The Buyer I recently represented got into contract with the Seller. All was well until we received the Title Report. How much time do we Real Estate Brokers take to look over the details within the report? Some of the things we MIGHT verify on the report could be the correct address and any “funny” looking leans. Some Brokers really don’t look at the report at all. In this case the Buyer and myself did take a close look. Seems the property in the report contained a different legal description than the property my Buyer was intending to buy. A legal description is usually obtained from a Title Company and most Brokers simply give the Title Company the Sellers name, address and tax id number and the Title Company will then send over a copy of the most current deed with a legal description something like…lots 1-4 Block 6 Nitkey’s 1st Addition to West Seattle. Here is what happened in this recent sale….Many years ago the property owners transferred ownership to 2 properties they owned from themselves to a Trust. One advantage of doing so is to avoid probate preceding when settling an estate. What happened is when the documents were recorded the Deeds were recorded on the wrong properties…example Lot A was recorded on B and B on A (both A and B were owned by the Sellers). So when the deed was sent over to the Brokers the legal description referenced property some blocks away. To add insult to injury, when the error was discovered and a new Title Report and Legal were done, somebody transposed two numbers in the address, and a second incorrect deed and Title Report was issued and sent over to the Brokers. Of course these are both very simple errors to correct but they do take time. This is not something that should be discover a week before closing because that would cause a delay in closing opening up a whole new set of hurdles. One such major hurdle is the fact that a “correct” legal description is REQUIRED to be attached to the contract…NO legal, NO contract.
Close scrutiny by both Buyer and Broker saved a potential fiasco. Knowing what to look for within a Deed and Title Report also proved invaluable. Having a Broker with a good working relationship with the Title Company and a Title representative who understands what I’m talking about is critical.
We Real Estate Brokers can’t catch all the problems 100% of the time, but working with the more experienced Brokers who’ve seen a lot throughout the years, and have the experience to quickly identify a problem and come up with a solution is invaluable to our clients.
