If you’re like most people, when your credit card statement arrives in the mail you check each item carefully to make sure that there are no errors and that you’re not being overcharged!
And rightfully so, as no one wants to pay more than they are supposed to be paying!
In much the same way when we purchase a consumer item like a television most of us will check the price among several retailers because, once again, we don’t want to be paying more than we need to.
The bottomline is that if we are comparing two LIKE items then the price paid needs to be fair.
Title Insurance In New York State: Check Your Title Bill!
Extrapolating this argument to title insurance, the amount of money that a buyer of property or refinancer of a mortgage needs to pay should also be compared between firms!
And while the title insurance premium will not vary from one to another, some of the other fees most definitely can and this difference could potentially be in the many hundreds of dollars!
For a real estate purchase transaction the buyers real estate attorney will likely have a go-to title insurance provider they’ve done business with in the past.
And it is undoubtedly a firm that does good work and who the given attorney is loyal to.
In a mortgage refinance it will generally be the lender who chooses the title insurance provider and, they too, will typically have a firm that they are comfortable with and loyal to.
And this loyalty is 100% how it should be!
After all Hallmark Abstract Service appreciates the loyalty that our clients show to us.
But, at the end-of-the-day, clients are well within their rights to at the very least get a title bill from another firm to use for a cost comparison.
Then, if the charges are vastly different, they can show the title bill to their attorney or lender and ask for an adjustment or an explanation for why they are correct.
Why should the title company put money in its pocket that could otherwise remain in the pocket of the client?
If you have questions or might like a title bill for a specific transaction to compare, feel free to contact us at the information below.
Michael Haltman is President of Hallmark Abstract Service in New York and a Director of Heroes To Heroes Foundation.
He can be reached at mhaltman@hallmarkabstractllc.com or at 516.741.4723.
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