Southwest Land Title - Title Service FAQs
Let Over 80 Years of Experience in Bay City & Matagorda County, Texas Work for You!

Southwest Land Title has been providing professional, friendly title search and title insurance services in Bay City and Matagorda County, Texas, since 1937.  Our staff has many years of experience in all aspects of title work for all kinds of properties.  Give us a call at 979-245-2292.

Frequently Asked Questions About Title Insurance and Title Services

Question:  Do I need to get title insurance to refinance my property?

Answer:  When you refinance a property, the lender will often order a title search whether or not they get a loan title policy.  That often depends on whether or not they are the current holder of the mortgage.  Even if the refinance mortgagee is the current lender, the lender might want a loan title policy or a title search telling the lender what’s happened on the property from the time the lender did the first loan until now.

Question:  Do you offer online title search services?

Answer:  Yes, we do!  You can have access to the property records of Matagorda County online by clicking this link.  It’s a dollar page to print and 25 cents a search.  You can search the online records by name or legal description or during a particular time frame.  It’s helpful for people doing genealogy research in looking for their family records in Matagorda County.  Oil and gas landmen use the online title search to research property without having to drive to the Matagorda County Courthouse.  People who just want to find the deed to their home can go online and print it for a dollar a page, which is the same price you’d pay if you walk into the Matagorda County Clerks office.  It’s been very helpful to a lot of people for a lot of different reasons.  A lot of effort went into making it.

Question:  Why do you represent several different title insurance underwriters?

Answer:  Because with some property transactions, one underwriter might be willing to take the risk in insuring title and another underwriter might not.  Representing several underwriters and understanding their tolerance for risk in various situations, we can often find an insurance underwriter to issue a title policy when issues appear during the title examination.

Question:  What is the cost of title insurance?

Answer:  The cost of title insurance is set by the State of Texas Department of Insurance, so all title companies will charge you the same rates for your transaction.  The owners title policy is usually based on the sales price of the property.  If a sale isn’t part of the transaction, for example if you’ve owned your property for 10 years without an owner’s title policy and you’d like to obtain one, then we use the appraised value.  If a sale or refinance is part of the transaction, then it’s the sales price or the loan amount.  Click this link to visit the rates information for the Texas Department of Insurance.

Question:  What’s the difference between your title company and another title company if the costs for title insurance are set by the State of Texas?  There’s no price difference, so why choose you?

Answer:  The difference is service!  At Southwest Land Title, we work hard to make your property transaction as effortless and smooth as possible.  We have many years of experience in every aspect of title examination and title insurance, and that experience works for you when you select us for your title services.  Call us at 979-245-2292 to find out why our service makes us special!