You know that buying a home can be stressful for your clients, especially if the process is new to them. Once a home has been selected, and an offer accepted, your buyers will face a mountain of paperwork and fees they may not understand.  

The fee for title insurance may be one of the least understood. As the trusted advisor who has brought your clients this far in the search for a home, you can help them understand both the value of title insurance and the risks they could face by not having it. Here’s a summary of what your buyers need to know about title insurance:

• Title insurance offers protection - In the same way that their lender requires a Lender’s Title Insurance Policy to protect their interest in the home, the Owner’s Title Policy protects the homebuyer’s legal claim to the property. It ensures their title is free of encumbrances such as unpaid property taxes, child support, or mechanic’s liens, and that there is nothing that could limit their use of the property, such as utility easements. 

• Here’s an example – Say the seller put a new roof on the home and failed to pay the roofer. The roofer, demanding to be paid, filed a lien against the property. If there was no title search, and no Owner’s Policy protecting them, the buyers would be responsible for the debt, if left unpaid.

• The one-time fee buys security - Unlike other types of insurance, which charge a premium to protect against things that might occur in the future, title insurance covers the cost for a title professional to research, identify and resolve title issues that may have occurred in the past. An Owner’s Policy provides that protection for as long as the buyers or their heirs own the home. 

Bobbi Pronin is an award-winning writer based in Orange County, Calif. A former news editor with more than 30 years of experience in journalism and corporate communications, she has specialized in real estate topics for over a decade. 

Bobbi is not an employee of Anywhere Integrated Services or affiliated with its title companies.