Five Things Every Seller Needs To Know

Knowing these five things will help you avoid some common closing pitfalls.

Five Things Every Buyer Needs To Know

Knowing these five things will help you avoid some common closing pitfalls.

What We Do

Title Insurance provides extremely valuable protection covering a variety of matters that can arise as a homeowner.

Welcome to Echelon Title Services

Echelon Title Services, LLC was founded in 2017.

The core of our staff have been working together as a team in the industry for over a decade at other title companies.

Collectively, we have over a hundred years of experience in the title insurance and real estate closing industry in Florida, mostly in Brevard County.

Our daily operations are supervised by our President , CEO , and Co-Owner Michael A. Schneider, Esq.

Michael is a licensed attorney member of The Florida Bar and has been handling real estate closings in Florida for over twenty-five years.

Most of our team has been working together with Michael for more than five years and several have been working with him for over ten years.

We have developed a time-proven system for efficiently processing real estate purchase and sale transactions together with the team chemistry that only time can build.

We have the experience that can’t be taught but must be lived. We have the local knowledge and connections to get things done properly.

Licensed, Bonded, and Insured

Echelon Title Services is a licensed Florida title insurance agency, meaning that we are authorized by the State of Florida to issue policies of title insurance for any underwriters for which we have been appointed as agent.

We have been appointed by Old Republic National Title Insurance Company and Stewart Title Guaranty Company.

We carry all required fidelity and surety bonds, errors and omissions insurance, and cyber risks insurance (provided by Lloyds).

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Choosing A Title Company

Who chooses the title company?

Typically the purchase and sale contract provides which party has the right to select the closing agent. In Florida, the closing agent is typically a title company or an attorney’s office.

The party which has the right to select the closing agent is usually also the party which is responsible for providing ‘evidence of title’ and paying for an owner’s policy of title insurance in favor of the buyer (the buyer typically pays for the lender’s title insurance policy, as this is a requirement/condition of the buyer’s lender).

In most of the pre-printed contact forms commonly used in Florida, the determination of which party has the right to select the closing agent is a ‘check the box’ election. Usually, the selection reflects the local custom in the county where the subject property is located, but it is a contract term which is subject to negotiation between the parties during the formation of the contract.

In Brevard County (and in most counties in Florida), the seller is customarily responsible for providing evidence of title (and providing at the seller’s cost) an owner’s policy of title insurance in favor of the buyer as the insured. Thus, it is customarily the seller’s right to designate the closing agent.

In other parts of the state, such as Broward, Miami-Dade, and Monroe Counties, it is customarily the buyer’s responsibility to obtain title insurance, and so the buyer typically designates the closing agent.

Buyers and sellers of real estate often follow the recommendation of their agent or broker in the selection of a title company, and Echelon Title Services is proud to have earned the trust as a preferred referral vendor for many of the top producing real estate brokers and agents in Brevard County.

Who Does Echelon Title Services Represent in the Transaction?

Echelon Title Services is not a law firm, and does not ‘represent’ either the buyer, the seller, or the lender in any given real estate transaction as that party’s attorney. Michael A. Schneider, Esq., the President and CEO of Echelon Title Services, is a licensed attorney member of The Florida Bar, but unless separately and specifically engaged in writing prior to the commencement of a closing file, Michael does not represent either/any party as its attorney and works only on behalf of Echelon Title Services. You have the right to hire an attorney to represent you in the closing. If you are represented by an attorney please have your attorney contact us or advise us of the name and contact information for your attorney.

Echelon Title Services is a licensed Florida title insurance agency. Echelon Title Services has been appointed as an authorized policy issuing agent of Old Republic National Title Insurance Company and Stewart Title Guaranty Company.

Do I Need to Hire a Title Company to Close a Real Estate Purchase?

e title services conference room The majority of home purchases are financed by a loan secured by a mortgage on the property, and the lender will require that the transaction be closed through a third-party escrow agent. The lender will typically require a lender’s policy of title insurance insuring that the lender’s mortgage is lawfully attached to the property ('perfected') in first lien position so that the lender will have first priority over all other claimants against the property in the event that the loan goes into default.

If you are paying cash for a property, there is even more incentive to make sure that the closing is handled properly through escrow with an independent, professional third-party title company because the money at stake is yours!

Ultimately there are innumerable things that can adversely affect title to real estate and cause problems for a buyer. Contact Echelon Title Services today to learn more.