Understanding Title Insurance & The Closing Process
Buying or selling a property is one of the biggest financial decisions you’ll ever make. At Great East Title, we believe you deserve to understand every step of the process. This page is here to answer the questions we hear most often, in plain language.
What Is Title Insurance?
Whether you’re buying or selling, understanding title insurance is an important part of your closing. When you buy a property, you’re not just buying the structure — you’re buying the legal right to own it. As a seller, title insurance insures you have the clear, legal right to transfer that ownership.
Before your closing, our team conducts a thorough title search, reviewing the property’s history to confirm the seller has the legal right to sell and that there are no outstanding claims against it. Even with a careful search, issues can surface later that weren’t detectable at the time — things like:
• A prior owner’s unpaid taxes or liens
• Errors in public records
• Undisclosed heirs with a claim to the property
• Forged signatures in the property’s chain of ownership
• Boundary disputes or easement issues
Title insurance protects you financially if any of these issues arise after closing. Unlike other types of insurance that protect against future events, title insurance protects against issues from the past — specifically, issues that existed before you took ownership but weren’t discoverable at the time of the title search. Even the most thorough search can’t uncover something that was not properly recorded or deliberately concealed.
Two Types of title insurance:
Lender’s Policy — required by your mortgage lender because it protects their investment.
Owner’s Policy — protects you, the buyer, and maybe the best investment you’ll make at closing. The Enhanced Owner’s Policy goes a step further: it also covers post-policy deed fraud and forgery — meaning if someone fraudulently transfers or forges documents related to your property after closing, you’re protected. With deed fraud on the rise, this added layer of coverage is worth understanding
What Is a Title Search?
A title search is the detailed investigation our team conducts into a property’s legal history. Think of it as tracing the story of a home — every owner, every mortgage, every lien — to make sure the story ends cleanly with the new owner.
We review records at the county Registry of Deeds, probate courts, and other public databases. Our title attorney, along with our experienced closing team, analyzes every finding before we declare title is clear.
When the title is clear, we issue a title summary to the buyers and sellers and title commitment to the lender — your assurance that we’ve done our work.
What Can Cause a Title Issue?
Title issues — sometimes called “clouds on title” — are more common than most people expect. They don’t always mean a closing falls apart; often, they can be resolved quickly without any impact on the closing date. Common examples include:
• Unpaid property taxes from a previous owner
• Liens from contractors or creditors that were never discharged
• Mistakes in how prior deeds were recorded
• Estates and probate that were never properly settled after an owner passed away
• Missing or improperly documented releases of old mortgages
This is exactly why title matters. Our team finds these things early, works to resolve them, and keeps your closing on track.
What Happens at Closing?
Closing day is when everything comes together. Here’s what to expect:
• Our closer will review and explain all documents with you. You’ll sign your closing documents, including the ALTA Settlement Statement (a detailed breakdown of all credits, debits, and costs) and, if you’re the buyer and financing, your Closing Disclosure (CD) from the lender.
• Funds are collected from the buyer and disbursed to all appropriate parties, including the seller.
• The deed transferring ownership is signed and recorded with the county Registry of Deeds.
• Keys change hands.
We offer closings in our offices, at your agent’s or lender’s office, on location at a place convenient to you, or virtually through Remote Online Notarization (RON). What works best for you works for us.
What to Bring to Closing
