In Virginia, there is a substantial savings on Title Insurance if you can get the "Reissue Rate." It can be from $500 to over $1000 depending on the price of your home.
When do you qualify for the reissue rate? If the previous owner bought Title Insurance within the last few years, usually within 10. The seller has to either provide proof of the title insurance, or they have to give you (or your agent) permission to get it from the previous title company, which can be a little bit of a pain.
A buyer agent also might consider making it a requirement in the contract to buy. Otherwise you are asking for a favor from the seller after you are under contract.
One warning. There are some title companies that have partnerships with lenders and offer a "package" deal that can "save" you $1000. Problem is, the savings can NOT be combined with the reissue rate.
In one instance I saw the reissue rate was $1300 and the "package" discount was $1600. Sure that is nice, but in reality the "package" savings was only $300 (but saying $1600 is better for marketing).
Why does this matter? Well if you are comparing lenders and one has a "package" that you think saves you $1300, but really only saves you $300, you might not be properly comparing apples to apples. Does that make sense or is it confusing?
Oh, and any listing agents out there? This could be a nice card to pull out to "save" the buyer $500 to $1000.
Don't miss my previous blog posts on Title Insurance.
Written by Broker Frank LLOSA FranklyRealty.com
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Frank - Discounted title insurance reissue is one of the nice things about Virginia! I know there are other states that do it as well, though I don't have a full list. It goes a long way towards making clients happy when you mention that to them that you're able to save them a few hundred dollars more!!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but are partnerships between lenders and title companies ok? I know that lenders have preferred title companies, but I think partnerships could potentially be problematic.