Beth:
Hi, I’m Beth with TB Properties Buys Land. Today we’re going to discuss some tips in selecting a title company when ready to sell your rural vacant land. In the past, we’ve always talked about the safety and security of closing through a title company rather than doing what’s called a self close in which the real estate investor who is buying your property closes the transaction his or herself. Just as you would buy or sell a house and close through a title company, we here at TB Properties Buys Land opt to close through a title company just the same to ensure protection for both the buyer and the seller. But how do you select the right title company and can you select the wrong one? Needless to say, if you have bought or sold property in the county where your property’s located and you’ve used a title company before and they did a great job for you, why not go with them again?
That may be a really good option since you have a history there and you know the people there and know what to expect. However, if you don’t have a Title Company you have worked with in the past here might be a couple of things to look for. First of all, this is not to be taken as legal advice at all. Should you have legal questions, please consult with a real estate attorney. When selecting a title company it helps to find one that deals with transactions within the county where your property’s located. It’s important to note that when the title company is doing a title search, they have to go to the county in question and they have to pull up all the legal records. If they are not legally able to transact within your county, they’re going to go and hire another title company to do the record search.
What happens is that you hire a title company who hires another title company for most of the work and then you sign or send your paperwork to the title company you selected. Why have a middle man? It adds to the cost and to the timing, and then it’s not easy for you to go ahead and put pressure on them if they’re behind. At TB Properties Buys Land, we always select a title company that deals with property within the same county when the property is located. In addition, it doesn’t hurt to give them a call and find out how long they’re running. For example, you might call and say, “Hey, I’ve got a cash transaction. I’m looking to sell my property. How long is it going to take to close?” If they’re running way behind, you might check around for alternative options. It doesn’t hurt to ask that question so you have an understanding of how fast it’s going to take for them to close.
While you’re on the phone with them, it may be a great idea to ask them for a breakdown of what their costs are. For example, “What’s the cost of title insurance, of the escrow fees, of recording fees? Are there any excise taxes?” Get a feel for what the costs are going to be for closing. “Do they have an attorney on staff?” That’s another question to ask them. If there are heirship issues that need to be cleared up, it helps for them to have an attorney on staff who can help clear that chain of title. Another question you might ask is if they allow for remote closing? If you’re not local to that county and you don’t want to drive in to sign the paperwork physically, a remote closing is where they will overnight you documents or allow you to print out the documents that they email to you. You take it to your local bank where they’ll notarize for free, or you go to a local pack mail type place and they’ll notarize your documents and then boom, you overnight that again back to the title company, and they can close remotely.
Once both sides get their paperwork in, the money is wired. They can close going forward that way. These are just a few questions you might consider asking when it comes to selecting a good title company for closing your transactions. At TB Properties Buys Land, we always close through a title company because we know it’s a safer transaction for both sides of the transaction. For us, we know that the paperwork’s being done correctly. We know that they’re going to find any issues on your side of the transaction, for example if there are any liens against the property, a lot of times those are found, or if there are any clouds in the chain of title. For you as the seller, you know that we’re going to wire the funds directly to the title company, and they’re not going to convey your property away from you into our hands until we’ve done our paperwork and we’ve wired the money and until that money is there and ready to be sent over to you. There’s safety there.
Still, if you have any questions on title companies or how we at TB Properties Buys Land do business, please feel free to reach out to us. We pay cash for transactions. You don’t have to ask about how much it costs for closing because we cover all of those closing costs. I truly believe that whenever you’re working with a real estate investor, you ought to expect total transparency and that you should have every right to speak directly to the people at the title company on your own. If a real estate investor is asking you not to contact the title company, to me, that would be a red flag. I would want to be able to call Title and ask them any questions directly, and that’s one of the things that we welcome is if you have questions, call the title company. Title should be reaching out to you directly anyway in order to ask you how you want your funding and where you want your paperwork. There ought to be transparency between you, the buyer and the title company, no matter who you’re selling your property to. I hope this has helped. Thanks again for listening and have a great day.