Saving & Spending

Are You Ripe to Get Ripped Off?

By Brad Tuttle | @bradrtuttle | May 24, 2010 | +

In three recent rip-off round-ups, title insurance and college textbooks have consumers riled up, as have unnecessarily expensive—or just plain unnecessary—home repair jobs.

Len Penzo ponders “The 5 Biggest Home Repair Rip-offs,” based on an old Readers’ Digest story. Basically, the home repair “specialists” doing the ripping off play off the ignorance and/or fear of homeowners—who will pay anything to fix leaky roofs or damp basements, or to rid their houses of mold or termites. The problem is that the, um, problem may be exaggerated, and there are often solutions available that are much less expensive than the one being suggested by the plumber or roofer giving you an estimate.

Bargaineering, meanwhile, takes on “The Five Biggest Legal Rip-offs Ever, including title insurance, college textbooks, and extended warranties.

And Forbes’ “10 Ways You’re Getting Ripped Off also cites title insurance and college textbooks, along with prepackaged deli meat, ready-to-drink baby formula, and cable TV.

Are you in the mood to get worked up over other rip-offs? If so, check out “Life’s Little Rip-offs that Drive Consumers Nuts” and “America’s Biggest Rip-offs, and How to Avoid Them.” Enjoy the outrage.

Related Topics: baby formula, cable TV, college textbooks, deli meat, extended warranties, rip-offs, title insurance, Real Estate & Homes, Saving & Spending

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  • altaonline

    The articles regarding title insurance fail to mention the many benefits the coverage provides homebuyers and misrepresents the cost of title insurance.

    There is a great deal of work that goes into the production of a title insurance policy. For a one-time fee, a title agent examines the history of a property contained in public records, where they find issues in one out of every three title searches. This work is needed to ensure clear ownership to a property.

    Beyond assuring free and clear ownership, title insurance protects against errors in deeds, forgery, fraudulent conveyances, mistakes in public records and errors in estate proceedings that have happened prior to the closing of the transactions.

    In addition to the purchase price of the home, there are fees paid at the closing table including taxes, real estate commissions and mortgage fees. Title insurance is only a small fraction of these other expenses associated with closing on a home, and in most cases is less than 1 percent of all loan costs.

    It would have been nice if the author of this blog would have reached out to the title insurance industry to learn more about the benefits of title insurance instead of simply re-running a misleading headline.

    If you would like more information on how title insurance protects consumers, please go to http://www.homeclosing101.org.

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