Timely Contract® - Real Property, Real Solutions® - logo

TC Review for Title Issues

by | Sep 5, 2023 | TC Review

Buying a home can be harrowing. Neighborhoods, schools, and amenities are just a few considerations. Getting a good deal is also critical. Your home is your castle . . . and your nest egg! No one can guarantee a risk-free transaction but having your signed purchase and sale contract reviewed by a real estate attorney is a safeguard against expensive mistakes, including title issues.

Title Issues During the Real Estate Transaction

Title issues have to do with who else may have valid ownership interests in the property you are buying. Title issues can take many forms, but include problems of chain-of-title, easements, surveys of record, liens, encumbrances, and disputes over property boundaries. Title issues are generally not visible to the naked eye, so they often go unnoticed, and unaccounted for.

Although invisible, title issues can have a devastating effect on the market value of a property. Imagine you made an offer on beautiful, wooded acreage only to discover during inspection contingency that a trucking easement divides the parcel in half. The noise, dust, and impairment to use of the trucking easement reduces the value of the property. Did your offer reflect the value of the property with the easement, or without it? 

Not knowing about and contesting issues of title is perhaps the largest source of buyer’s remorse after the close of escrow.

Every contract for purchase and sale includes a paragraph regarding title. This paragraph provides a specified time period for the buyer to review the title report and negotiate with the seller regarding circumstances documented in the report. If circumstances documented in the title report are not contested during this period, the buyer accepts the status of the title as-is.

Timely Contract Solutions

Buyers: Use TC Review to understand title issues discovered during your due diligence period and identify choices you have under the signed contract. Get answers to your questions. Identify solutions.  Be prepared with legal options if adverse or unforeseen circumstances arise.

Sellers: Use TC Review to understand your legal position and identify choices you have under the signed contract. FSBO’s may need protection from off-the-shelf contracts that don’t fit the circumstances of their sale. Be prepared with legal options if adverse or unforeseen circumstances arise.

Use TC Review to anticipate and avoid larger problems down the line … and to sleep better at night!

 

This posting is not legal advice. Legal advice is based on specific facts. This information is necessarily general in nature.

Recent Posts

Real Estate Agents and Timely Contract®

As an experienced real estate agent, you may never imagine that an attorney could be useful to your practice: they take too long, address problems no one cares about, and cost too much. Attorneys traditionally have carried unlimited legal liability during the...

Real Estate Transaction Fees: Important Court Decision

Real Estate Transaction Fees: Important Court Decision A guilty verdict was handed down by a federal jury on October 31, 2023 that threatens to upend the cozy financial relationships enjoyed by agents representing Buyers and Sellers during the real estate transaction....

Pennies on the Dollar

Buying a home is a time of change, hope, and stress. Change because your living habits are being upended, hope for a better future, and stress because you’re involved in one of the biggest, most complex financial transactions of your life. One way to reduce the stress...

Why Sellers Use TC Review and TC Drafting

You accepted an offer! All those years of home ownership will be behind you. Once escrow closes, you’ll have more money than you ever imagined possible! Next move? A sunny climate where pina coladas are cheap. You earned it! All those years of mortgage payments,...

Accessing Traditional Legal Service Through Timely Contract®

As useful as limited-scope legal services are, there are times when a more robust set of legal services is necessary. Timely Contract can be used to identify experienced real estate attorneys licensed in the jurisdiction of the property who may be interested in your...

Types of Real Estate Contracts

There are many types of RE contracts available to buyers and sellers. We’ve compiled the Top 40 for your review!

Real Estate Glossary

From A to Z, we’ve compiled over 310 real estate terms!
Skip to content