Title Insurance Fundamentals for the First Time Home Buyer

If you are on the road towards purchasing a home for the first time, you are heading into one of the most exciting experiences of your life. Despite how thrilling buying your first home can be, there is also serious work to be done. In this regard, once you sign that grand contract for the purchase of your first home, the home of your dreams, you have a long list of tasks that you must accomplish. Included on that list will be the purchase of title insurance.

In regard to the task of finding the best title insurance for the most reasonable premium cost, you actually will want to spend some time shopping around for the best policy. However, before you undertake the process of looking for title insurance, you need to make sure that you do understand the basics of title insurance.

Title insurance actually is somewhat of a rare bird in the insurance industry. Generally speaking, other types of insurance are designed to protect you against future risks. For example, when you purchase health insurance, it is designed to provide you with appropriate coverage for your health and medical needs in the future. Likewise, life insurance is designed to provide benefits to loved ones upon the occasion of the death of an insured at a future date. Title insurance by design protects you against problems that have occurred in the past.

When you make application for title insurance, as part of the underwriting process, the title insurance company (or agent as directed) undertakes a title search. Through the title search, the title insurance company investigates the deed associated with the real estate in question to make sure there are no liens or other encumbrances attached to the deed or title. If these conditions or problems exist, the title insurance company (or agent) will report back to the parties to the real estate transaction. The closing will not be able to occur in most instances until these title defects are cleared up and resolved.

Beyond the closing date, the title insurance company maintains an obligation to the purchaser of real estate (and to that person's heirs in many instances). Into the future, the title insurance company is obliged to protect the insured real estate owner (or mortgage lender) against any losses that may result from an undiscovered defect to the title to the real estate, against losses that might arise from any lien, encumbrance or other defect to the title that might rear its head at a later date.

Claims made on title insurance policies actually are rather rare. The majority of claims involve unpaid property taxes that for one reason or another simply were not discovered by the title insurance company, title insurance agent or anyone else for that matter prior to the closing date. In other words, the majority of claims made on a title insurance policy normally are matters that – once discovered – are fairly easy to rectify.

A primary informational resource about title insurance, including reliable quotes, is .http://freetitlequote.com/