Welcome to Ask Clark, a column designed to answer your financial questions, by money expert Clark Howard.
Do You Need To Pay To Protect the Title to Your House?
Bob from Georgia asks: “I’ve heard commercials about basically locking down your house title and how you can protect your title for a fee. Is this just another product marketed on the basis of fear? Is there any difference in concern or threat level of this title theft happening if you own your home outright instead of having a mortgage?”
Clark’s Take on Whether You Should Pay To Lock Down Your House Title
Clark asked five real estate lawyers, and they all said the same thing: Paying a company to put a lock on your home’s title is a waste of money.
Clark says: “This is, for the most part, a solution looking for a problem.”
“It is not a scam,” Clark adds. “There is a rare event of somebody trying to steal the equity out of people’s homes. But many counties have a system where you can register for notification for activity that may occur on your title.”
Clark says companies that promote home title locks “are really only doing for a fee what counties now providing the email notifications for free are doing anyway.”
Want to dig a little deeper? Here’s what you need to know about a home title lock.
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