Most buyers accept whichever title company their agent or loan officer names first, assuming the choice was already made for them. It wasn’t. Federal law gives you the right to shop for and select your own title insurance company, and because ancillary closing fees vary widely between providers, that single decision can move your cash-to-close number by several hundred dollars.

Below is a plain explanation of the statute that protects that right, how affiliated business arrangements complicate it, and exactly which line items are worth comparing before you sign.

Yes, the Choice Is Legally Yours

Section 9 of the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA), codified at 12 U.S.C. 2608, states that no seller of property may require, directly or indirectly, that the buyer purchase title insurance from any particular company as a condition of the sale. A seller who violates it can be liable to the buyer for three times the amount of all charges made for the title insurance.

That is not a technicality buried in fine print. It is the reason listing agents cannot lawfully make “seller’s title company” a take-it-or-leave-it term of a residential contract in most transactions.

Your lender has a slightly different standing. A lender may set reasonable requirements for the policy protecting its own lien (rating standards for the underwriter, for example), and it may reject a provider for genuine cause, but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s RESPA guidance treats most settlement services as shoppable by the borrower. On your Loan Estimate, look at Section C: “Services You Can Shop For.” Title services almost always sit there.

The written list of providers

Within three business days of your application, the lender must give you a written list of providers for every service in Section C. That list is a starting point, not a mandate. Choose a company off the list and your fees usually remain inside the 10 percent tolerance bucket; choose one that is not listed and the tolerance limit no longer applies, which is worth knowing but rarely a reason to skip shopping.

The Hidden Cost of “Affiliated” Recommendations

Plenty of brokerages, builders and mortgage companies own a piece of a title agency or share revenue through an Affiliated Business Arrangement (ABA). Others use Marketing Services Agreements (MSAs), where the title insurance company pays a monthly fee for advertising or office space and, in practice, receives a steady stream of referrals.

None of that is automatically illegal. RESPA Section 8 permits ABAs when three conditions are met:

• The relationship is disclosed to you in writing at or before referral, on an Affiliated Business Arrangement Disclosure form.
• You are told, in that disclosure, that you are not required to use the affiliated provider.
• Nothing of value passes between the parties other than a return on ownership interest.

The problem is what those arrangements do to incentives. When the referral source has a financial stake in the outcome, price competition tends to disappear, and the bundled quote you receive may carry padded ancillary charges: a $95 “document preparation” fee here, a $75 “email/technology” fee there, a courier charge for documents that were never couriered.

Read the disclosure you sign. If it includes an estimated charge range and a line saying you may shop around, treat that as an invitation rather than a formality.

Where the Savings Actually Come From

Here is the part that surprises most buyers: in several states, the title insurance premium itself is not where you save.  

What does vary, sometimes dramatically, is everything around the premium:

• Settlement or closing fee: typically $350 to $1,200 depending on the market and file complexity. This is the single widest spread between providers.
• Title search and examination: often $150 to $450, occasionally bundled into the premium, occasionally itemized twice.
• Endorsements: lender-required endorsements (survey, environmental protection lien, PUD, ARM) commonly run $50 to $250 each, and some agencies quote them at flat percentages of premium instead.
• Wire and courier fees: $25 to $75 apiece. Reasonable when real, junk when reflexive.
• Attorney review or document preparation: anywhere from $0 at firms with in-house counsel to $600 at agencies that outsource legal review.
• Municipal and payoff processing: lien letters, tax certifications and payoff-order fees that some companies mark up and others pass through at cost.

Then there are discounts a diligent title insurance company will actually apply. The reissue rate can cut the owner’s premium by roughly 20 to 40 percent when the property was insured within the prior 10 years (state rules vary on the lookback window and required documentation). A simultaneous-issue rate reduces the lender’s policy to a nominal charge when both policies are written together. Refinance and builder rates work similarly.

How to Evaluate Title Insurance Companies

Price matters, but a cheap quote from a company that misses a judgment lien or blows a closing date is not a bargain. 

Compare on these five points:

Written, itemized quotes. Ask for a fee sheet that separates premium, search, endorsements and third-party costs. A refusal to itemize is informative.

Legal depth. Ask who resolves a defective deed, an unreleased mortgage from 1998, or a missing estate signature. Title firms with real estate attorneys on staff clear those clouds without adding outside counsel fees.

Licensing and underwriters. Confirm the agency is licensed in your state and appointed by a financially sound underwriter (Fidelity, First American, Old Republic, Stewart and similar).

Wire fraud controls. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center has tracked billions in annual real estate and rental fraud losses. Ask about callback verification, encrypted portals and whether they will ever email you new wire instructions (the answer should be no).

Responsiveness before you commit. If nobody returns a pre-contract question within a business day, imagine chasing them for a payoff letter three days before closing.

Red flags Worth Walking Away From

• An agent or seller insisting a specific title company is “required” by the contract or the lender.
• A quote delivered only verbally, or a lump-sum number with no breakdown.
• Pressure to sign an ABA disclosure without time to read it.
• Fees appearing on the Closing Disclosure that never appeared on any earlier estimate.
• No named point of contact, or a different processor on every email thread.

When to Exercise Your Right

The practical window opens the moment you go under contract and effectively closes when the lender orders the title. Once a search is opened and a commitment issued, switching companies mid-stream usually means paying for duplicate work and risking your closing date.

So the sequence is: get written PA title insurance rates before you sign the agreement of sale if possible, name your chosen title insurance company in the contract or in your first conversation with the loan officer, and compare that quote against your Loan Estimate when it arrives. Three phone calls, made in the right week, are worth more than any negotiation attempted at the closing table.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can a seller require me to use their title company?

No. RESPA Section 9 (12 U.S.C. 2608) prohibits a seller from requiring the buyer to purchase title insurance from any particular company as a condition of sale, and a violating seller can owe the buyer three times all title insurance charges. Sellers may choose their own settlement provider for their side of the transaction, but they cannot bind yours.

If premium rates are regulated, does shopping actually save money?

Yes, typically $200 to $900 on a residential purchase, because the savings come from closing fees, endorsements, document and courier charges, and correctly applied reissue discounts rather than the premium itself. In rate-regulated states like Pennsylvania and New York, the base premium will match across agencies while the surrounding fees will not.

Will my lender let me pick a title company that isn’t on its list?

Usually yes, as long as the company is licensed, appointed by an acceptable underwriter and able to meet the lender’s closing requirements. Choosing an off-list provider does move that fee out of the 10 percent tolerance bucket, so confirm the quote in writing before the lender orders title.

What is a reissue rate and how do I qualify?

A reissue rate is a discounted owner’s premium, commonly 20 to 40 percent below the basic rate, available when the property carried a title insurance policy within roughly the last 10 years. You generally need a copy of the prior owner’s policy or settlement statement, so search your files or ask the seller before closing.

Who pays for title insurance, the buyer or the seller?

It depends on local custom and your contract: in Pennsylvania and New York the buyer usually pays, while in parts of Florida and Texas the seller commonly covers the owner’s policy. Whoever pays, the buyer retains the federal right to choose the provider for services the buyer is purchasing.

Compare Your Closing Costs Before You Sign

Run your numbers through World Wide Land Transfer’s title fee calculator for an itemized, no-obligation quote that shows premium, endorsements and closing fees separately, with any reissue discount already applied. If you would rather have an attorney walk the figures with you, call our team and we will review your Loan Estimate line by line.