Information for Buyers

These are miscellaneous charges that may be related to the transaction, such as the cost for a survey, or the cost for a pest inspection or well/septic inspections. Other items that the seller and buyer agree to have paid out of the settlement may also appear as additional settlement charges.

Real estate title insurance is a type of insurance that guarantees ownership interest in real estate.

If this property is going to be titled into the Trustees of a trust, our office also requires a Memorandum of Trust and will need to review a copy of the trust and any amendments thereto.  The Memorandum  of Trust must comply with O.R.C. §5301.255. We will need an Affidavit of Trust  prepared, executed, acknowledged and recorded. Your attorney can prepare the Affidavit or our attorney's office can prepare the Affidavit of Trust for you at standard cost. The signed original Trust Affidavit will need to be filed in the County records prior to any mortgage.

If you are a corporation or an LLC, we will need to confirm that you are listed as an entity and in good standing on the Ohio Secretary of State's business filings and we must see your operating agreement. We also require a resolution signed by the board or all of the members authorizing the purchase and mortgaging of the property.  The resolution must authorize and state the capacity of the person that will be signing the purchase and loan documents to act on behalf of the corporation or LLC.

The following information is intended only to give a brief description of the two most common ways of holding title in Ohio and is not provided for the purpose of advising how to take title.  If further information is desired you should seek legal counsel from your attorney or retain an attorney for advice on these matters.

Generally speaking, most title orders come to us via the lender or realtor of either the buyer or seller, depending  on which area of the state you live in.  As title agent, we will commence an examination of the title of the property and order the necessary   information   to  complete   the  closing.    When   these   matters   are completed and reviewed by our staff and the lender notifies us that we are okay to proceed to schedule  a closing, we will notify you, either directly or via your realtor or lender who placed the title order, to arrange a day and tim

Make sure that you notify the appropriate utility companies that you are moving so they can transfer the utilities into your name and out of the seller's name.  Be sure to coordinate the transfer of the utilities with the seller(s) so they do not shut off the services.

When the order is placed, our office will need to know the marital status of all buyer(s) in this transaction and the names of their spouses.  All spouses will need to  sign  some  documents  even  if  they  are  not  going  to  be  an  owner  in  the property. Ohio  has  dower(marital)  rights  and  all  spouses  need  to  sign  the mortgage  and a few additional  Lender documents  in order to release  any rights they may have in the property to the lender in case of foreclosure.

If you or your spouse or any other borrower will not be able to attend closing, you will need to notify us and your lender of that situation.  If your lender will allow a Power of Attorney to be used in the closing for the party that will not be able to attend, you can have your own Attorney prepare the Power of Attorney according to the Lender's guidelines and our guidelines or our Attorney's office can prepare the Power of Attorney for you at standard cost.

State law requires that the seller disclose their knowledge of the condition of the property to their buyers.  This is a description of the property as it is known to the seller at the time of the sale.  Subject to some limitations, if the seller does not provide this document to the buyer, the buyer may have a right to cancel the purchase agreement.