A conversation with the seller's title agent in an REO transaction

Seller's title agent called me yesterday to inquire as to whether or not we had everything we needed from them in order to proceed to closing. (We represent the buyer in this transaction)

I advised that we were still waiting on final ratification of sale and asked him if he had any information as to the ratification.He rifles through some paper and then says to me:

"the contract of sale is signed by all parties, so yeah, it's ratified". 

Naturally, I was floored by this response.  I went on to tell him that I was referring to the ratification by the court of the foreclosure sale.  He again rifles through some paper and responds with:

"hmm.. I don't know, let me call THE ASSET MANAGER".   (I shudder to think of the Asset Manager's response)

This is a clear example of the fact that the seller's title agents are not even pretending to do title searches on these properties but are instead reliant upon the foreclosure attorney to spoon feed them the contracts of sale for the sole purpose of acting as a liason between the seller and the buyer's title agent.  We must bear in mind that in this "cradle to grave" environment the title agency is either owned or is managed by the foreclosure attorney.

It is not hard to imagine all of the title claims that will arise out of this practice.  At what point will these corporate sellers, including Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and HUD see that this is detrimental to the consumer?  Please inform your REO purchasers that they should really strongly insist that they want their own title agent to review and clear title on all REO transactions.  It will save them a lot of grief in the long-run even if they have to fight the seller on this point at contract negotiation.