A title company’s sole purpose is to protect the parties involved in a real estate transaction. When issues do arise with real property, they can be extremely costly ones. Title companies are the key to ensuring that a property has a clear and unencumbered title and is ready for new ownership. They are also the entity that prepares all necessary documents, coordinates the closing with the agents, lenders, buyers and sellers, handles the disbursement of funds, maintains the escrow account, and handles all of the necessary post-closing document filing and recording. Very importantly also is the ability of a reputable title company to issue title insurance, which protects the buyer from a variety of very costly title hazards that could arise, threatening ownership and potentially causing financial harm.
Since the purchaser of the property will soon be inheriting all the responsibilities, past, present, and possibly future of the property that they have selected to purchase, the buyer has the right to choose the title company that they would most prefer to work with. Since most buyers are unfamiliar with local title companies and how the title process works, many times the purchaser will lean on their realtor or lender, to offer a few suggestions of reputable local title companies. Many times, these professionals will even offer to handle many of these details upon selection of a title company, to make things as simple and seamless as possible for their clients. We are always happy to work with any realtor or lender that you may have chosen, and are happy to speak with you directly should you have any questions or concerns whatsoever.
No worries! These are very important questions to ask. Actually, rather than using our FAQ page to address title insurance questions, we have dedicated an entire page specifically toward educating folks about title insurance- what it is, how it works, why you should definitely purchase it, the ease of obtaining it, etc.
For all of these answers (and more), please visit the Protecting Your Rights page. If you still have questions, feel free to drop us a line or give us a call- we're here to help!
**Please know that we HIGHLY encourage title insurance as part of your closing costs. This is the only protection a buyer will have post-closing. During and post-COVID era, it is more important than ever.
Placing a new title order with us is very easy! We can begin the process over the phone or by email, whichever you would prefer. Feel free to reach out to us anytime! Alternatively, oftentimes our new orders come directly from realtors or loan officers. To make things even more simple for you, let your realtor or loan officer know that you would prefer working with us! Most of the time, these folks will have all of the information necessary to order new title work. Not using a realtor?? Not a problem! Just get in touch however you might prefer.
Just an FYI: There are many things that must happen concurrently following acceptance of a purchase agreement- an appraisal must be ordered, a home (and other) inspections must occur, a title search must be performed, any unexpected issues with title resolved, etc. Generally, an experienced real estate professional will assist with managing these next steps or will offer advice on how to personally navigate through this portion of the process. Keep in mind that time is of the essence in all of the final stages of your purcase process. For us, the earlier a title order is placed, the more time we will have to deal with any potential issue that might arise to prevent any delay in closing.
Yes. All parties involved in any real property transaction must provide their social security number so that we can accurately perform a public records search. This is the only way that we are able to ensure that all parties are protected from possible hidden legal issues. Don’t worry, we will very carefully safeguard all of your information, just like it was our own. We take this concern very seriously and consistently implement a wide variety of best practices suggested by industry professionals to ensure privacy is granted to all of our clients.
For non-commercially owned property-
We do all sorts of deed work and would be more than happy to assist. Please just send an email with your request to order (@) kytitle.com or drop by the office any time during regular business hours to discuss your project with our title staff.
We always welcome realtors, loan officers, and other parties to the transaction to participate in the closing process. However, none of the third parties are actually required to be present during the actual closing, only the signatories.
The lender dictates much of the "when", however we communicate as best possible with the real estate professionals involved in your transaction as we progress. We try our very best to be as accommodating as possible to all parties in regards to when the closing takes place. Where a closing happens is entirely up to the buyer / signing parties; we will make things as convenient as we can for you.
The most direct answer to this question is that a title company represents the transaction that the parties are involved in, and in doing so, has the best interest in all parties to the transaction in mind. Title work is not about favoritism or looking out for the best interests of either a buyer or seller specifically, rather, the title company should be a neutral party, focused on due dilligence and best practices involving each and every independent transaction. That said however, the buyer has the right to choose which title company they most prefer to use since they will soon be taking over the rights of ownership to a new piece of property, along with any related legal or proptery issues that may also follow.
We work with real estate agents, lenders, individual home buyers, property investors, life estates, and home builders all across the state of Kentucky.
While the vast majority of our business comes from Laurel, Whitley, Knox, Bell, Pulaski, Madison, Wayne, and Fayette Counties, we are proud to offer our title services in nearly every county in our state.
It's true that email scams involving wire transfers have given bad publicity to this type of transfer service; however, wiring money is still the #1 method for funding and closing loans among financial institutions and title companies today. In fact, more and more institutions are requiring that funds to be disbursed via wire transfer only; that is especially true in Kentucky. While fraud is forever a concern when making a purchase of any kind, we work very hard to mitigate this risk though a variety of financial safeguards. Money transferred into our escrow account is also closely monitored and constantly audited by industry 3rd parties to ensure best practices and ongoing credibility. While nothing is for certain, this is still the safest and most reliable way to transfer and distribute large sums of money and remains a requisite for both our company and many of our lending partners.
NOTE OF CAUTION: Never wire funds without having your banking institution call and verbally verify our wiring instructions. We bank locally only. We would also ask, if ever you receive any message regarding bank or wiring details, that you contact our office immediately to verify-
606-862-6667. Don't become a victim!
In October 2015, new mortgage lending regulations went into effect which, among a variety of other things, required that borrowers have a 3 day period of time to review, request information, and confirm whether they want to proceed with borrowing money under the terms presented for their purchase. This period of time is known commonly as the right of recision. The new guidelines are called TRID (Truth in Lending Act, Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), Integrated Disclosure). Unfortunately, there is nothing that an agent, lender or title company can do to speed this process.
TRID guidelines, whose goal is to help you "know before you owe", does not apply to cash purchases.
While there are a few factors that may influence the typical timeline, generally most of our residential title searches are completed within 3-4 days now during the era post-COVID. If there are issues found during the title examination, it may take additional time to translate and correct the issues that are uncovered.
Our team is happy to assist with curative title services.