Buying property in Southwest Florida means buying whatever came with it. Every prior sale, mortgage, divorce, death, contractor’s bill and county assessment attached to that parcel is still on the public record, and it transfers to you unless someone finds it and clears it first. That is the job of a title company, and it is the reason a closing takes weeks rather than an afternoon.
Esquire Land Title handles residential purchases across Lee, Collier, Charlotte and Sarasota counties from offices in Cape Coral, Naples, Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte and Venice.
What the Title Search Is Actually Looking For
A title search reads the chain of ownership back through the county records and looks for anything that would give somebody other than the seller a claim on the property. In practice, the recurring finds in Southwest Florida are:
- Unreleased mortgages. The loan was paid off years ago but the satisfaction was never recorded. The lien is still legally on the property.
- Contractor and supplier liens. Common after hurricane repair work. Florida’s construction lien law gives a claimant 90 days from last furnishing to record a claim, and it attaches to the property, not to the person who hired them.
- Probate gaps. An owner died, the heirs sold, and the estate was never properly administered. The deed you are being offered may not carry clean title.
- Boundary and survey conflicts. A fence, seawall, dock or driveway that sits over a line, or an easement nobody disclosed.
- Unpaid taxes, code enforcement fines and special assessments. These survive the sale and become the new owner’s problem.
- Errors in the record itself. A misspelled name, a wrong legal description, a deed signed by one spouse when Florida homestead law required both.
Most searches come back clean. The ones that do not are the reason the process exists.
When Something Turns Up, It Gets Resolved Here
This is where closings usually stall. A title agency finds a defect, and the file goes out to an attorney the agency does not control, on a timeline the agency cannot promise. Days turn into a week. Your rate lock and your contract deadline do not pause while that happens.
Esquire Land Title has a Florida real estate attorney inside the firm. Curative work — tracking down a lender to record a satisfaction, obtaining a corrective deed, resolving a probate defect, dealing with a lien claimant — starts the day the search comes back rather than the day an outside office finds room for it. For matters that require formal legal representation, such as a quiet title action, that work is handled by Prell Spearing Law Firm, a separate law firm.
Owner’s Policy and Lender’s Policy Are Not the Same Thing
If you are financing, your lender will require a lender’s title policy. That policy protects the lender’s security interest for the balance of the loan. It does not protect you, and it does not pay you anything if a claim wipes out your equity.
The owner’s policy is the one that protects the buyer. It is issued for the purchase price, it lasts as long as you or your heirs hold an interest in the property, and it is paid once at closing. It covers both the loss and the cost of defending the title, which in a contested claim is frequently the larger number. When the two policies are issued together at the same closing, the owner’s policy is available at a reduced simultaneous-issue rate.
Who Pays, and Who Gets to Choose
Nothing in Florida law dictates who pays for the owner’s policy. It is negotiable in the contract. When the contract is silent, county custom decides, and custom changes at the county line:
- Collier County (Naples): the buyer customarily pays.
- Sarasota County (Venice): the buyer customarily pays.
- Lee County (Cape Coral, Fort Myers): the seller customarily pays.
- Charlotte County (Punta Gorda, Port Charlotte): the seller customarily pays.
The party who pays for the policy customarily chooses the title company. If you are the buyer in Collier or Sarasota County, that choice is yours, and it is worth making deliberately rather than accepting a default. Under federal law — RESPA Section 9 — a seller in a residential transaction cannot require you to buy title insurance from a particular company as a condition of the sale.
What to Expect Between Contract and Closing
Your escrow deposit is received and held in a segregated trust account. The title search is ordered and examined. A title commitment is issued, listing what the policy will cover and the requirements that must be satisfied first. Payoffs are ordered, liens are cleared, the survey and any association estoppel letters are reviewed, and municipal lien and permit searches are run. Your lender’s closing instructions are reconciled against the file, and the Closing Disclosure is prepared and delivered.
You will see your figures before closing day, not at the table. If something in the file is going to move a number or a date, you hear about it when it is found.
Start a Purchase Closing
Send us the executed contract and we will open the file and give you a written estimate of your closing costs. Call (239) 400-5540, email Info@esquirelandtitle.com, or use the contact page. Also see our pages for new construction and commercial transactions.