So, you’ve made an offer on a home, gotten accepted, and received a copy of the title report. Now what?
Today I’m joined by Shawn and Alex from Fidelity Title to talk about a common question: What do you do with a title report once you’re in escrow?
For buyers, looking at the preliminary title report will be very important. This title report will alert you to things such as easements and CC&Rs. First of all, many of you may be wondering: “What’s a CC&R, and why should I care?”
This is a great question. CC&R stands for covenants, codes, and restrictions. Basically, CC&Rs are standards that govern what you can and cannot do to a property. If you wanted to paint your home pink, for example, you would look to your home’s CC&Rs to see if doing so would be allowed. CC&Rs for condos might even dictate the size, weight, and number of pets you can have.
These standards sound similar to what you might find with an HOA, but many homes outside of any HOA still come with CC&Rs.
“For buyers, looking at the preliminary title report will be very important.”
Special programs are another thing that can appear on title reports. Homes with solar panels present one common example of when these programs come into play. Solar panels can be leased or purchased. Leased solar panels may fall within the Purchase Power Program or the Hero Program.
With the Hero Program, the tax bill will show the amount owed on a yearly basis. When you examine this tax bill as a buyer, you want to ensure that this is listed as a line item on the exception. However, if you don’t see it on the tax bill, it doesn’t mean the program doesn’t exist. It all depends on when the seller got the program.
When you do business with my team and I, Shawn and Alex go through every single title report to make sure there’s nothing wrong. We’re truly lucky to have their help.
If you are looking for more information and want to get in touch with Shawn or Alix, you can contact them with the following information:
Shawn Harris
shawn@mytitleandescrow.com
(760) 271-8584
Alix Kammeyer
alix@mytitleandescrow.com
(619) 933-9621
And as always, if you have any other questions for me or would like more information, feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
