Title insurance is one of those things that sounds boring and expensive until you actually need it, which thankfully doesn't happen often when buying homes in Fort Mill, Waxhaw, or anywhere in the Charlotte metro area. But when it does matter, it really matters. Think of title insurance as protection against problems with the ownership history of your property. Maybe there was a forged signature in a previous sale, or someone didn't properly payoff a lien, or there's a boundary dispute you didn't know about

Title insurance protects you if someone comes forward later claiming they have a legal right to your property in Ballantyne, Indian Land, or wherever you're buying. There are actually two types of title insurance: lender's and owner's. Your lender will require a lender's policy to protect their investment, but that doesn't protect you at all. Owner's title insurance protects your equity in the home. It's a one-time premium paid at closing, usually around 0.5-1% of the purchase price. So on a $400K home in Weddington, you might pay $2K-4K for owner's title insurance

Here's my take: buy it. Yes, title problems are rare, but when they happen, they can be financially devastating. I've seen situations where previous owners didn't properly pay contractor liens, or where property boundaries were incorrectly recorded. Without title insurance, those become your problems to solve and pay for. In our area where some properties in places like Waxhaw and Marvin have been around for decades, there's more potential for title issues to surface. It's relatively cheap insurance for what could be a very expensive problem, and you only pay once for coverage that lasts as long as you own the property.