The Sewing Mom

I wrote a post about title insurance companies yesterday and I received several emails asking for more information. I feel it’s pretty important as a home buyer to know what you are getting, not just in the house, but in the land it sits on.

A title company is responsible for ensuring there are no outstanding liens on the property. You wouldn’t want to purchase a home and find out later that the company that installed the swimming pool is holding a lien against it. If that were the case, you’d become responsible for paying off that lien. Having a title insurance company prepare and issue a title insurance policy on the property gives a property owner piece of mind. The policy gives a history of the property and any liens that have been made against it and what rights or easements anyone else may have. For example, on our home in Houston, our title insurance policy stated something to the affect that if oil were to be found under ground, the oil rights would belong to a specific utility company.

The title policy on our current house shows me who, specifically, had liens or ownership rights to the land in the past. The policy also provides dates of when those rights were relinquished. I always pay the extra money when purchasing a home, not only to to have a title policy, but to have a copy of the actual title insurance policy in my possession. I think it’s very important as a home owner to know what my legal rights are regarding the property.

So, I hope I’ve not been repetitive, but I think it’s an important issue that any home buyer needs to be aware of.

I finally got myself started on sorting through all of our tax information, I’ve been procrastinating. I just have to organize it, fill out our tax questionnaire and then send it all off to our accountant. Every year, I think I have everything ready and then it happens, I have to go digging through my files for something else. This year is no different.

As I go through the questionnaire that our accountant sends us each year, I ensure I have all the back up documents. As I check things off, I make a list of missing paperwork. This morning I was doing my search for the missing papers. Probably the most important document that was MIA was the closing document from the sale of our home last year. I know it was provided to us by the title company and I was sure it was with our home sale documents. I just had to sort through to find it.

In the state of Illinois, home sales are handled by real estate attorneys, but the closing documents are prepared by the title company. In Texas, closings are handled without the attorney, everything is taken care of between the mortgage companies and the title insurance companies. Either way, I think that besides handling a home sale closing, it’s important to have title insurance on any property that you own, don’t you? It ensures that nobody is going to come out of the blue and try to lay claim to your land. Title insurance policies can be interesting to read if you live in a location that has any history. I remember our title policy on our home in Houston had a lot of facts regarding oil claims. It really was a fascinating read!

Anyway, I did manage to find the necessary document this morning and I am getting closer to being ready to send it off to the accountant. That will be a big weight off of my shoulders. If you’ve never actually read your title insurance policy, you might want to some time, you just never know what interesting facts you’ll find in that document.