There are many different parties involved in any residential real estate transaction.
Whether you’re a homebuyer or seller, or one of the numerous other actors facilitating the deal—real estate agents, mortgage brokers, lenders, homebuilders, developers, or legal professionals—choosing the right title company can help you protect your interests, while ensuring a swift, friction-free transfer of real estate.
Surety offers a full suite of title insurance protection and settlement services, including thorough title search and clearance, and title insurance policies.
Title Search & Clearance
Before a deed of ownership, or title, can be transferred between the buyer and seller, the title must be “cleared” to ensure that the property can legally be sold. This involves performing a search into the history of a property—chiefly its ownership and transactions—to confirm there are no legal impediments preventing a sale.
Common title issues that may surface during a search include evidence of unresolved liens on the property, false or inaccurate documents, and disputes over issues such as ownership, boundaries, or surveys.
Other potential title issues include:
Competing Heirs: When a property that has been inherited is being sold, a title search may reveal claims on the property from additional heirs.
Unresolved Liens: The most common issue with unresolved, or unreleased liens on a property typically occur because of paperwork mistakes or issues. While these tend not to prevent sales in most cases, they must still be resolved before the sale can go ahead.
Outstanding Lawsuits or Judgments: In some cases, judgments being issued against a property can lead to cancellation of a sale.
In each of these cases—and a number of other potential title-related issues—a thorough title search serves to protect the buyer from the inconvenience and costs associated with dealing with legal issues after a sale is made. It is also a necessary prerequisite before title insurance can be issued. Therefore, it is also in Surety’s interests to ensure our title searches are as comprehensive as possible.
Title Insurance
Title insurance is an essential part of the real estate purchasing process, as it offers both protection and peace of mind for buyers and lenders. While Surety’s title search experts make every effort to uncover all potential problems with a title, not every issue can be found during a search.
Surety’s title insurance policies protect holders against loss or damage related to problems that may arise with the title on the property, including unresolved liens, lawsuits that may have been filed after a title search was conducted, fraudulent or misfiled paperwork, undisclosed heirs, and more.
Learn More About Title Search vs. Title Insurance
Settlement Services
To ensure a seamless transaction, Surety partners with our title service customers all the way through the closing process. Our settlement services are backed by proprietary technology that enables us to track every stage of the transaction, conduct quality control checks, and ensure every piece of the process happens on time, every time.
To learn more about Surety’s settlement services, including how we can help with signing confirmation, disbursement of funds, recording of mortgage, and more, click here.
AfBAs
An Affiliated Business Arrangement (AfBA) has the potential to drive additional profits for our commercial and residential real estate partners. In addition to owning your own title and abstract company, benefits of forming an AfBA with Surety include dedicated staffing, custom marketing plans, and quarterly partner meetings. Learn more about forming an AfBA with Surety.