Florida Harbor Title & Closing
Morgan Ellis
Title & closing specialist · Brevard County, Florida
Reading what the title search turns up before it becomes your problem.
Handles Florida closings for buyers moving here, where the search, the survey and the association's paperwork all have to agree before money moves. What turns up in the file is explained in plain words while there is still time to act on it, and what gets signed on the day is gone through beforehand rather than slid across a table.
Start here
How a closing gets doneIn this order
Ordering the search early
The day the contract is signed, because everything else waits on it. The search goes through the county records for every deed, mortgage, lien and judgment on the property going back decades, and what comes back is the title commitment. A problem found in week one is a problem with time to fix. The same problem found late moves the closing.
Reading what comes back
Line by line, translated, with a straight answer on what matters and what does not. Schedule B of the commitment lists what has to be done before closing and what the policy will not cover: an unreleased mortgage from a sale years ago, a lien from a contractor, an easement for a utility. Each one is named, and you are told which are routine and which the seller has to clear.
The survey
Ordered and compared against the search rather than filed unread. A surveyor measures the lot and draws what stands on it against the recorded boundaries. If a fence, a pool cage or the neighbor's driveway sits over the line, that is an encroachment, and it is raised with the seller now rather than found by the next buyer.
The association
Chased from the start, since this is the item that most often moves a closing date. In Florida the association's estoppel certificate states what is owed on the property, and the association has a set number of days to answer. Any transfer approval the association requires is applied for in the first week, because it cannot be hurried at the end.
The figures, before the day
You see them with time to ask about them, not at the table. The closing statement lists every figure: the price, the payoff of the seller's mortgage, the taxes and association dues split between the two of you by the day, the recording charges, and what you bring to closing. It is sent days ahead so a question is answered before you sit down.
Closing and recording
Signed, funded, recorded, and you are told when the recording is confirmed. You sign, the funds are confirmed received, and the deed and the mortgage go to the county to be recorded. Wiring instructions are confirmed by a telephone call to a number you found yourself, never from an email, because a changed wire is the fraud that costs Florida buyers the most.
Has closed Florida purchases where the problem was an old permit, an unrecorded heir or a fence three feet into next door. None of those were found on the closing day.
The person who runs your file is the person in the room when it closes.
The day it closes is not the day to find out about the title.
What we doSix things, read before the day
The title search
What is actually recorded against the property. Old liens, unreleased mortgages, an estate that was never finished, and what each one takes to clear.
Title insurance, explained
What the policy covers, what the exceptions on the back page take back out, and the difference between the one the lender requires and the one that protects you.
The survey and the boundaries
Where the line really is, what is encroaching on it, and what the survey shows that the listing photographs did not.
Association paperwork
Estoppel letters, transfer fees and what the association says is owed. In Florida this arrives late and stops closings, so it is asked for early.
Open and expired permits
Work done on the house that was never signed off stays attached to the property, not to whoever did it. Checked before closing, not after.
Escrow and the wire
Funds held and released properly, and wiring instructions confirmed by telephone on a number you looked up yourself. Wire fraud at closing is the single most expensive thing that happens to Florida buyers.
Who it is for
This suits anyone buying a Florida house or condominium, and anyone buying a property that has been in one family a long time. It suits a purchase near water or anywhere the boundary matters, and a property with additions or a renovation behind it. It suits buying from out of state and signing at a distance, and it suits anybody who has been sent wiring instructions by email.
Who it is not for
It does not suit somebody who wants to close this week on a property that has not been searched, anybody who will not read the exceptions on the policy, or commercial and multi-property closings, which are a different business.
What is on the title is answered by the search, not by the seller - and it is better read three weeks early than on the day.
The words you will hearPlain meanings
Florida Harbor Title & Closing
(321) 555-XXXX
Brevard County, Florida · Office · Phone · Remote closing
closings@floridaharbortitle.example
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