Title Insurance – Palmdale California Real Estate
Many Palmdale California real estate agents simply deliver to you, the documents that were involved in the title research of your potential property. They will also drop the insurance binder on you and let you navigate this massive amount of information on your own. I’m not going to do that to you. I have looked over so many title reports that I can check one out for you in a flash and tell you if there are any red flags or not. I don’t often see any issues with properties in the Palmdale or Lancaster area but it’s worth a quick look at least. Generally if a property has changed hands before I wouldn’t expect to see any major problems. Now on an old property that has been under single ownership for a long time, we will want to look a little deeper into the title report. I also might suggest that you get a better title report which is an ALTA policy. These ‘upgraded’ title reports also safeguard the location of the property lines.
Your title binder will also reveal any restrictions and or covenants that the seller might not have disclosed before you made your offer. It is law that a seller disclose any of these things to you the buyer, but sometimes these are actually forgotten about. A title binder will show any conditions, covenants, or restrictions. The most up to date filings that have been recorded will be in the title binder. Home owner associations fave fees and assessments that can change, and these too will be in the title binder.
If any conditions, covenants, or restrictions in these documents might restrict the use of your Palmdale California real estate in a way that causes you to reconsider your purchase. Nobody likes red tape, but it sometimes for the greater good, and necessary. Nevertheless these are important to be aware of before you purchase your property and you will not want to miss anything. Let’s say that you have a recreational vehicle (RV) that you would want to park on your property. Maybe you would even want to build a shed for it. So of course, any restrictions keeping you from building your shed would be important to you. As a great Palmdale real estate agent I am committed to helping you to uncover everything of importance in your title insurance binder.
In your title insurance binder there are two sections that summarize the meat and potatoes of that massive document. Knowing that there is a summary, makes the title binder much less overwhelming. In the summary there are two sections we want to pay most attention to. The “Requirements” section basically states the things that must be done in order for the title company to issue the policy. These prerequisites are usually things like having the home sellers loan paid off so that the mortgage loan is no longer a lien on the property, and making sure that property taxes are not delinquent. The second section in the summary that we want to pay attention to is the “Exceptions” section. These exceptions are things that the title insurance will not cover or guard against. These are the things that have already been recorded with the county such as the covenants and restrictions that I mentioned earlier such as possibly not allowing you to park your RV or build a shed for it on the property.
A Title insurance policy (ALTA) gives you basic protection against claims against your property that arise from the ‘chain of title’ which is the record of the previous legal owners and property lines (with the ALTA policy).
I have seen problems arise in title insurance for my Palmdale real estate clients but only rarely. The most common issue that I see is with divorced property owners. They had bought a home together, and have not yet settled their divorce proceedings so the title is still in both of their names. With only one of them still in possession and selling the property. The title to real estate must have no clouds on it for a title insurance company to issue a policy. In the example here, one spouse must relinquish their legal interest in the property by a quitclaim deed so that a new title can be issued to the single person, and then transferred to you, the new buyer. Or the house can be sold as is currently titled by the married couple and they then split the sale proceeds. I have seen real estate transactions held up because widows or widowers have to transfer the title into their name as sole owner before we can complete the sale. This process is never as quick as we would like it to be either.
Palmdale, CA Real Estate Listings From Realtor Wes Darby
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