Should you have title lock theft insurance?

Phil: Is it true that even somebody overseas can get the title to your home or take out a loan in your home without you even knowing about it?

Attorney Tom Olsen: You hear a lot of commercials on TV, Phil, that make it sound like, "Oh, the sky is falling in, you've got to get this title lock insurance or else somebody's going to steal the home out from right under you." Phil, the answer is you do not need to be concerned about it. Phil, in our experience, the only titles that are being stolen, not to your home, but to vacant residential buildable lots. If you own a vacant residential buildable lot in another city, another town, another state, then you might want to have title lock insurance on it. If you have an ordinary home, or ordinary investment home, or commercial home, or farmland, nobody's going to steal the title for that, Phil.

Phil, I know these TV commercials make it sound like, "Oh, you've got to have this, you better have this," but Phil, it is not necessary in our opinion. By the way, you can go to the comptroller's office for whatever county you live in and register so that if anybody does any deeds that are in your name, Phil, they will send you an email letting you know that something's happened. Phil, does that answer the question for you?

Phil: Yes. Last week we got a letter from the county telling us about our taxes and all, property taxes. Inside that envelope, I'm going to give you a bribe, but my daughter does my stuff, and there was a little flyer in there talking about exactly what you're talking about. We called and we asked them to put us on our list. They're going to let me know by phone if everything's recorded in Orange County.

Tom: Exactly.

Phil: I do thank you so much for answering that. I feel better about it.

Tom: All right, Phil. I'm so glad we can take that weight off of your shoulders. By the way, if somebody were to steal your title, which is very, very, very rare, it'd be for you, the owner of the property, it'd be better that you found out about that sooner than later. That's the advantage they have in the comptroller's office. The appraiser's office sends you a letter or email letting you know that somebody has done a deed in your name. I get those emails on a regular basis, but it's not for my properties, it's for people that have names that are similar to mine that are doing these deeds.