Quote:
Originally Posted by TomMoser
Under RESPA the attorney or realtor cannot accept a fee for referring any settlement services to the buyer unless such arrangements are fully disclosed. However, most attornies have title companies that they have long standing relationships with that make it easier for them to deal with.
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I wonder if that RESPA rule is fairly recent (maybe since 2003?) because although we were given a disclosure this time around by our buyer agent for a title company they 'recommend', when we bought our previous house in 2003 we were not given a disclosure by our attorney. So if that's a new rule, IMO it's a good one but it didn't help us back then. I wonder too if the NYS guidelines are new since then also, because according to that online calculator for the amount we paid for our last title policy, we were 'overcharged' by $925 for the amount of title insurance we got!!
So I guess there were no state imposed rules back then.
To be honest, I don't give a flying pig what company our attorney 'prefers' to use. Since we're footing the bill for the title policy, he has nothing to say about which one we choose to use, just as he has no right to have any input about who we use for our homeowners policy. And as for 'dealing with' the title company, I really don't care whether he has to make one or two or five phone calls asking when the title search will be finished; it's not like he's doing our closing for free. He'll be getting his $1200 fee no matter how few or how many phonecalls he makes. For that matter, I have absolutely no problem nagging the title company myself. (can you tell that I really dislike lawyers?
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I was really hoping to get an answer to my questions about
(1) How the bank can demand that we purchase a Mortgage title policy for a larger amount than they are actually lending us?
(2) Don't we have the legal right to choose the title company who issues the Mortgage policy, since we're paying for that too?
(3) What's the going rate for the title company representative's "honorarium/tip" for attending a closing nowadays? Five years ago it was $75.
As well as my other title question in the other thread, since it's obvious that combined policies (naming both the bank and the homeowner) ARE available in NY State.
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Another question: Although we can choose whatever title company we want for OUR policy, do we also have the right to choose the title company for the Mortgage policy? It seems like we should, since we're the ones paying for it. If so, how can the bank insist on a policy for an amount greater than their mortgage interest? Why can't we purchase a fee policy for ourselves for 575K and also a mortgage policy for the bank for 75K? After all, that's all their MORTGAGE is for. (sorry, I get very mad at the idea of someone else spending my money without my permission...!)
