Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
How much (approximate) money the borrower has to pay for Title Insurance Fee when re-financing mortgage ?
I am thinking of refinancing my mortgage and trying to find the break-even point. The main unknown factor for me is the Title Insurance Fee (Lender’s and the optional Owners) I have to pay while refinancing. I remember , I paid around $2000 as Title Insurance Fee while closing my purchase last year. If I refinance to another lender, do I have to pay the same amount again ? Someone told me that, if you refinance within 2 years of your current loan, the title fee is only 20% of the ‘actual’ Title Insurance Fee? Is it the way it works ?
I am in TX and Title Insurance Fee is state regulated in TX
When I was young we refinanced, and had to pay the entire amount over again. That caused me to look into Title Insurance. Supposedly, someone from the Title Company is supposed to look through the public records and see if there are any "threats" to the Title. But when I received notice of eminent domain on my property for road widening, and the notice was clearly filed in the public records. I called the Title Insurance Co, and they said that was specifically excluded in the standard language of coverage (it was, along with virtually anything else that might threaten the Title). I called the attorney that got paid the thousands for "researching the title" and he admitted nobody on his staff actually looked at the public records. The eminent domain took half my tiny property, and I got a total of $200 in compensation although the entire property was worth $125,000 at the time. I would have had to sue the State of Rhode Island to get the "market value compensation" required by law, but we were in the military and onto the next duty station.
Ever since, when we buy a property, we do the title research ourselves, and have any problems cleared up before buying. We've refused to buy owner's Title Insurance from that first lesson, and since we no longer work with banks, we don't pay for their Title Insurance either. For the most part it is a scam, unless the chain of title is very messed up (as in some rural areas).
A lawyer later told me that when he does Title Insurance for his clients, he lines out all the "exclusions" of the standard Title Insurance contract (which are the most common instances that Title Insurance should normally cover, if not excluded). The banks never gave him a problem with this.
The other experience I had with Title Insurance was with a land-locked parcel behind my house. It was bought for a song and the guy then checked to see which of the adjacent property owners had Title Insurance. One did. So the guy sued him for access, and the Title Company gave the new guy a nice strip of land from the guy with Title Insurance's property. Ruined privacy and his front lawn and allowed a guy who constantly caused chaos into a formerly nice neighborhood. Another reason I loathe all these little legal scams where money is made but nothing productive actually happens. No wonder our economy failed.
P.S.: the amount you pay for Title Insurance is 100% negotiable.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
