[Boomer]

Weird stuff can happen. With one of our houses — not in TV — there had been a typo in the record. It showed the wrong lot number. Nothing nefarious, just a typo, but it could have eventually become messy because it looked like the house was sitting on the neighbor’s lot.

Our title company caught it. (In our home state, the buyer usually buys the policy.) The previous owners had mortgaged and even second-mortgaged, twice, but, even so, nobody had caught the error.

Being concerned about a clouded title, we stopped the deal until the original owner, the developer, was tracked down. A quit claim deed for somewhere along the line was a part of what needed to happen. It was a bit of a tizz but everything got worked out and we bought the house.

I have heard people say that they do not need title insurance because they are paying cash for the house, no bank involved. To them, I have to say, “When you are a cash buyer, you are the bank so do what a bank would do.”