A House is Not a Car!

When you buy a car, the seller should be able to show you a title certificate that proves the seller owns the car they are selling. That slip of paper is proof they are the owner. If they owe money on the car, that lender’s name appears on the registration, and the title certificate is usually held by that lender.

A house is different. Just because I show you a deed I received in 1990 for a house doesn’t mean I still own it. It also doesn’t prove that the seller on my deed owned the house before me. It also doesn’t show whether I owe the bank money on the property or own it free and clear. With the price of homes averaging more than $300,000, would you want to hand the seller a check in the driveway and hope for the best?

That’s why title insurance exists. We keep track of who owns real estate in Clark County, and if they owe money on that real estate. Every day, we’re looking at documents recorded at the Auditor’s office or entered in court cases like divorces and probates. We keep track of who owes tax liens or judgments. When it comes time to sell or refinance, the work we’ve done locally since 1980 helps us tell you nearly every detail concerning the title to that property. We take a lot of pride in our ability to track this information accurately.

We’re not the only title company in Clark County. Why should anyone care which title company gets used when they sell, buy or refinance? In addition to having local people do the ownership and debt tracking I described, we also have local people involved in every aspect of our title insurance and escrow business — most of our competitors have out-of-town (or even out-of-country) people involved in some way. We hire local people — make local decisions on how customers can best be served — and our local service doesn’t cost you a penny more than using mega-corporation with their off-shore warehouse of workers.

Let us know if there is anything we can do to be of service to you — and thank you on behalf of the local professionals of Clark County Title!

Scott Hogan
Clark County Title
Scott@ClarkCountyTitle.com
360.694.4722 | 1400 Washington St., Ste. 100, Vancouver, WA 98660
360.787.9197 | 3200 SE 164[th] Ave., Ste. 219, Vancouver, WA 98683