While you focus on inspections, financing and insurance, the title company works behind the scenes to prepare the transaction for closing.

The title company may communicate with:

• You and your lender
• The seller
• Your agent or broker
• The seller’s agent or broker
• Surveyors
• HOA or condominium management
• Municipal and county offices
• Existing lenders and lienholders
• Title and insurance underwriters

You may not see most of this work, but closing depends on it.

Depending on its role, the title company may:

• Hold the EMD in escrow
• Perform or arrange the title search
• Identify mortgages, liens and ownership issues
• Issue the title commitment
• Obtain payoff information
• Order or review the survey
• Obtain association estoppel information
• Coordinate with the buyer’s lender
• Prepare closing and transfer documents
• Calculate closing figures
• Receive and safeguard funds
• Conduct the closing
• Pay the appropriate parties
• Record the deed and mortgage
• Issue final title-insurance policies

The title search examines public records for mortgages, judgments, liens, unpaid taxes, ownership or probate problems, easements, restrictions, deed errors and other claims affecting the property.

Finding an issue does not necessarily prevent closing. Many matters can be corrected or satisfied. More complicated concerns may require payoff, corrective documents, probate work or legal assistance.

The title commitment is the insurer’s conditional promise to issue coverage after listed requirements are satisfied. It also identifies exceptions that will not be covered. Receiving a commitment does not mean every issue is already resolved.

Questions about the legal effect of an easement, restriction, ownership problem or exception should be directed to a Florida real estate attorney.

A survey shows boundaries and the location of improvements such as the house, driveway, pool, fences and other structures. It may reveal encroachments, easements, setback concerns or boundary discrepancies.

An older survey may sometimes be acceptable if no changes occurred and the required affidavit is provided. The lender, title insurer or buyer may require a new one. Waterfront, acreage and irregular parcels deserve particular attention. A fence, dock or seawall is not proof of the legal boundary.

The title company may request an association estoppel showing amounts due. That work does not replace the buyer’s review of governing documents, rules, financial information, structural reports, reserves, assessments and applicable disclosures within the proper deadline.

A lender will generally require a lender’s title-insurance policy protecting the lender’s interest. An owner’s policy protects the buyer’s ownership interest, subject to its terms and exceptions.

A lender’s policy does not provide the same protection to the homeowner.

The contract determines who pays particular title costs and may influence who selects the closing or title agent.

Florida transactions commonly close through title companies without each party retaining a personal attorney. A title company coordinates the closing and issues insurance; it does not automatically represent the buyer’s individual legal interests.

Even when an attorney owns or works with the title company, that attorney may be acting as title or closing agent rather than as your personal attorney. Consult your own Florida attorney when you need advice about the contract, title exceptions, ownership, disputes or legal rights.

The title company may request identification, marital-status information, lender details, preferred ownership information, association information, proof of deposits or other underwriting documents. Do not ignore these requests because closing still seems far away.

Your real estate agent or broker should never send, forward, copy or modify wiring instructions. Obtain and verify all instructions directly with the title company through its approved process.

We recommend delivering the EMD by wire when the title company accepts it. This helps establish the correct process with a smaller amount before the much larger closing balance is sent. It does not eliminate the need to verify the final wire again.

Before sending funds:

1. Obtain instructions directly from the title company.
2. Call using an independently verified telephone number.
3. Read the routing and account numbers back to the title-company representative.
4. Confirm whether the instructions will remain the same for closing.
5. Reverify everything before sending the final funds.
6. Confirm directly that the wire was received.

Never trust an email, text or call claiming the instructions have changed. Stop and contact your known title-company representative.

Your agent or broker may remind you that funds are due, but should never place themselves between you and the title company when wiring information is exchanged.

There may be periods when you hear little from the title company. Title searches, lien work, loan coordination, association requests and document preparation often occur without the buyer’s involvement.

You are always entitled to ask: “Is the title work on schedule, and is anything currently needed from me?”