Title Insurance

Why Is Owner's Title Insurance Important?

May 14, 2026 · 4 min read

House keys on a wooden table representing home ownership

Financially speaking, the decision to buy a home is one of the biggest decisions a person will likely ever make.

Owner's title insurance insures that, when the purchase is closed, the buyer is the owner of and has marketable title to the property, has access to the home, and there are no liens, claims, or restrictions on the buyer's property, other than the mortgage the buyer agrees to pay. If the preliminary title search uncovers potential problems, a buyer can require that those problems be satisfactorily dealt with before closing on the home.

In addition, owner's title insurance protects buyers against a myriad of risks that not even the most careful title search can uncover, including things such as forged documents, undisclosed or missing heirs of a previous owner, fraud, will disputes, and unrecorded claims of many types.

Without owner's title insurance, the legal costs to resolve such title claims could easily be in the tens of thousands of dollars and would have to be paid out of pocket by the buyer — not to mention the stress that such situations would cause to the buyer.

Real estate agent handing over house keys to new homeowners — Owner's title insurance protects your investment from the moment you receive the keys.

Owner's title insurance is one of the most affordable insurance policies a person can ever buy. Unlike other forms of insurance, there is only a one-time fee at closing for the policy, which financially protects the buyer's investment for as long as the buyer or the buyer's heirs own the home.

So, if someone tells the buyer that owner's title insurance is "optional," that certainly does not mean that the buyer should not get it. In order to safeguard the buyer's investment in the property, which is possibly the most important investment the buyer will ever make, owner's title insurance is absolutely critical.