What does a title company not do?
It doesn't represent you. A title company searches the title, issues the insurance, prepares the closing documents and disburses the money, and it does those things for the transaction, not for either side. It cannot give you legal advice, negotiate a repair or a credit, fix a problem in your contract, or tell you whether you should sign.
That gap is the reason Vanderpool Law closes the way it does: both halves, the title work and the representation, for the same fee a title company charges.
At a title company, the answer is "we'll need that resolved before we can close." It isn't unkindness. The office is neutral, and Tennessee law prohibits it from advising you about any of it: a corporation may not practice law, and advising a person about the law for a fee is practicing law. So the repair, the escrow agreement, the earnest money and the demand all land back on you. At Vanderpool Law, the attorney who has been on your file since the contract picks up the phone and resolves them, because that is what representing you means.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 23-3-103 (no corporation or association may practice law or do law business); § 23-3-101 ("law business" includes advising or counseling any person as to the law for a fee); Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 8, RPC 1.13. The one exception, a title company's attorney representing you under written consents from all three parties, almost never happens.Neutral is fine until something goes wrong. Something usually does.
A repair the seller agreed to and didn't get done. An escrow agreement that has to be drawn up so the closing can happen anyway. A fight over the earnest money. A last-minute demand from the buyer or the seller that isn't in the contract. None of these are rare, most of them land in the last week before closing, and not one of them is title work.
There's a name for this: the Tennessee Paradox. The state lets you choose who closes your purchase, and the same state forbids a title company from advising you. Choose a title company and you've used your right to pick someone who can't be your lawyer. Write in Vanderpool Law and the paradox disappears: a law firm that does the title work and represents you, for the same fee. The full explanation, with every statute, is on one page: The Tennessee Paradox.
The things a title company can't do are exactly the things you'll need done. We do them, and the fee is the same.
If the office closing your purchase can't advise you, Vanderpool Law will. Send us the contract, see what it says, and talk it over with Jim Vanderpool, complimentary.