This site is dedicated to title issues, and particularly title searching.  Because I believe it is important to discuss issues that come up in the course of a title search, I have posted some hypothetical questions in the past that were inspired by actual searches.  We have discussed recording statutes and survivorship tenancy.  Most recently, I posted a hypothetical on life estates in the forums. 

This hypothetical is based on a fact pattern from an actual title search.  My first thought was "the client will certainly call me with questions on this one," so I thought it would make for a good discussion here.

Typically at the end of a year, I write a blog about what we have seen change over the past year.  This year, however, I thought I would write about a few things that I think we might see coming in the year ahead.  I don't have a crystal ball, and I could certainly be wrong... but why not take a stab at predicting the title issues we will see forthcoming?

When a bank representative was seven minutes late for a sheriff's sale, a 3,058 square foot home with 32.5 acres sold for $27,500, a bit shy of the bank's $114,253.45 mortgage.  The trial court refused to set aside the sale and the bank appealed, claiming that the price was "inadequate."

After reaching the top of the title insurance industry, it appears that Fidelity National Financial (FNF) has decided to diversify.  While many of us in the title business have been tightening our belts, trying to make it through the nation's worst housing crisis since the Great Depression, Fidelity has been bargain shopping in bankruptcy courts.  Soon, they may be offering you a side of fries with your title policy.

Undeterred by the several states that have banned the use of private transfer fees, Freehold is apparently still trying to find a way to securitize them.  The Wall Street Journal has reported that Freehold has approached several Wall Street banks to develop the securities, but has not yet struck a deal.