What is title insurance and why do you need it?
If you’re buying any kind of real estate, you should always make sure you’re getting title insurance from your title company as part of the transaction. This insurance protects the cash you’ve invested in the property if something related to the property’s title or chain of ownership after the sale.
As a landowner or land buyer, it’s critical to determine the zoning a property. The best way to do this is to google the city or county planning and zoning department, and give them a call. Make sure you have the property’s address or parcel ID number. You can simply ask planning staff what the zoning of the property is, and what you can and can’t do with the land.
About a week later, I learned the person who I had been talking to wasn’t the real owner. The actual owner had reached out to my attorney and wanted their property back. Long story short, my title insurance policy kicked in, refunded my money, and I deeded the property back to the actual owner.
This is one example of many when a title insurance policy can be a real live saver. It’s tempting to save a few hundred dollars and skip it, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
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