Buying a home is often the most important purchase you will ever make. Once the deeds and mortgage documents are signed, the property is yours or so you may think, it my not be! 

 In most cases you will be the rightful owners, but a clear title is not assured by having a deed in your hands. A deed alone will not cancel certain prior “rights” other people may have to your property rights and claims you may not realize exist.

 Title insurance is an insured statement as to the condition of the “title” or ownership in a particular piece of property. It provides you with peace of mind by protecting against existing title problems. In other words, a title policy guarantees that the home purchased is free of liens, clouds against the title, or any confusion in the prior ownership of the property as of the date and time the title policy is issued.

 While ordinarily there are no risks in transferring property, some risks do exist nevertheless. Many “hidden” hazards to property ownership may show up unexpectedly, even years later, in connection with your property. Any one of them could mean a costly loss or require time-consuming hours to clear up. Title insurance can help eliminate these risks. It protects you from damages and expenses incurred because of possible defects such as:

• Confusion deriving from name similarities.
• Forged documents.
• Invalidity of signatures due to a person's minor status or mental incompetence.
• Mistakes in the recording of legal documents.
• Undisclosed or missing heirs.
• Fraud.
• Invalid divorces.
• Misrepresentation of marital status.
• Unpaid taxes.
• Clerical errors in public records.
• Wills not probated.

Before a policy is issued, the title insurance company conducts a search of public records, maps and documents that are related to the real estate property in question. Sometimes it is necessary to go back to records hundreds of years old and to review colonial estates, pioneer homesteads or even Spanish land grants, and to then trace the transfer of the land up until the present time. Once the facts about the property and the people affecting the ownership of it are collected, examined and interpreted, the title insurance company issues a title policy insuring the condition of the title.