Register Real Estate Advisors

I have found that some consumers want to choose their own title company when they are purchasing a home. It is their right, of course, to choose. However, on what basis is a consumer choosing a title company? It has been my experience that when you allow your Realtor to choose the title company, you have a much smoother closing. This is because title companies work for Realtor business, not consumer business. So title companies want to make Realtors happy so they will repeatedly use their services. So when I use a title company of my choice for my clients, I know they will get great service and I have no fear of the title company going under with their earnest money. I also know I will get all my documents in a timely fashion and if there is a problem, I have someone I can directly contact and trust to resolve it. However, when consumers purchase Foreclosure properties, they usually do not get a choice on their title company. The seller decides or they make the buyer pay for the title insurance.

On a recent transaction I had a buyer that was purchasing a foreclosed home. The title company was chosen by the seller and it took them weeks to get the documents that the lender was requesting. Since the title company was out of town, they did a remote closing at my office. That means the title company sent a notary to get all of the documents signed. Unfortunately in this case, the title company did not send all the docs with the notary. So the next day when we were waiting for funding and my clients were waiting to get the keys to their new house, my clients and I found out they had to come back and sign more documents. Imagine my outrage! Then after the closing the title company did not send copies of the closing documents to my buyers. We had to both request copies several times before they were emailed to them. There are so many things that can hold up funding on a loan. You don’t want your title company to be the reason you don’t get into the home of your dreams. What if we’d had to wait to get docs signed and the lock on the loan expired? We could have lost the entire deal. You want to work with a title company that has a good reputation with your Realtor. One that your Realtor trusts to take care of all necessary details. Trust your Realtor, because is they are worth your real estate business, they know which title company will take good care of you!

When selling a home, the biggest competition is New Home Builders.  In the past, they have offered thousands of dollars worth of incentives to buyers that inventory homes on the market could not compete with.  Now the tables are turning.  As of Jan. 16th RESPA (Federal Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act) laws will be changing.  There will soon be new RESPA Limitations on Homebuilder Incentives and this will require builders to change their contracts and current procedures.  This is good news if you are planning to sell your home in the new year.  In the past it has been common for builders to offer incentives to buyers so that they would use their preferred title and mortgage companies.  This allowed builders to line their wallets with thousands of consumer dollars per contract on homes sold.  Thanks to new RESPA Guidelines they can be criminally prosecuted for such acts.

You can read more about it at http://www.hud.gov/offices/hsg/sfh/res/finalrule.pdf.