Need Help! Extended vs Standard Title Commitment

[Kim Hopkins]

Hello! 

we're in contract to purchase a property in Sedona arizona. If you don't know it, it's a super small tourist town about 9,000 people, huge tourist destination with beautiful red rocks.

we have a great off market deal with a motivated elderly seller. We promised to make it a smooth and easy process.

we expected an extended title policy. Title company is saying we need to get an Alta survey for this, which frankly we just forgot about, and that it is taking over a month to get these surveys right now. They also cost around $6,000 and this is only a one and a half million dollar property. It's been around since 1980. It's retail in town and very established.

frankly I trust the title person who sounds like she's been doing this for a hundred years and she says that they do the standard policy all the time and the broker says the last five commercial properties they just sold were standard, not extended. 

my Phoenix attorney though is of course having a conniption. I also trust her and she is saying that this is a big red flag and that she's never ever heard of anyone doing a standard instead of an extended title policy on a commercial property.

what do you think? 

thanks!

Kim

[Cason Acor]

I’m a commercial broker in Utah. I sell properties with standard title policies all the time. It’s very common. Although if I were you, I’d still get the survey. Sometimes with elderly owners, especially if they’ve owned the property for a long time, important information can be lost or forgotten. Sometimes there’s long-standing verbal agreements over property lines or access with neighbors and that can create problems for you if you’re not aware of them before selling.