BLOGARITHM & HIDDEN RISK

You never really know who’s reading this.  I’ve gotten calls from Denver and New York City about this blog.  A woman recently posted to my Facebook page, “God works in mysterious ways”—so does the Internet!  I never know when someone’s going to say to me, “Hey, I saw your blog,” or what they might say about it.  That’s how hidden risk works too.  

You never know who can discover your property online.

An estimated 10% of the world’s population is on Facebook.  That’s about 700,000,000 people, and any one of them could make a claim on your real estate.  Obviously some would have a more legitimate claim than others, but even with the bogus claims, the homeowner has the responsibility to defend his rights, and that gets expensive without title insurance.  

There’s no logarithm to figure out how many people will read this blog, just like there’s no way of determining the size of hidden risk when it comes to home ownership rights.  Title searches only show known risks, but it’s easier to calculate Pi to the billionth digit than to extrapolate who might bring a title claim against you, or when it might happen, or if it will happen—there are too many variables!  

Don’t sweat the unknown risk if you’ve got title insurance.  Title insurance can’t prevent a claim, but it’s a financial means of dealing with a property dispute.  It might be three feet of your neighbor’s encroachment in question, or an ambiguity in the land transfer two owners ago.  Regardless of the size of the matter (does size really matter?), a title insurance policy pays for the legal defense of your ownership rights.  

Written by Stephen Collins & CJ Godwin