Posted by John Merchant on May 03, 2008 at 20:57:56:
In Reply to: Re: Buyer's gonna want T policy posted by danny cornett on May 02, 2008 at 13:51:17:
One or two national title companies work through lawyers who are engaged in Title work, clearing title, etc....and if the lawyer is part of their network, when he approves title, he'll actually issue a T ins. policy, in the name of and with pre-authorization of that national T co.
So the buyer will come out of closing with a T policy that's backed by the big, national insurance co. and not just the individual lawyer.
Could be that your lawyer did that when he checked your title and you were the buyer, so I'd ask him about that and see if you did get an actual T Ins. policy.
Even if that didn't happen, when you sell I'd just have the same lawyer do the new title exam and have him guarantee your new buyer that YOU now have good title.
When I first began law practice there were lots of areas of the country (way before computers, internet, etc.) that didn't have regular title companies and where most title work was done by indiv. lawyers...in little towns and rural counties especially, and lots of rural lawyers made a goodly part of their incomes doing T work.
I'd guess that there are probably still rural areas where that's the case as the major title co's are not in every little town or small population counties, so there, the lawyer's title opinion is all there is.