When the average person hears “endorsement,” we immediately think of someone throwing their wholehearted support behind a person, product, service, or company. But when it comes to the title industry, the word has a much different meaning. A title endorsement is designed to amend your title insurance to the specific needs of the home you’re buying.

Buying title insurance is an important part of the homebuying process. It’s a one-time purchase that’s part of your closing costs and guards against any title defects that might appear. If you’ve ever decided to refinance your home because of more favorable interest rates for the loan amount on your real estate, you might be due a sort of refund on the title insurance you previously purchased. The title industry in Texas refers to this situation as “refinance credits.”

So, you’ve decided to sell your house. This is probably an emotional time for you, especially if you’ve built up really powerful memories over the years in the home. You also want the smoothest possible real estate closing process. It would be nice if all your needs as the seller are met while also ensuring the buyer takes ownership of the house without any complications.

The first-time homebuyer experiences a whirlwind of emotions. From the decision to buy a house and the chase to find the right one to the disappointment when you get outbid on one and the joy of locating the home of your dreams, you’re on an absolute roller coaster. And that’s the fun part! Because when it comes time to actually take ownership of your new house, the real estate closing is both the most important and the most misunderstood part of the home buying process.

If you’ve watched nighttime cable news programming in the past few years, you’ve probably seen commercials from companies offering protection from real estate property fraud. Known generally as “title lock insurance,” this product claims to protect your property from both title fraud and the resulting financial losses.

If you’ve had any experience with real estate, you’ve worked with someone in the title insurance industry. However, until you peek behind the curtain of what all of the various title company jobs really do, you might not understand everything that goes into ensuring a profitable real estate transaction for both the buyer and seller.