| Southwest Land Title has been providing professional, friendly title company services in Bay City and Matagorda County, Texas, since 1937. Call us at 979-245-2292 to handle the title work for your next property transaction. |
Southwest Land Title – A Description of Our Title Services
Most people don’t really understand what a title company does. They understand generally that we search title and issue title insurance, but they are not familiar with the process steps associated with searching title records and issuing a title insurance policy. This description of our work is intended to help our clients better understand our services. If you have a question about this process, please call us. We also offer online title search services. |
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Receipt of Earnest Money Contract
We usually start our process with the receipt of an earnest money contract. We’ll receipt the contract and the earnest money and enter the information into our computer system. We’ll also review the transaction with you to ensure that we understand who the new lender will be, whether an attorney will be involved in the closing, whether the property will be homestead property or an investment, and whether a survey has been ordered. We’ll review the closing process with you and before you leave our office, we’ll provide you with the document copies you need to begin your loan application.
We’ll deposit your earnest money into our trust account and your earnest money will be credited to you at closing. We’ll also print an order sheet and take it to our plant department where they’ll start the title search.
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Title Searches
Starting the title search, we’ll search our online plant by name and by legal description of the property. We’ll search the records using the names of both the seller and the buyer. We’ll determine if there is a prior commitment or title policy for the property, and we will generally update the title from that prior commitment date to present.
With the run sheet from the computer search, we’ll next check our abstract card plant and we’ll make copies of the relevant card records and place them with the order. We again check our records by property description and by name. Next we’ll go the the Matagorda County Courthouse and make sure that the records there correspond to the records from our abstract card plant. Our card plant goes back to the sovereignty of the Republic of Texas and up to 1999. From that point on, we rely on our online plant. During our name checks, we’re looking for issues like tax liens, divorces, lawsuits, judgements, probate, easements, and other events that could affect title to the property. We will check both direct records for people that sold the piece of property and the reverse records for people that bought the piece of property. We’ll check the District Court records as well as the Matagorda County Court records in Bay City, because issues like liens and divorces are filed with the District Courts. Once the research is complete, our title examiner reviews the information, and we make the decision to issue a title commitment. We may find issues during our title examination, which would need to be addressed before a title policy can be issued. If that happens, we can alert you to take the necessary actions to mitigate these issues. We’ll also work with our underwriters to understand exactly what risks they are willing to assume with regard to any title issues affecting your property. |
Closing Steps
To prepare for closing, we will order tax statements from each of the local taxing authorities so that we will be able to account for taxes paid and taxes due and prorations, as of the closing date. Once everything is ready for closing, the lender will usually wire the money to us and we’ll prepare to disburse the correct amounts to the parties involved in the transaction. After the closing, we’ll record the property transfer at the Matagorda County Courthouse and then issue the title policy. Once a title insurance policy has been issued, we will store the records in our file system. Our title insurance files date back to 1952 when the first title policy was issued in Matagorda County.
Let Southwest Land Title Handle Your Next Closing
You can trust Southwest Land Title to handle the title work for your next property transaction with competence and small-town friendliness. Our Manager, Fred Law, has deep roots in Matagorda County, Texas, going back five generations. We know Matagorda County property, and we’d like to put that knowledge to work for you in your next property transaction. Call us at 979-245-2292. |
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