subject: Use A Professional Title Company When Selling A Home [print this page] Everybody knows what a real estate broker is, and also a real estate agent. Agents are licensed to work for brokers, and they form a network of professionals that make a full-time living or moonlight in the real estate business. Whenever I need to sell my home I consider whether to list with an agent or not, and many times I choose to sell my home myself.
But I wouldn't be making that decision to sell by owner if I didn't have a relationship with a title company. Not as many people have knowledge about title companies compared to knowledge of agents and brokers. So, in this article I'll share some information about title companies and why they are important when I sell my home.
A title company specializes in examining and insuring titles to real estate for the purpose of transfer of ownership. The legal history of a property, a house, a building or raw land itself has a history of ownership that is updated each time the property changes hands. But there are other occasions that become part of the property's legal history as well, and those are documents filed as liens placed against the property by lenders, taxing authorities or other creditors. Anyone who has a legal right to place a lien on a property because the property owner owes them some money can file documents in the county where the property is located to create the lien. These liens are an important part of the legal history of a property, and perhaps more important to me personally, when liens are released by lenders and others they file a lien release which releases me from liability on the property.
Whenever I buy a home or sell my home I always have a title company perform an up-to-the-minute title search on the legal history of the home. Title companies employ skilled researchers and attorneys who make sure that I get all the right information to make the right decision whether to buy a property or whether I will have legal issues if I do so. And, when I sell a house I'm obligated to provide clear title to my buyer, meaning timely proof that there are no unresolved legal issues on the title.
I have working relationships with more than one title company in the areas where I buy and sell a home, but as usual, we all seem to develop preferences and find the people with whom we can work smoothly. Make sure you give some title companies a call whenever you prepare to sell a home yourself so that you'll have a relationship set up when the time comes to close your sale.
Whenever I sell my home myself I always get in touch with a title company to make sure there are no legal issues for me or for my buyer when we close the sale.
