Eau Claire Title Insurance Providers: A Primer

Many of my clients ask questions about title insurance. Some common questions are:

Am I required to obtain title insurance? How much does it cost? Who should I buy it from?

The answer to the first question is yes, you pretty much need to buy title insurance to sell real estate in Wisconsin. Title insurance is the easiest and cheapest way to ensure that you are passing along a clean title to the buyer.

As for prices and whom to use, well, it varies. Most title policies are priced on a sliding scale based on the selling price of the home.

Since I am in the process of selling my own home, I thought it would be a good time to compare some local title insurance providers and help give you an idea of how much title insurance policies cost.

I called each of these local title insurance providers and asked for a quote given that the selling price of my home will be $120,000. I also asked how much Deed preparation would cost, how much for the Lender's policy, and whether or not they have an attorney on staff. Results are summarized in the table below:
 

Note that some title companies have attorneys on staff and some do not. This can be both an asset or a detriment. It is handy having an attorney look things over, and it can be a big advantage if some change needs to be made to documents quickly. However, if everything goes as planned in your transaction (as most do), then you might be helping to pay the on-staff attorney’s salary when you don’t need to be.

The Lender’s policy, in most cases, will not be something the seller needs to purchase. However, we are of course in a buyer’s market. In a buyer’s market, it is more common for buyers to demand that the sellers pay some closing costs. For that reason, I included the Lender Policy prices in the Total Cost.

This table is just for the sake of comparison. It is not intended to be a comprehensive list of closing costs – just a very basic comparison of a few title products and providers. Your actual costs will vary depending on the selling price of your home and which products and services you require.

I did find that some were willing to negotiate on prices, so don’t be afraid to ask if they can do better!
 

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