the difference honestly. The only people who will know the difference are agents who are doing a lot of volume.