Should you shop around for a title company?
Yes, and the law expects you to. Your Loan Estimate lists the title services you can shop for, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says plainly that you may choose your own closing agent even when your agent or lender recommends one. The closing fee and the search are the parts that move; the title insurance premium does not.
Choosing who closes is one of the most overlooked decisions in buying or selling a home. Most people take the name they were handed. The form that came with that name says it was handed to you as a convenience, nothing more.
Being sick gets you to the hospital. It doesn't pick your doctor. Signing a contract gets you to a closing. Who handles it for you is a separate decision, and it's yours. Taking the name on the list is letting the hospital pick for you, which is fine until the day it isn't.
Tennessee REALTORS® form RF 304 (Disclaimer Notice); 12 C.F.R. § 1026.19(e)(1)(vi) (services you may shop for); Tenn. Code Ann. § 56-8-106 (a lender may not require a particular title insurer).The list your agent gives you is a convenience. The form says so.
The Tennessee REALTORS® disclaimer that comes with every recommended company says the name is furnished "only as a convenience and a courtesy," and that you may select any provider you choose. Not the best. Not the one that will do the best job for you. A convenience. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says the same thing from the other direction: title services are the largest category of closing costs, you may shop for them, and your closing agent is your choice even when your agent or lender has one in mind.
So shop. Ask each office its settlement fee and its search fee, and then ask the one question the fee sheets never answer: will your attorney represent me? One of the offices you call will say yes. For the same fee. And if you want to know why the question even needs asking in Tennessee, read the Tennessee Paradox.
Put us on your list, and start here: send us the contract, see the results, talk it over with Jim Vanderpool. Same fee, and Vanderpool Law reads your contract before you sign and sits on your side of the table at closing.