When you’re purchasing real estate, an accepted offer is merely the first step. The following months involve a lot of paperwork, research, legal filings, and professional consultations. That’s why it’s so important to get the right professionals in your corner from the start! But do you know how to choose a title company?
Title companies serve a crucial function in the real estate transaction process. The title company, also referred to as the closing company, performs title searches, keeps track and organizes documents required for the transaction to close, escrows funds for the closing, provides commitments for title insurance, and safeguards the integrity of the closing process. If a title cloud, or defect, such as a missing signature, a tax lien, or some other problem should arise, an independent title agency will work to safeguard the interests of all parties involved, buyer, seller, and lender, and will not place the interest of any one over another.
For most people, purchasing a home is the largest investment they will ever make, and protecting that investment is critical. Homeowners typically carry property/casualty insurance to protect against fire, vandalism, storm damage, and flooding. But what about title clouds?
First National Title is a company on the rise, and people are really starting to notice! In addition to an article published in the March 11, 2017 edition of The Harrison Daily Times announcing the opening of our Harrison title plant, our founder Jim Pender was recently profiled in The Title Report, a national title industry publication. The article also tells the story of FNTC’s recent growth through acquisitions, our commitment to keep jobs in America, and most importantly, our desire to stay independent so that we can represent the interests of our clients, and not the large banks and financial institutions that own most of our competition.
The title business is highly competitive, and the pressure to do more with less is always present. Increasing fees usually drives business away, so the solution that many companies choose is moving jobs to developing countries to take advantage of cheaper labor costs. Unfortunately, this creates some significant problems, above and beyond the obvious issue of taking away American jobs. For starters, it’s much harder to maintain training and accountability standards with overseas workers. And for something as important as a real estate transaction, consumers should never be forced to sit on hold and wait to speak to someone in an overseas call center. They need the ability to sit down face-to-face with agents in their own community any time that they have questions.