This article is dedicated to preventing two potentially painful Real Estate “Pitfalls” for our military families who are buying and / or selling homes. The good news is that these “Pitfalls” don’t happen often. The better news is that they are remarkably simple to prevent! The bad news??? If they do happen, they can be very expensive, not to mention inconvenient.
First let’s address Title Insurance. We’ll leave the technical definitions to the real estate attorneys, but every military home purchaser should invest in “owners” title insurance. In a nut shell, title insurance is designed to insure the lender and the buyer against a defective property title at the “time of settlement.” Otherwise stated, a seller must provide clear title, or one that does not have a lien against the property preventing it’s sale. Liens could be for overdue taxes, homeowners’ association compliance, work performed on the property that was not paid, etc. ...