Home buying question

[LittleLebowski]

Do I need an owners title insurance policy? Going through the VA if that matters.

[SLG]

Do I need an owners title insurance policy? Going through the VA if that matters.

I'm not a lawyer...If the title is clean, and you intend to keep it that way, I think you should skip the policy.

FWIW, we were going to use the VA on our last home purchase, and a regular mortgage ended up being a much better deal. The VA loan is really for young troops who can't pay enough of a down payment. Not a great idea, since it doesn't help them build wealth, just debt.

[BehindBlueI's]

Do I need an owners title insurance policy? Going through the VA if that matters.

Mortgage company will likely require it. They want to make sure the seller has the legal right to sell.

I disagree on the VA loan being a scam. The no hassle refinance alone made it worth it for us when interest rates dropped.

[RoyGBiv]

What's a policy cost?

When I lived in NC it cost me about $200... Easy choice for peace of mind.
Here in TX, title insurance is State-regulated extortion. A policy for a similar price house cost over $1.5K.

[JM Campbell]

My wife specializes in VA mortgage, if you would like her number I can forward it to you.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-N900A using Tapatalk

[SLG]

Scam was a bad choice of words, which is why I explained what I meant. Fixed it.

[MEH]

Mortgage company will likely require it. They want to make sure the seller has the legal right to sell.


In Virginia (where Lil is based), only the lender's policy is required. The owner's policy is optional.

I have bought owner's policys and not bought them in my various house transactions, based on nothing in particular.

[LorenzoS]

I just re-read your question and noticed the reference to owners title insurance. Most lenders do require lender title insurance but buyer's title insurance is optional since it's your risk if you choose to go without it. Sorry for the mix-up.

[LittleLebowski]

What's a policy cost?

When I lived in NC it cost me about $200... Easy choice for peace of mind.
Here in TX, title insurance is State-regulated extortion. A policy for a similar price house cost over $1.5K.

Near $700.

[RoyGBiv]

Near $700.

I assume the lender will require you to buy them a policy?
Possible you can look at the grunt work that's done for that policy and decide whether there's enough risk to warrant spending the $$?

How old is the house? How many previous owners? How much do you know about the sellers? If there is more than one name on the deed, will they both/all be physically present at closing? IMO, if the current owners have been there a long time and you have a survey that shows no encroachments (by them onto surrounding property or vice versa), and the title work is done competently for the lender, the big risk to you is some fraud in the sale (or perhaps the previous sale if the current owners have not been there long). If everybody listed on the title is showing up to closing, that reduces much of the risk (of, say, a husband selling the house while his wife is out of town, or... ??).

In the end it's a judgment call.. If you are doing a 100% VA loan, then your risk is close to zero, assuming the lender is requiring a policy to cover their 100% loan. If something comes up you'd be out a lot of inconvenience but your downpayment of $0 wouldn't present much risk. Not enough (for me) to spend $700 on insurance.

Just my opinion..

[pablo]

When I bought my house I passed on the owner policy due to cost. In hind sight I should have bought the policy with post policy fraud protection for around $1200.

I worked a theft of service case, where a seller had a lot of work done to his house, quickly sold the house and skipped out paying on the contractor, something around $21,000. After the house was sold the buyer finds out about the debt, eventually liens get put on the house and the foreclosure process started. It was a big fiasco because the owners title policy didn't cover liens that were placed after the date the house was purchased. We tracked the seller down in Georgia, and after the Marshall's picked him up and gave him a 2 month slow ride back to Texas, he got a taste of the prison life, dipped into his retirement accounts and settled his bills. The seller got some bad legal advice about non-prosecution of fraud and extradition.

[idahojess]

Here's a good perspective:

http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/the-dos-and-donts-of-house-hunting/