Title insurance can feel complicated. We make it easier to understand what it protects, why it matters, and what to expect before you close.
Before you buy, somebody has to confirm the seller actually owns what they're selling — and that nothing is attached to the property that would follow it to you.
Why it matters: a bad title can limit what you're allowed to do with the property, or cost real money to defend. We search the record thoroughly first, then the policy insures what no search could have caught.
You pay the premium once. No renewal, no expiration — the coverage holds for as long as you or your heirs have an interest in the property.
Selling? We handle the parts that stall closings. We'll find you an experienced closing attorney, track down and satisfy any liens sitting against the property, and keep you posted without you having to chase us.
Works the same whether you're listed with an agent or selling it yourself.
Send us the contract and we'll take it from there.
Title Insurance 101
If you're taking a mortgage, title insurance shows up on your closing costs. The required piece protects your lender. A second policy protects you — that one's optional, and it's the one worth understanding.
Below: what it covers, what it doesn't, who pays, and what it runs.
Most insurance covers what might go wrong later. Title insurance is the reverse — it covers what already went wrong before you bought and simply hadn't surfaced yet. "Title" just means legal ownership. A claim comes from a third party: a contractor the previous owner never paid, a lender whose lien was never released, an heir who was never bought out.
These surface on their own schedule — sometimes years in. Someone may hold rights to the property that neither you nor the seller knew about on the day you signed. In the case of an overlooked heir, rights the claimant themselves didn't know they had.
So before your loan closes, your lender orders a search. We go through the public record looking for anything attached to the property that would affect your rights or the lender's:
A contractor, tax authority, or lender who went unpaid can attach a claim to the property. It stays with the property, not with the person who ran up the bill.
Someone else's right to use land you own — a utility running lines through the back, a neighbor whose driveway clips the corner. It won't stop the sale, but it limits what you can build.
The broad category: liens and easements, plus zoning limits, HOA covenants, and any tenant's right to stay put after the sale.
The search runs through deeds, mortgages, divorce decrees, court judgments, tax records, and support orders.
Anything we turn up — the trade calls them "clouds" — we work to clear before closing. Some need the seller to act, which pulls the agents in. A few are serious enough to end a deal, and it is far better to learn that in week one than at the table.
No search is perfect — records get misfiled, signatures get forged, heirs go unrecorded. The policy is what stands behind the search when something slips through.
It isn't blanket protection on your property rights. Anything you cause after closing is yours:
The line is simple: problems that existed before you bought, and would have changed your mind, are covered. Problems you create afterward are not.
Expanded coverage adds protection for certain risks a standard policy leaves out. Which one makes sense depends on the property. Call and we'll tell you straight — including the times standard is plenty.
Cost & Coverage
An owner's policy pays off a lien nobody found, or covers your legal defense when someone turns up claiming a right to the property. If the deed proves forged, it can settle in cash. And it protects your ability to sell later — because the next buyer's search will find whatever yours missed.
The lender's policy doesn't protect you, though you're the one paying for it. The logic runs like this: if the property was sold to you fraudulently and you lose it, the lender still wants its money. Normally it would foreclose — but you can't foreclose on a house someone else holds the rights to, so it claims on the policy instead.
One-time, paid at closing, never again. The owner's policy is priced off the purchase price; the lender's off the loan amount. Together they typically run 0.5% to 1.0% of the price — roughly $1,500 to $3,000 on a $300,000 home, per ALTA.
Worth knowing: in both North and South Carolina the premium is the same whoever you use. You're not shopping on price — you're choosing who does the search and who answers the phone when something goes sideways.
The buyer covers the lender's policy as a closing cost. The owner's policy can go either way, buyer or seller — around here it comes down to local custom and whatever got negotiated.
Buy both at once and the owner's policy is discounted — the simultaneous issue rate. It's why declining owner's coverage saves less than most people expect.
Anywhere in North or South Carolina — we'll handle the title and keep you updated without being chased.