Title Insurance - Did You Know?

I listened to a presentation by Chicago Title Canada a couple of weeks ago & learned a bunch of stuff that I didn't know, so I thought I'd share some of my key takeaways here for you!

First of all, what IS title insurance?

It's an insurance policy that protects residential or commercial property owners & their lenders against losses related to the property's title or ownership. Most purchase the policy through their lawyer (typically when closing on a property) with a one-time premium in the range of $250-$500. You can read a more detailed description & what a policy may include/exclude HERE & the Ontario Government has a good general knowledge booklet HERE as well.

There are 2 types of policies available - a Lender's policy & an Owner's policy - 1 protects the lender's interest in the property & the other, the owner's. Full coverage = 2 policies!

Multiple Offers in 2023...so far

 There was a property that made a big splash last month, coming on the market at the low, low price of $549k with a hold back on offers for 6 days. And talk about starting the year off with a bang! It got a gazillion showings & 36 offers!

The property in question was 377 Laguna St, near the Oshawa/North Courtice border, just off Adelaide, in the Eastdale neighbourhood of Oshawa. Good mid-town location. See it HERE

 

A 1970's 3bed/2bath bungalow with single car garage in well-kept, but dated condition. With a non-legalized bsmt apartment. As I mentioned, the list price was $549k with a hold back on offers for 6 days. The firm selling price of $747k was posted the following day. Firm refers to no conditions. I thought it might go for less than that & some REALTORS® in our office thought it would go for more…

 

FRAUD

A surprisingly busy start to the year combined with a little writer’s block & here I am at the end of January finally hitting publish on my first blog post of the year!

FRAUD has been all over the news for the past few weeks thanks to 2 high profile cases of fraudulent real estate sales. For some reason this topic has been a tough one to wrap my head around & mostly it’s about what do I want to say about it? What is the point that I want to make? What value can I add to the conversation?

 

• Regurgitate the news articles that have already been written with some added commentary?
• Provide deeper context beyond the sensationalism of the news headlines?
• Lament the fact that fraud seems absolutely rampant in every facet of our lives (the over-dramatic hot take)?
• Ways to protect ourselves?

 

And that’s where I finally landed – how do we protect ourselves? And a bit about how rampant it is, from the little white lies to the really bad stuff…