Questions about Title Insurance and Escrow in DMV (Maryland)

[Jamie Knox]

Hi all.  I'm new here and a first time homebuyer in Maryland.  I have a few questions about escrow for anyone involved in real estate in southern Maryland.

I signed an escrow agreement to place my earnest money deposit with a company.  However, nowhere in the agreement does it say anything about obtaining the title documents for my lender, and is specifically about buyer/seller disputes and the earnest money deposit.  This particular company is also a title company.  My real estate agent recommended this company, but neither he nor the lender made me aware that they would also be handling the title and not just the earnest money deposit and settlement (I would have loved to have shopped around).  Just to let you all know as well, this was not a company that was in my lender's choices.  

Unfortunately for me, my lender had already gotten the go ahead from my real estate agent to run the title through this company.  I was not made aware of this until after the fact.  Is this how it always works in Maryland?  Does the escrow company always handle the title?  Do buyers not sign any agreement concerning the actual title and associated fees with the lender or company running the title?  Also, must I purchase owner's title insurance through this company, or is it typically cheaper to just purchase owner's title insurance through a company that also ran the title for the lender?

This is my first go around, but I am trying to learn as much as I can about real estate in this area and trying to understand this situation.  Ultimately, it is my fault.  I did read real estate books, but it is still hard to understand the exact process until you do it.  I figured that mistakes would be made the first time around, but would like to avoid these kinds of situations in the future.  At least I negotiated with a bunch of lenders and got a pretty amazing rate with below average lender fees, but I'm a little bummed about this issue as I thought that I was going to be able to shop around for title fees.  I have a feeling the company that was selected may be above average concerning the cost of fees, but I'm going to call today to see how much I got screwed.  Luckily, I also have full control over home insurance and will be shopping around for that over the next few days. 

Thanks in advance!