Video transcript: Title insurance

On screen:

What's title insurance?

On screen:

Seth, Real Estate Lawyer

Seth:

What is title insurance?

Title insurance is a insurance policy you pay for once, at the closing table, when you buy your home, and what it does is it ensures that you are the only homeowners for this property and that the seller who sold it to you had every right to sell you the property. It also gives you insurance that all of the real estate taxes on the property are paid right up until the date of closing or occasionally a time after the date of closing.

On screen:

How much does it cost?

Seth:

Title insurance is regulated in every single state very, very strictly and title insurance, the amount you pay, will be
determined by the overall purchase price of the house.

On screen:

Why is it important?

Seth:

Title insurance is important to buy because it allows for very easy selling in the future. That's it's number one value. It also will help in case there is any fraud. While it doesn't happen very often, it does happen. For the amount of insurance that you're getting and considering it lasts for as long as you own the home, and you're only paying for it once, it gives you this fantastic security blanket on your purchase so that you know no one can ever knock on your door in however many years and say, "You don't own that house. I do." And you can say, "No, here's my title insurance policy." So even if you're right, I'm at least getting my money back. So that's the number one value of it.

On screen:

Title insurance