Title search and title insurance - Posted by stephanie nosacek

Real Estate Investing Real Estate Gurus
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Posted by David Krulac on August 28, 2001 at 16:29:03:

There are several different insurances, homeowners, mortgage, and title.

  1. Homeowners insurance covers fire, theft, vandalism, natural diasters, etc.
  2. Mortgage insurance covers mortgage default and pays off the mortgage if the owner dies or is incapacitated. This is similar to life insurance and disability insurance and only pays off mortgage if you dies or are unable to work.
  3. Title insurance insures the lender and sometimes the buyer also against defect in the title, unpaid taxes, leins, mortgages, judgements, forgeries, etc, that could affect your title. Say a divorcing couple is the seller and the husband forges the wifes signature on the deed, title insurance would cover something like that. A tax bill from 1960, thought to have been paid turns up unpaid now, title insurance would cover that.
  4. Title search is the process done at the court house where they search the title back 60 or 100 years making sure that each sale was proper, that all the right people signed the deeds and that all mortgages, leins and judgements were paid, or will be paid at settlement. The title search abstract is the document that the title insurance company uses to determine if they’ll issue a title insurance policy. They will want all outstanding issues to be resolved before or at settlement.
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Title search and title insurance - Posted by stephanie nosacek

Posted by stephanie nosacek on August 28, 2001 at 14:23:58:

I’ve been reading the posts for quite a while and thought that perhaps you could help me.

I got the Carlton Sheets no money down thingy. Before I got through the course we found a property listed by a broker that we could actually afford.

Found out the property was originally listed for $19,900.
3 bed, 2 ba Single Wide Mobile home, could use some work. On 1.18 acres. The tract itself is odd shaped and on the info sheet the realtor gave us there is a small picture of the platt book page and they match exactly. The land behind us is also for sale (100 acres) and thought perhaps we could eventually get part of that.

The price was reduced to $15000. The bank wasn’t interested in financing a mobile. So hubby and I decided to check out the property. It’s not bad at all. Needs a little work if I wanted to rent it out it would be no problem. The realtor said they could handle all of the rentals they could get in that area.

The mobile was grandfathered in. The zoning now requires that there are a minimum of 2 acres for home.

So, we are cash poor. I had $500 cash and ask the realtor if the seller was willing to offer financing. He said yes. The property was from an estate settlement and there was no mortgage on it.

So he did a little number crunching and we tossed around a couple of ideas. He was thinking 8% for 5 yrs. We either pay the downpayment over a period of time with no interest or finance the whole thing with no down. No problem as far as handling the payments. We don’t pay rent or utilities we are live in storage managers.

The taxes are $27.00 a year and when I asked him about insurance the realtor said “You would pay that.”

Now I don’t have a problem with insurance, but can somebody explain to me the difference between Title insurance and the insurance that usually come along with a mortgage???

I got into this and I believe we will have no problem with getting the place on decent terms, but the guy that owns it is a drunk. I want to make sure that everything is on the up and up. We are new to the area.

If the seller agrees to some pretty good terms, and we decide to accept, what should I be doing next? The property in question is about and hour and a half drive from where we live/work. We get one day off together so doing footwork on this deal is going to be a headache, but this is the area we would eventually like to live.

Help!!! Also, if a lot is grandfathered in, when it changes hands do the new owners get to keep the same setup without zoning requiring that we have more land?

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Re: Title search and title insurance - Posted by JoeS

Posted by JoeS on August 29, 2001 at 06:51:08:

Insurance covers loss due to vandalism, fire, hail, etc. Title Insurance covers you on the ownership of the property. This would be issued after a search revealed NO liens, encumberances, or clouds on the Title. In MOST states, mobile homes are listed as personal property, not real estate, unless on their own land, and Title insurance would not apply. Check with your attorney first if not sure. Hope this helps.

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Re: Title search and title insurance - Posted by Stephanie Nosacek

Posted by Stephanie Nosacek on August 28, 2001 at 16:49:51:

Thanks David,

Whew, I’ve tried to cram so much into these overworked brain cells that it is all running together. Thanks a lot.