Eagle 9 Owner's Policy for Coop

Good grief, you're spending $800,000 and you're fussing about pocket change that your attorney is "pushing" you to spend...

Here's an article from the NY Times on point. It's important to note that certain kinds of tax liens may be missed during a lien search, but in my experience I've had several kinds of liens overlooked.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/24/realestate/24home.html?_r=0

Of course! YOU MUST pay the closer's fee. The title closer might very well save your deal and/or your ass. That's their job, to keep the deal on track and to make sure you don't get screwed. They are often independent contractors that don't get paid very much and a good one is worth her (or more rarely his) weight in gold. (I know a real estate attorney who won't schedule any closings when her favorite closer is on vacation.)

The buyer pays because the buyer is the one with the most at stake. Everyone benefits from a good closer but you are the one at most risk.

For example, suppose your seller has lied to their attorney....please don't be so shocked. The title closer is the person who makes sure that the lien the seller lied about, or just forgot about, or just hoped nobody would notice so they could get away without paying, gets put to bed before you walk out of the room, so you don't have to spend a few years in court after the closing.

That happened to me, by the way.

Or suppose the seller's attorney fails to get the paperwork needed to satisfy a second mortgage; she just got confused and didn't do her job. At the closing table Big Huge Bank says we can't close, it takes several days to take care of this. The buyers flew in from far away, they have plane tickets to leave in a few hours.

So title closer gets on her phone, calls her BFF at Big Huge bank, they chat about their kids, and she gets it taken care of, and we close after all.

That also happened to me.

Title insurance is the best mechanism you have if your attorney or their attorney screws up certain aspects of your purchase. Lying clients are I think the biggest problem attorneys face in this regard, but tax liens and estate matters are also risks.

My favorite story: I collected $7,000+ in title insurance one month post-closing because a water lien was overlooked (obviously a building, not a condo unit). Now, there's somebody really not paying attention! And yes there was a lien search.

My business partner collected a mere $3000 from title insurance because a house he bought in Queens had a bunch of sanitation violations nobody discovered.

None of the examples you list relate to a co-op. Do you have any examples of situations where "co-op title insurance" adds any value? it is not customary to purchase it; I know no one who bought it, although we were offered it. Title insurance is an insanely profitable business for the insurers.

So at our closing it was us, the sellers, our lawyer, seller's lawyer, droids representing our and their banks, and the managing agent. The droid from our bank ran the closing. Who was the "closer" and was I supposed to have paid someone something?

I work for a company that offers an insured coop policy similar to, though not identical to the Eagle 9. It has become more commonplace for estate sales, situations where there is a lost stock and lease, or a high purchase price. I think the misconception is that a lien search will turn up all open liens and judgments that could potentially affect the shares of the unit, which is not necessarily the case (this has partially to do with the real property law and how liens can actually affect "personal property"). The insured policy will be a more extensive search, (at least our policy is) potentially turning up other problems along the way. Additionally, the title company will assist in the clearance of any issues, which is not true when a lien search is ordered.