Straight answers about Texas title

In North Texas the seller customarily pays for the owner's title policy, and the buyer customarily pays for the lender's loan policy along with most recording and loan-related costs. None of that is a rule — it is a custom, and it is negotiable in the contract. On the TREC one-to-four family contract it is spelled out in the title policy paragraph, and we will follow whatever the executed contract says.

Because the state sets it. The Texas Department of Insurance promulgates the Basic Premium Rate Table, and every licensed title agency in Texas charges the same premium for the same policy amount. That means price is not the variable — service is. What actually differs between title companies is how fast the commitment comes out, whether anyone explains it to you, how curative gets handled, and whether closing day runs on time.

It protects your ownership against problems that already existed when you bought, even though nobody found them at the time — a forged deed somewhere in the chain, an undisclosed heir with a claim, a lien that was paid but never released, a recording error, or a boundary or access issue depending on your coverage. Unlike most insurance, you pay once at closing and the coverage lasts as long as you or your heirs hold an interest in the property.

The standard policy takes exception to anything an accurate survey would show — encroachments, boundary conflicts, shortages in area. The area and boundary amendment (what everyone calls the survey deletion) removes most of that exception so those items are covered. It requires an acceptable survey, and under the state rate rules it costs a percentage of the basic premium. Most residential buyers take it. Our estimator includes it by default and you can toggle it off to see the difference.

The commitment is the underwriter's promise to insure, subject to conditions. Schedule A is the deal: who is insured, for how much, and how title is currently vested. Schedule B lists the exceptions — what the policy will not cover, like easements and restrictions. Schedule C is the to-do list: what has to be cleared before closing. Schedule D discloses who gets paid what out of the premium. When we send yours, an escrow officer walks you through B and C rather than leaving you to decode it.

A financed residential purchase typically runs thirty to forty-five days from executed contract, driven mostly by the lender's timeline rather than ours. Cash purchases can close in about two weeks, and sometimes faster if the title work is clean. Commercial and land deals vary widely depending on survey, entity, and curative work. We give you a realistic date at file opening and tell you immediately if anything threatens it.

You have options. You can sign at our office, we can arrange a mobile notary, we can do a mail-away package, or you can close by remote online notarization where the transaction and the lender allow it. Tell your escrow officer early which one you want, because lender and underwriter requirements sometimes narrow the choice.

Call us first. We will never email you wiring instructions, and we will never send you changed instructions — if you receive either, it is fraud. Verify any wire request by calling our office at a number you looked up yourself, not one in the email. Texas good funds requirements also mean closing funds generally need to arrive by wire or by a cashier's check over a certain amount, and they need to be here before we can disburse.

You hear about it the day we find it. Most issues — an unreleased lien, an heirship gap, an old judgment, a missing signature — are fixable with the right affidavit, release, or probate filing, and we start on it immediately rather than waiting until the closing week. If something genuinely cannot be cleared, we tell you plainly and early so you still have room to make a decision.

A valid, unexpired government-issued photo ID for every person signing. If you are signing for an entity, bring the authority documents your escrow officer asked for. Buyers should have funds already wired or a cashier's check in hand per the instructions you verified by phone. If you are married and selling Texas homestead property, your spouse generally has to sign even if they are not on the deed.