I am a PROFESSIONAL TITLE AGENT!
But, I spend my days playing detective!
Today, I am trying to solve the mystery surrounding a missing link in the chain of title.
While I am a very good detective, having spent the better part of the last 25 years doing just this type thing every day, I am becoming increasingly tired of this role.
In the current transaction we have a bank owned property that is under contract with a closing date of MAYBE Friday, the 5th of August.
One would think that since there are not less than 3 title agents who have recently been involved in this transaction that perhaps someone would have figured out that there was a missing link, LONG BEFORE they allowed the foreclosure to go completely through the system and LONG BEFORE the property actually went to sale on the open market. BUT NO.
By their own admission, the foreclosure firm did not search the title beyond checking to see if the person named in the foreclosure was the "record owner" of the property. The title agent who is representing the seller is this transaction readily admits that they did not do a title search at all!
The problem in this case begins with the deed into the foreclosed party. Turns out the seller was not the owwner of the property. It's somewhat complicated, but the long and the sHort of it that just because the Deed on record says that the person named in the deed is the owner that doesn't mean that there is not a problem in the deed from the seller.
I cringe when I hear of companies who are using the services of off-shore "abstractors" to do title searches on property located in the US. These firms are doing "title searches" on line based on what is showing on the public web-site. They are not reading the deeds in the chain, they are not doing any type of research, etc.
I will be able to solve this mystery and I will be able to get this property to closing and I will be able to offer the buyer, my client, a policy of title insurance that I am comfortable standing behind. But I WILL NOT be able to charge a fee to anyone for title clearance because the foreclosure attorney and the title agency representing the seller have already done that and I can't charge this fee out to the buyer.
It is frustrating to say the least, but at the same time rewarding to know that I have worked diligently to provide title insurance coverage to the new buyer that is based on actual WORK toward offering him a good title to this property.
Call on the services of a PROFESSIONAL TITLE INSURANCE AGENT for all of your title and settlement needs. The Preferred Title Group, Inc., "Doing Good Deeds Every Day"
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