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Hey, everyone, welcome to the Big Picture Retirement Show.

I'm your host, Devin.

Join today by John Ross.

Howdy.

John, as you know, I've done a few real estate transactions. You have. And I always

kind of glaze. I hate to admit this because I'm a financial guy. I shouldn't admit this

probably. I may even have the editor take this out before this episode airs. I don't know.

But I always kind of glaze over

when they give me that closing cost statement. And it shows all these different things that's coming from the title company. Right. You know, all of these different expenses. And just as a little side note, one thing I cannot figure out is how they prorate taxes. That just... Mystery math. It is. It's mystery math. They go into explaining. I'm like,

whatever. Just tell me what the bottom line is here. And as long as that doesn't sound egregious, I'm good with it. But there's all of these little expenses and fees and you wonder, why are we even using the title company? You know, let's just, I don't use a title company when I sell a car. I don't use it when I sell, you know, a computer that I no longer need or whatever it is.

But now I'm selling real estate. a title company when I sell a car. I don't use it when I sell, you know, a computer that I no longer

need or whatever it is. But now I'm selling real estate. Why do I have to use a title company?

You know, there's these items like a title policy that's usually six, eight hundred bucks.

Correct. Yes.

Well, what the heck, you know? Now, it was a real estate transaction that I did several years ago where I found out the importance of that title policy. I had a guy that I was buying a piece of, this was a piece of raw land from who did not want to go through traditional closing.

Wanted to do it all privately, right? Absolutely. Yes. Oh, we don't need all that. That's ridiculous. And I remember calling you. John, this was probably 12 years ago. Okay. Or more. And I said, John, what's the deal? I don't feel like I need to do a real estate transaction like this. And you said, look, if there's a reason he's not wanting to go through a title company, there's probably a reason he's not wanting to go through a title

company. Right. And that kind of led me down the road of looking at a title policy and how that

actually protects you. And you and I were talking about this not long ago. And as it turns out,

this goes even a little bit deeper. And you've been running into some cases in your practice

with these title policies

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