Residential Title and Escrow in San Mateo County

Val Vandervort of Veritas Homes sat down with Melanie Luders of Fidelity National Title Escrow in San Carlos CA to discuss residential title and escrow in San Mateo County. The purpose was to inform about the difference between a title company vs escrow company.

Val: What is Title?

Melanie: So, title basically is a process that we go through when a buyer is buying a home. We search the property to Make sure that there are no encumbrances against the seller. Also, to see if there's anything against the current owner of the property. We also search the buyer to make sure there's nothing on record that could affect their purchasing the home.

Val: What is an encumbrance?

Melanie: An encumbrance could be something like the judgement, if there's maybe a lawsuit that the seller is involved in and documents recorded with the county reporter's office that could create an encumbrance on the property so it couldn't be transferred because of this encumbrance.

Val: What is escrow?

Melanie: So, the escrow process is us as a settlement agent. We basically handle all the paperwork to transfer the property from the seller to the buyer. We handle all of the funds coming in and out of escrow. The end result once the escrow process is complete is that we will issue a clear title insurance policy to the buyer. So, going forward, they can have the confidence that the property that they're buying won't have any issues with title going forward. 

Val: What is title insurance?

Melanie: If there's ever a problem, they're able to make a claim with the title company against their title insurance policy. Anything that might have been recorded on the property from the time they took title, that's what we're insuring.

Val Vandervort and the team at Veritas Homes are available to further discuss residential title and escrow in San Mateo County. Stay tuned for another video with Melanie as we discuss title escrow fees and who pays for what. Call Val at 650-740-6025 to set up a consultation.

To read more of the Mid Peninsula Real Estate Report and learn about things to do in San Carlos, read "Hiller Aviation Museum - A Fun Outing on the Peninsula."