House Title, Sell Your House

Understand Title Insurance

While terms like car insurance and homeowners insurance are quite familiar to most of us, most are unaware of title insurance and its importance. It is a crucial part of any house purchase.

What is title insurance?

When selling your house, your closing attorney executes a title search to ensure that the property is free of any existing liens or zoning restrictions. For this, he looks at the deed papers as well as court records for ownership history verification. Title insurance plays a crucial role here. A special type of indemnity policy, it safeguards your financial interests if you face any type of defect with the property’s title. If you are trying to sell my house fast in Maryland or Washington DC, title issues can be a huge problem.

At the time of title insurance policy purchase, an independent search is conducted by the title company to verify that there are no disputes or legal issues surrounding the property’s ownership. Usually, you are required to pay a one-time premium for the policy at the time of closing. Any future discrepancy when the house is sold that needs to be fixed by an attorney will be covered by title insurance.

Protection provided by title insurance

The coverage provided by the title insurance typically depends on whether the policy belongs to the lender or the owner. A lender’s policy is purchased if you are taking a loan from a public mortgage lender. It provides insurance to the full loan amount to the lender if any dispute or problem arises with the home’s title post financing. The policy remains valid until the time you pay off your entire loan, sell the house, or get it refinanced.

The owner’s policy covers the amount paid for purchasing the home. It covers numerous problems like tax liens, deed errors or omissions, fraud, mistakes in public records, forgery of deed documents, etc. It also provides protection in scenarios of unknown heirs surfacing to stake a claim on the property. Few of these policies can also offer extended coverage like protection against structural damage, building permit violations, zoning law violations, etc.

In case of title dispute, both policies cover all legal costs and losses including your down payment, principal payment or any other improvement cost incurred by you.

Is the title insurance really worth it?

The one-time premium amount of title insurance depends on your area of residence and the policy itself. Usually, the cost can be about $2.50 for every $1,000 of coverage. The owner’s policy is slightly more expensive than the lender’s policy. The total title insurance amount can range from few hundreds to few thousand dollars which may look big but is trivial compared to the cost of facing a lawsuit later and getting a complete peace of mind.

Bottom line

Title insurance is worth the money. Without it, the cost of defending a title claim can prove so expensive that you may lose your property.

As always, at 8 Day Home Sale, we buy houses in Maryland and Washington DC for cash. If you want to sell your house, contact us for a cash offer. We will handle title issues for you!

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Buying a New House, Sell Your House

How to Choose a Title Company When Buying or Selling a House

Purchasing a house is one of the largest investments a person makes in his or her life. Most people don’t fully understand the home buying/selling process. Every house transaction involves a title company that handles the actual transfer of the house. Title companies vary in quality, price, and experience. You have the right to choose your own title company. Most people don’t take advantage of this right. Choosing the wrong title company could cost you more money and title issues down the road. Here are some factors you should consider when choosing a title company in Maryland, Virginia, or Washington DC:

Reputation and Experience

Undoubtedly, you would want your work to be handled by a reputable and trustworthy company, especially if you want to sell my house fast in Maryland or Washington DC. Thus, it is essential that you check the reputation and track record of the company you are considering. Check online reviews and ask a few realtors if they have experience with the company. Call the company and ask them questions about their process.

Office Location

Choosing a title company near you is helpful if you need to discuss issues in person, drop off checks, etc. If you close at their office, having it near by will make your life easier.

Fees

House transactions are very expensive. The last thing you want to do is waste money on title fees when you are trying to sell my house fast in Maryland, Virginia, or Washington DC. Ask the company about their fees and force them to provide estimates. Check around with other companies and compare prices. You could end up saving thousands of dollars.

As always, at 8 Day Home Sale we buy houses in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC for cash. We have years of experience buying houses and working with title companies. If you sell your house to us, you can rest assured we will handle all title issues.

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Sell Your House

What is a Property Easement in Maryland?

You might be thinking I want to “sell my house fast” and buy a new one. If this is true, knowledge of any easements on the property is critical. An easement is a sharing of land. It gives the right to a particular person or group to utilize the land. When trying to sell your house fast, an easement can be problematic as it may affect resale value.

An easement dictates legal usage of the property by an outsider. That person or group cannot be stopped from using the space in specific legally designated ways. Easements occur in the following forms:

The Right of Passage – This easement entitles a person to cross through a property that is not owned by them. For example, if a person owns a house near the beach and the only possible way to the beach is on the property, the owner has to allow the people to access the beach via its property. The second example can be a neighbor that may not have access to any other road, which leads to the main road rather than the property of the owner.

The Right to Utility Maintenance– This easement entitles utility organizations to use property for laying power cables and/or reaching out to neighboring places for maintenance work.

The Right to Historic Lands – This easement involves individuals whose property is located in the same district as a historic property. The owner needs to abide by the rules of the historic property. The rules can be related to the coloring of the property or can also be related to structural changes that cannot be made to the property. Read about historical easements in Maryland.

Recreational Easement – The easement pertains to the usage of land which has not been developed. The government can allow public use of such land for recreational activities such as fishing, hiking, biking, etc.

Easements are listed on the property deed. For property you own, you should check the deed for easements before listing the property before you “sell my house fast”. When buying a house, always ask your realtor about easements. At 8 Day Home Sale, we buy houses for cash and have been doing so for years. As such, we always work with home owners to find and understand existing easements on their property.

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