Title Express Servicing Niagara and Erie Counties

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Why You Need Title Insurance

Title Express performs the following on your behalf:

• Updates your title search
• Examines your title for defects
• Clears any title problems
• Writes the preliminary title insurance report
• Keeps constant contact with your mortgage broker ensure your closing happens in a timely manner
• Orders and/or reviews other necessary documents (assignment of mortgage, subordination of mortgage, tax receipts, home owner’s insurance binder)
• Coordinates completion of all requirements with mortgage professionals and bank attorney in order to schedule the closing date
• Reviews closing costs with client
• Attends the closing to coordinate the title matters, any bank attorney requirements, and reviews closing documents for accuracy
• Follows up on all post-closing items (pay off mortgages, record mortgage discharge, pay any taxes if required)
• Prepares final title insurance policy for lender
• Returns title abstract and new survey (if applicable) to client

Click here for a list of frequently asked questions about closings.

What does "title" mean?

Every piece of property has a history attached to it. We’re not talking about the Widow Jones who murdered her husband in 1862 in the back bedroom. It might be true, but that doesn’t affect the title of your property.

Each county clerk in the state keeps a record of every transaction that has ever affected your property. That means every time the property changed hands, by deed, will or foreclosure, or was encumbered by a mortgage or lien, hopefully, proper papers were filed with the clerk. If papers weren’t prepared properly, or the right papers weren’t filed, it is possible that title to the property never passed to the owner who is next in line. Most lenders don’t require your title to be perfect all the way back to the 1880s, the last 40 or 50 years are most important. And that each transaction was done correctly.

Title Express examines your title to make sure the property is clearly in your name (or able to be transferred into your name) and that there are no defects in the transactions that make up the chain.

Title Insurance

Title insurance protects the interests of the owner of the insurance policy (this could be the property owner or the lender). When you are borrowing money from a lender, most likely, it will require that you purchase title insurance for its behalf.

The lender is most concerned that there aren’t any liens against you or the property that will remain in front of their mortgage. In New York state the lien law is essentially on a first-come-first-serve basis. The first lien in line gets the first chance at any money made from a foreclosure sale. That’s why a lender wants insurance to guarantee that it is first in line.

You might also want to consider purchasing owner’s insurance to protect your own interest in the title to the property, especially if there are any questionable defects in the back title to the property. Another reason to purchase owner’s insurance is if the property is in one of the areas in New York State that is in litigation with one of the Native American tribes.

Survey

The majority of people refinancing do not need a new survey. You don’t even need an original print of the survey often a good copy will suffice.

However, you will need a new survey if:

• Your survey is older than 30 years
• If you have made any material changes to the property (added a fence or pool, constructed an addition that changed the boundaries of your house)
• If you don’t have a survey (and your lender requires one)
• If the survey you have is illegible or does not have all the necessary information on it
• A new survey can cost between $300 - $800 depending on the size of your property.

Title Express has contacts with several excellent and cost-effective surveyors and if you need a new survey, can take care of every aspect of this part of the transaction. If you have a favorite surveyor, we will be happy to use that company.

Title Express, Inc.
27 North Long Street
Williamsville, New York 14221
Phone: (716)633-5888 1-800-787-5888 Fax: (716)633-6016
E-mail: info@banasmortgage.com