title searching

[Shequann Burrwell]

when contracting a deal should you have the title company handle the title right away or wait till you find a buyer for the contract. also if the contract expires before you find a buyer do you owe any money to the title company out of your own pocket?

[Bill Gulley]

All you need to do is to ensure the people who will be signing a contract are in fact on title, that is not a prliminary title search, but simply a verification of ownership. Do that before you contract, but if you don't so long as you aren't spending money on something you won't get hurt, as an example, one signs a contract and later you find tahta sister also needs to sign. Sometimes the sister will refuse so you need to know your contract is valid before getting deep into some deal.

Taxes, liens, encumbrances and clouds are an issue that needs to be done by the title company, some think they can do it, but unless they have had specialized training in a title plant, I wouldn't bet my deal on thier opinions. These are not an issue at all pre-contract, the contract requires the seller to give clear title. If there is tax due or any lien it's the sellers problem, not yours. But, you do need to know quickly as you may not have a deal.

So, immediately after contracting order a title committment or a preliminary report from the title company. A preliminary will give a search back to the last transaction, that could entail searching estate issues, court record searches of incapacitation or competency issues and other matters that RE types simply are not trained in, so have the experts do it.

Cost of a preliminary report is much less than a full search. I got them free, but to do that I was giving them tons of business and the searches I asked for usually closed, like 90% of the time, so I wasn't asking them to do work on a lark but on solid deals, some just don't close. If you have a high closing rate of contracts a title plant maight give you a free preliminary, it saves a little time for them as they do a full search, so getting tagged for some and then again isn't where you need to go. Often, if they charge for the prlim you'll be credited on the full search.

In many areas the seller is required to provide the search, I have had the seller order the search immediately after contracting to be billed at closing, if the deal doesn't close and the title company wants to charge for services, they bill the seller in such cases, not the buyer. :)