The clients that hire you to represent them during a real estate transaction will typically defer to your recommendations and expertise. Technically, the buyer has the right to choose the title company for their insurance policies. After all, they are the ones that have to pay the premiums.
However, many times, the person buying a property will simply go with the title company recommended by their real estate agent. Many real estate professionals default to the biggest national players in the title industry. What they may not realize is that these companies push out hundreds of policies a day, making it easy for them to potentially miss major issues. Those mistakes might later come back to haunt the clients that trusted you while buying their new home.
Centralized title review is efficient but also problematic
Big title companies have offices that process hundreds of policies every month. They have teams of people working to facilitate the signing of closing documents, perform curative operations on blemished titles and verify property information for the underwriting process. With so much pressure on production and speed, the potential for oversight during this process is very real.
Someone could miss a mistake in the record or a discrepancy between the deed information provided by the seller with the actual owner. Any title issue might mean that the new owner has problems in the future, whether there is a lien that they become responsible for or an heir who wants to claim their inheritance.
When you put your reputation on the line with each client you serve, you want to be able to trust the products that you recommend. Choosing local title services might result in a more reliable search than going with a huge business that prioritizes volume over accuracy. Otherwise, your clients could have to go to court to defend their ownership of the property you helped them buy someday in the future.
Expert title examination helps protect your clients
Having someone knowledgeable about title perform the search for a property will drastically decrease the likelihood that one of your clients purchases the property that turns out to have a major title defect of some sort.
Resolving title issues after a closing can be much more expensive than identifying and addressing them before a real estate transaction. Thinking about how to protect your clients during every step of a residential property sale can make you a better real estate professional.