Comments about ‘Senator fights mandatory escrow fees imposed by state commission’

The government has absolutely no business being involved in this area. The sole purpose of government is to protect us from criminal acts and from invasion by foreign powers.

Valentine's bill should just eliminate the Title and Escrow Commission. One less government bureaucracy to feed and maintain. So many bureaucrats, so little time and money.

Now how come the people we vote for would be against something for the average person? This way of system does no longer work.

Closing costs on homes should be standardized becasue the buyers do not get to pick who does the closing and some are unscroulous in what they charge. Realtors also get kickbacks in the process and the system has become corrupt. The only variance is the loan amount and interest fees of loans, everything else costs the same. The appraisals fees are one of the biggest ripoffs because all an appraiser does is look up tax records for a fee of $300-$500 dollars. Then they charge a much higher fee if they are requested to do a physical appraisal. The buyer or seller can do research appraising for under $15. The biggest hazard for home buyers is the lack of complete research of liens on the property. When a new or used home is sold, the home should be exempt to buyer from any liens by contractors, builders, or developers. New homes should have a mandatory 5 year full warranty from developer on materials, appliances, and workmanship. Escrow and closing costs have become an eyesore and high financial burden in buying a home. If the industry doesn't want to clean up their act, then legislation is called for.

Sounds like price fixing to me. Wonder who sits on that commission? Anything that makes housing more affordable right now is the right thing to do. Good job, Sen. Valentine

To standardize, what an amazing grasp of the untrue you seem to have! Buyers and seller DO get to pick who does the closing. In fact, they can (and often do) select different companies. Incidentally, especially as this is a non-disclosure State, if all an appraiser did to determine value was to "look up the tax records", they'd have, at best, the County Assessors opinion of value, which is traditionally low. If they looked at the deed, they'd mostly see amount paid as "10 dollars & other consideration". Not much use in determining value. Also, since you don't know already, Title Insurance does exactly what you say is required regarding leins on the property. Some even insure water rights. This Bill is part of the "industry cleaning up their act". Finally as I'm a Realtor, please post the names of these Title Companies that are giving us kickbacks at risk of their licence, livelihood and even freedom. Title Companies can't even buy donuts for a sales meeting! I'd love to know who is managing to do this and letting an idiot like you find out about it! Have a nice day!

Standardize all closing costs... wow you must be an apartment dweller. You really have no clue about home ownership.

You should stay in an apartment as you have no courage to own a home with out the developer taking care of everything for you. There is risk in home ownership and you apparently lack the education to own a home of your own.

Sorry, perhaps Obama can fix everything for you and you will have no fears of risk.

Keep the government and bureacracy out of private business.

The assumption that standardizing fees is an across the board increase is laughable. In fact for transactions under 180,000 the fees are decreasing and the majority of companies will make less money. The ironic thing is that the legislature created the title and escrow commission under the umbrella of the insurance department to make these decisions.
Many people don't know that these companies have to follow strict rules and they are governed by the same people that regulate life, auto, and health insurance. Each of these other industries have to file rates (Yes they are standard rates, the same as for your car) and have heavily regulated fees.
The reason for standardizing fees it help smaller independant companies remain viable.
Is Senator Valentine against small business or just title companies?
The incredible thing to me is that the minutes and schedule for the title and escrow commission are available online through the state insurance department and this change has been discussed for months. There has been public hearings and more than ample time for discussion. This is a new thing. Why Senator Valentine just figuring this out now?

Thank you Valentine for trying to bring some reason back. I called the Insurance dept today after reading this article over the weekend. I proceeded to have one the weirdest conversation I have EVER with a government official. I was told that the current Insurance law requires ALL Title companies to be profitable. And with the current slowdown they are not. And they were raising and standardizing the fee for that purpose PERIOD! I asked what if business is down 70-80% like it is. What if a Title company has opened 10 branches and over expanded. What if a title company has too much office space and overhead or too many employees. I was told that did not matter and they had no control what so ever over that. But that they MUST MAKE money period. This is the craziest thing I have ever heard of.

The key here is that title companies cannot offer services at below cost because such pricing is considered an inducement to entice real estate agents to use their services, with the effect of driving other title/escrow companies out of business. Such inducements and anit-competitive behavior has been prohibited for years by the Utah Code. However, the code was not intended to be a backstop to keep poorly managed title companies from going out of business. Unfortunately, this wrong-headed legislation is designed to do just that--and that's where the commission has overstepped its charter, asking through minimum fees, for the public to financially support unprofitable title companies. Thank goodness the legislature stepped in and sunsetted this rule: both the title/escrow industry and the public will be better off.