Who Pays?
I'm in the process of buying land for cash. I'm shooting for a private closing since no bank involved. Purchase and Sale Agreeement states that owner will deliver a warranty deed with no encumbrances. Can I trust this to be the case or do I need a current title search and buyers insurance and if so who should pay for the search , buyer or seller?
I FULL WELL EXPECT TO HAVE TO PAY FOR THE BUYERS INSURANCE OF TITLE..AFTER ALL, IT'S FOR MY PEACE OF MIND. The wording on the sales contract is as follows:"A deed conveying good and merchantable title in accordance with the Standards of Title adopted by the Maine Bar Association shall be delivered to Buyer and this transaction will be closed..." Also the DEED statement reads:"The property shall be conveyed by a warranty deed and shall be free and clear of all encumbrances except covenants,conditions,easements and restrictions of record which do not materially and adversely affect the continued use of theproperty."
This suggests to me that the costs to obtain clear title(via title search) would be borne by seller. What do you think?
PS sorry for the long post, but i thought the verbiage was important to the discussion
<IMG SRC="images/forum/smilies/icon_confused.gif"> [ Edited by rakaroberts on Date 10/10/2003 ]
yes you do need title insurance and it depends what state you are in....from where i am it is customary that the purchaser pay for title insurance. i guess it only makes sense...you are insuring yourself, why would the seller pay for it? but then again anything is negotiable.
If agreement states seller is to produce a warranty deed he would pay for the title insurance policy...should be stated as such in contract
Professional attorney review of the contracts is also recommended.
[addsig]
Who pays is a matter of local custom. Whether it's obtained is a matter of universal prudence. If the seller won't pay, you'd better.