What is Title Insurance and Why do I need it?

Miss Ellie:  It is interesting to see which items end up as part of the seller's closing costs, and which ones are paid by the buyer.  In the overall Dallas/Fort Worth area... the seller usually pays the Title Insurance.  I would say they pay it almost 100% of the time.  But, in doing that, the seller gets to pick the Title Company that will do the title work, and also is where their "closing" will take place.

We generally tell our clients that the buyer pays for everything that they have to do to get financing approval... and the seller pays for all expenses involved in transferring the title from the seller to the buyer.  Included in that, is the title insurance.  They usually split the cost of the survey.

Also... I do not know if your part of Maryland has "round table" closings where everyone is together when closing happens, but here... the buyer has an appointment at the Title Company and signs all their papers, and then the seller does the same... both separately.

Also... as far as attorneys are concerned... the only place attorneys come in... is in what they do with the title companies.  It is almost 100% normal that neither the buyer nor the seller actually has an attorney working for THEM in the closing process... or WITH them at the closing... although either is free to do so if they wish.  In my three hundred or so years as a Realtor, I have never seen it happen, however.

I also know that in many areas, it is customary that the buyer's mortgage loan officer may also be at the closing with the buyers.  I would say that in perhaps 98% of the closings I have attended, and I attend EVERY one, the buyer's lender has not been physically "at the closing."

Funding usually takes place within a few hours of signing of both sets of papers.  Sometimes the funds have already been wired to the title company, in which case all that has to be done is the papers are wired to the lender, along with the HUD-1 for lender final approval.  That is usually done in less than an hour, and a funding number is then given by the lender to the Title Company, and then funds are dispersed, and the buyer gets the keys, unless some other prior arrangement has been made between buyer and seller.

Also... since most buyers would like to use as little cash as possible... it is not unusual for a buyer to ask the seller to pay a certain amount of their closing costs... rather than come down a similar amount on the price.

Whew !

Oh... you also said that Title Insurance also covers deeds that may have been signed by "persons of unsound mind."  I assume by that you meant Realtors.