Does Anyone Here have Home Title Insurance?

[Bear Paw Jack]

I heard a commercial about that. Being retired that's the last thing I need. Has anyone even heard of someone hacking the title on their home and borrowing a bunch of money against it.

What do they actually do? Do any of you have that title insurance? I guess it's about $15 a month.

Do you even think about it happening?

 

[Rick Courtright]

I heard a commercial about that. Being retired that's the last thing I need. Has anyone even heard of someone hacking the title on their home and borrowing a bunch of money against it.

Hi,

I'm not familiar with that kind of "title insurance." What I have seen over the years as title insurance is a policy that specifies the title has been searched and lists any liens, encroachments, and other clouds on the title an owner should know about. It's generally purchased at the time of a sale, and protects the buyer. It's paid for one time and that's it.

Now, there was a scam going on here for a while, especially after the 2008 crash in the real estate market. Some of you who are familiar with quitclaim deeds will surely appreciate the evil genius at work here. In a nutshell, there was a preacher who was running the scam, getting his "flock" into foreclosed houses. The way it worked was that he'd find a foreclosed/empty/abandoned house, and file a quitclaim deed on the property, in favor of his congregant. That person, in turn, would use the quitclaim deed to "prove" he/she was the legal owner/occupant of the house to someone who didn't know better, and get utilities turned on, etc. Often times a bank would sell a foreclosed property to a legitimate buyer, who would then try to move into the house only to find squatters occupying it. The Sheriff and Marshall got some overtime with some of the people who refused to leave. Eventually the pastor and some of his congregants were charged with fraud, and the situation faded out of sight, so I don't know what happened to them.

Perhaps this new insurance helps cut back on such shenanigans?

Rick C

 

[GhosT]

Bear Paw Jack,
Heard the same commercial on the radio....for months.

Only hear late night or sundays...when cheaper.

15 bucks x12 months =180 bucks a year for a ''problem '' never ,ever mentioned on the news?

 

[powder smoke]

I Own my home and have title in hand. The answer is No title Insurance I own this place
and can easily prove it. I do have a Home Owners policy for Fire Flood Earthquake etc. ps

 

[Pat-inCO]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quitclaim_deed

They are trying to sell you insurance that says you have, what you have.
a.k.a. Empty your wallet.

 

[vito]

I've heard the same ads, increasingly over time. I have no idea how prevalent the crime of "stealing" title to someone's home is, but the concept is pretty scary. But I also understand the concept of being "insurance poor". You can imagine all sorts of things that it might be nice to be insured for, but you could spend yourself into poverty and then have to almost hope one of these disasters occurs so that you can collect on the insurance that you have been paying for.

One of my son's used to be a computer fraud investigator with the Attorney General's office of a midwest state. He worked on many identity theft cases and knew of horror stories about the difficulties in getting some of these cases resolved by the victim. But he advised against paying for protection as is advertised endlessly, like Life Lock. He believed that despite their claims they really did little for you. He advised me (and I took that advice) to institute a "security freeze" with the three national credit bureaus. It cost me a one time fee of $10 for each of the three, for myself and my wife, for a grand total of $60. If anyone seeks to open a credit account, or a utility account in my name, or in any way is trying to secure credit or borrow funds where a credit check is run, they get no info on me because of the "freeze". It is a bit of a pain when I do want to apply for credit, as I have to call the credit agency and temporarily life the security freeze. When I financed a car a few years ago, I had to lift the freeze on all three credit bureaus because the lender would not tell me which agency their used. It took a few phone calls and was not really a big deal to go through the process. Essentially now I don't worry about identity theft, and I think the same would apply for this "title" theft issue.

 

[hittman]

This scam is similar to identity theft and credit fraud in that 99.9% of victims don't lose any money but they don't know how to fix things. It's the huge amount of time it takes along with the frustration and worry that are the real problem.

 

[blackhawknj]

During the fiscal meltdown there were numerous cases of people getting home equity loans for properties they did not have title to and the lenders were taken to task for not exercising due diligence in verifying that.

 

[Pierow]

Been hearing the same type commercial. Anyone else hear the tag-line towards the end saying something like, "Keep the scoundrels and scalawags" from robbing your property? Two adjectives carefully chosen to appeal to the more senior crowd.

If this type of identity theft concerns you simply place your home into your trust if you have one (re-title from your name to trust) and you are good to go. If you don't have a trust, DO NOT fall for the banks offering land trusts. These are trusts just for your home, nothing else. Though it does offer protection, it is very expensive. Banks charge a yearly fee for this. If you have a trust of your own, no yearly fee.

Pierow

 

[Bear Paw Jack]

Part of the reason I'm asking is, my mother died early in the year and left the house to me and my sister. In her case, her attorney was familiar with the will and once we signed everything he turned it in to the county to have the house put in our name. But how hard would it be for one of these internet Identity thieves to hoax up a death certificate, and a Quit deed, and have the title transferred into their name, or even someone elses name, then go to a mortgage company to refinance the house? Seems like that wouldn't be too hard, I just know I couldn't do it.

 

[BearBio]

1. I spent 25 years in the title insurance industry rising to middle management before I went to school. I have never heard of such a thing.
2. A forged deed (and lien instrument) would be invalid! The notary seal would fail and there would be a lack of delivery on the property. Besides, in that scenario, there would have to be probate of the will before the deed could be recorded. The notary is on the hook and any reputable lender would require an escrow be opened.

I saw a case where an old woman's personal secretary forged her signature on second ("Hard money") Deeds of Trust. He did several fraudulent transactions; He would sign a deed of trust (forging her signature) and record it, paying off the previous loan in the process. The Title Officer did due diligence and compared the (forged) signatures. Since they were both (old and new documents) were the same, it was valid on the surface. The same notary was used and the documents were not in his journal. I testified on procedures and the TO was cleared and I think the notary went to jail!

 

[redhawker]

Have heard that same commercial several times. The wife asks me "should we get that?" My answer, "I have NEVER heard of it happening to anyone and I'm sure there would be news reports on it is it was happening even every once in a while so, NO." (BTW - if it did start becoming enough of a problem to generate news reports I'm sure it would be Trump's fault...right?)