Title Insurance Commitment
We're Committed to Reducing Your Title Costs
We're Committed to Reducing Your Title Costs
| Part I: Our Commitment Besides being committed to keeping our attorney fees at competitive rates, The Galer Firm, P.C. has begun using its position as a title insurance agent for some of the largest and most reputable title insurance companies in the Chicagoland area (e.g., Chicago Title Insurance Co., First American Title Insurance Co.) to greatly reduce its clients' title insurance costs. (See more detailed explanation in Part II below.) As you can see from the sample numbers in the following table (based on current Chicago Title residential title insurance rates), the savings that result from our new program can be substantial: |
| We invite you to compare the numbers above with the title insurance quotes provided to you by other real estate attorneys in the area. We’re confident that by taking a stand against the ever rising tide of title insurance fees and other closing costs, our law firm is fulfilling its duty to look after (and not just take from) our clients’ pocketbooks. Of course, whether an attorney will actively seek to reduce your closing costs (rather than disproportionately contribute to them) is just one factor you should consider in selecting an attorney to represent you in your real estate sale. Experience, knowledge, commitment and communication are equally important, and we thus invite you to peruse our website – www.galerfirm.com – or give us a call for more information on how we can be of service to you. Part II. Your Title Insurance Related Closing Costs If your property is located in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Kendall, Lake, McHenry or Will counties, you should be aware that standard practice (and the language in a high percentage of the form contracts used in the area) calls for you to pay for your buyer’s title insurance policy, and as a consequence, it is your attorney who will choose which title company will be used for title insurance and closing services. Thus, the title insurance related closing costs payable by you as a seller are highly dependent on the decisions made by the attorney you choose to represent you in the sale. For example, many sellers in this area are not aware that the nearly universal practice of attorneys representing sellers of residential property in Chicagoland is to accept a sizeable ‘title agent fee’ from the title company used in a given transaction. It is true that the fee paid to the attorney by the title company at the closing is remitted partly to compensate the attorney for having undertaken a limited regiment of title examination duties on behalf of the title company. However, it has been said (and we’ll say it again here) that an attorney’s title agent fee largely constitutes a commission paid by the title company simply because the attorney brought the title insurance and closing services business to that title company. (In effect, the attorneys in the Chicagoland area have become the title companies’ sales agents). Typically, the title agent fee received by your attorney is based on your property’s sale price and can equal an amount anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars. Usually, the fee received by the attorney amounts to more than 80% of your title insurance costs as a seller and more than 40% of the total title insurance costs (i. e., those of the seller + buyer) involved in the transaction. In contrast, when representing a seller of real estate in the Chicagoland area, The Galer Firm, P.C. will use its position as a title insurance agent to drastically reduce its client’s title insurance closing costs. We will do this simply by accepting drastically reduced agent fees. As you can see from the table in Part I above, the savings that result from our new program can be substantial. |
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^ Stated cost includes the full cost of the title insurance owner’s policy. Sellers will always have
various other closing costs (e.g., transfer taxes, recording fees, mortgage payoffs, tax credits to buyer,
courier fees, etc.), but the owner’s policy is typically a seller’s largest title insurance related cost.
Costs shown are for explanatory purposes only, assume the buyer has a mortgage loan and are subject to change. Furthermore, the closing costs that a given seller or buyer are responsible for may vary depending on the language in the sale contract and any changes thereto negotiated by his/her attorney. Please call for additional quotes based on specific sale prices. Rates based on 3/2018 sampling of title company charges.
various other closing costs (e.g., transfer taxes, recording fees, mortgage payoffs, tax credits to buyer,
courier fees, etc.), but the owner’s policy is typically a seller’s largest title insurance related cost.
Costs shown are for explanatory purposes only, assume the buyer has a mortgage loan and are subject to change. Furthermore, the closing costs that a given seller or buyer are responsible for may vary depending on the language in the sale contract and any changes thereto negotiated by his/her attorney. Please call for additional quotes based on specific sale prices. Rates based on 3/2018 sampling of title company charges.