Can a bank lend if house is ineligible for title insurance?

[Paul D.]

Can a bank lend on a house that you own free and clear but ineligible for title insurance?

Possible Future Situation: House was purchased from a surviving spouse and deed was transferred and recorded without the deceased spouses estate going through probate. House was willed to selling spouse.

Haven't closed on house but this is the situation I would be in if I do close on it. 

Its a cash transaction and want to cash out after sale and keep it as a rental. 

[Chris Mason]

@Paul D.- So the go-to title/escrow person (a specific person at a company, not a company) of a mortgage lender will on average be better than the go-to title person of a real estate agent, because people like to do things that screw with title that need to be fixed for a refi more often than they do things that need to be fixed prior to selling a home (the solution if selling a home can usually be "pay it off using net proceeds," which you don't want to do in this case).

No offense to our realtors here, but I think realtors often pick a title person based on the cleavage and/or skirt tightness of her sales manager and/or her. There is also more than one title/escrow guy with a very strong jawline (etc) near me that gets a lot of lady realtor business. :P

So, with that being said: call your go-to lender, ask who her or his go-to title person is for fked up refi situations (we all have one, and we all think ours is the best. Mine is ACTUALLY the best, and everyone else is wrong. :P ), connect with that person to resolve this. Don't lock in a rate or do anything else time-sensitive until you've corrected all title issues.

NOTE: In NorCal, we call them title/escrow folks. In other markets, it's a settlement lawyer. In others, title and escrow folks are two different entities. IDK what they call the settlement service folks in your market.