Title search, title insurance - what do I need?

On May 1, 6:42 am, "Alan" <alanb_lano2s...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> A first-time-buyer friend, who is buying a $200K single family house in
> Atlanta, said the realtor who structued the deal is not using a title
> company, but rather "an attorney firm is doing that function." I was
> surprised but didn't say anything. Is this typical or should I suggest that
> he dig deeper into the situation?

Here in MD, many (not all) of the title companies are owned and run by lawyers or law firms (they just keep them separate for business or liability reasons), where persons who are NOT lawyers do the actual work, but under the supervision of the lawyers who run the company.  There are also many lawyers who do sale closings (title settlements) along with other kinds of real estate work as a part of their legal practice.   So, here it doesn't make much difference what the entity that does the work is called, so long as the actual person doing the work has the proper skills and applies the required due diligence to get the job done right.   It does not necessarily require a lawyer to do it, so long as the paralegal doing the work has the proper training and supervision, but having an actual lawyer personally doing the work is not _worse_, if you get my drift.

All of which is separate from the concept of title INSURANCE, which if it is allowed in your state, is strongly recommended to help you sleep at night without worrying over whether some undisclosed error in your title could deprive you of ownership of the largest single investment most families make.   Having a lawyer do the settlement is not a substitute for buying title insurance.

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Mike Jacobs
LAW OFFICE OF W. MICHAEL JACOBS
10440 Little Patuxent Pkwy #300
Columbia, MD 21044
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