Owning your property free and clear involves more than having a deed in hand. A deed does not cancel certain prior “rights” and “claims” other people may have to your property—rights whose existence you never suspected; claims that may go back in time months or decades to the earliest owners of your newly acquired property.
What protection do you have against such claims? How can you be sure your property is really yours? The answer is real estate ownership insurance, commonly known as title insurance.
Title insurance is an insured statement of the condition of your “title” or ownership rights to a certain piece of property. A title insurance policy describes your property in detail and states what limitations, if any, there are to your ownership. (For example, you may take ownership subject to existing liens or encumbrances. Or you may not own mineral rights. Or easements may have been granted to utility companies or adjacent property owners.)
Most importantly, a title insurance policy guarantees that the property you are purchasing is free of undisclosed liens, confusion in the rights of ownership and other clouds on the title. In short, it guarantees that you own the property for which you bargained.
Services
Title Insurance
Advanced Title Group writes title insurance policies for the following Title Insurance Underwriters: First American Title Insurance Company.
Exam Only Services
This department offers title search notes to attorneys and outside title companies for use in their title operations.
Limited Lien Search
Also called “Current Owner Search.” We examine the title from the time the borrowers acquire title to the present. We obtain copy of the deed and check county records for mortgages and liens. We also note tax evaluations and half-year amounts. This information is presented in a concise, easy to read printed report.
Full Title Search
Title is examined for a period of not less than forty years, checking each owner during that time frame. We check for applicable liens, mortgages, easements, leases, and court cases and probate proceedings. This information is compiled into a Title Commitment.
Closing Services
Taking information obtained from the title search, processors coordinate the real estate closing. They obtain lien and mortgage pay off figures, prepare closing documents, and arrange a convenient time and location for the execution of the documents with all parties involved. This department also provides construction escrow service under an approved escrow agreement.
Education
Members of our staff are certified and licensed through the ILTA for Title Insurance, Title Examinations, & Closing Procedures.
