Common Misconception about Title Insurance Policy

Figure 1. comparison chart from First
 American Title Insurance Company

    Title is a bundle of rights in real property. Since it is the seller who conveys title to a piece of real property, it is usually the seller who is responsible for purchasing title insurance for the buyer. Buyers can choose from one of three title insurance policies and specify it in the purchase and sale agreement: the Standard Policy, the Homeowner’s Policy, and the Extended Policy. Due to the misleading names of these insurance policies, home buyers may lose their right to the best policy if the buyers’ realtor does not have basic understanding of these policies or is careless.

     To show readers how the three policies differ from one another, I got a comparison chart from First American Title Insurance Company and it is displayed in Figure1. It can be seen from Figure 1 that the Homeowner’s Policy (Eagle Protection Policy) covers most items and it is the policy most home buyers would want to have.

Current Trend in Real Estate Market

      It has been said in various news media that the US economy and the housing market are undergoing mild recovery. To show both home buyers and sellers the specific market figures in King county, I pull some statistics data from the northwest multiple listing services (NWMLS) and did some analysis.

    Figure 1 shows the numbers of active residential listings and closed sales in King County from January 2011 to September 2012. During this period, the month with the highest number of active listings (available homes on market) is July 2011 with 8,186 active listings. After that, the number of active listings has gone down to about five thousand every month and maintained at approximately that level. The number of closed sales, however, was going in the direction of mild decreasing until January 2012. Although the number of closed sales started to increase after it hit the bottom early this year, it maintained at approximately two thousand every month.