Curative title work is the process of resolving the defects that keep a property from being sold and insured — a deceased owner still sitting in the chain of title, liens that were never released, unpaid property taxes and tax suits. On a distressed acquisition, this work is the difference between a closing and a dead file, and it is not something every title company knows how to do.
Jessica LaFair owns Cottonwood Title Company in Texas, is second-generation in the business with 18 years in it, and says the most common call she gets is from an investor whose title company either can’t or won’t work their deal. That call usually comes after the property is already under contract.
Below: what curative actually covers, the transaction types most shops quietly decline, why the skill is thinning out industry-wide, how to screen a closer before you sign, and the wire controls you should confirm before funding anything.
Key takeaways
- Curative work aims at insurable title, not just clear title — insurability is what protects your exit, because you are either the end buyer or the one finding the end buyer.
- Deals in the $25,000 to $150,000 range with complex structures are the ones title companies decline most often: small file, high labor, no upside for a volume shop.
- Wraps, double closes and layered assignments require a closer who knows what information can be shared with which party. LaFair has handled a quadruple assignment on a single deal.
- There is no school for title curative work — capability sits with individual people, not brand names, so vet the closer assigned to your file, not the logo on the door.
- A defect surfacing at the 11th hour usually means the file wasn’t worked properly up front, unless something recorded after the initial title pull.
From the Real Estate Pros Show
This article draws on an interview with Jessica LaFair of Cottonwood Title Company on the Real Estate Pros Show, hosted by Scott Bursey.
What Curative Title Work Actually Means
Curative title work is everything a title company does to remove clouds from a chain of ownership so the property can be conveyed and insured. In practice, on distressed deals, that means three recurring problems: someone in the chain died and the estate was never properly handled, liens remain attached and unreleased, and delinquent taxes or an active tax suit sit against the parcel.
The target is not “clear” in a loose sense. It is insurable. An underwriter has to be willing to write a policy on the property, and that is a legal determination, not a paperwork exercise.
LaFair frames why this matters more for investors than for retail buyers: “Most of our investors, they either are the buyer or they’re finding the buyer. And so either way, they are looking to be able to clear that so that whenever they sell it to someone else to make that profit, that it is sellable. It’s insurable.”
That is the underwriting point. You are not buying title for your own comfort. You are buying it so the person you exit to can get a policy and, in most cases, get financed. A property you can take title to but cannot pass on cleanly is inventory, not a deal.
Which is why curative capability belongs in your diligence before you go under contract, not after. The seller with an inherited house they can’t pay taxes on, the owner who just received a foreclosure notice, the family with a tax suit pending — LaFair describes these as exactly the population investors serve. They are also the files that generate the most curative work. The margin lives in the defects. So does the risk.
The Deals Most Title Companies Quietly Decline
The most common complaint LaFair hears from investors is not that a title company failed on a deal. It’s that they wouldn’t take it, or took it and stalled.
She describes the pattern directly: title companies that “don’t want to work on my deal because the deal is maybe somewhere between $25,000 to $150,000, and it comes with a lot of dynamic needs.” Or the second version — the company took it and then discovered they didn’t know how to close the structure.
The structures that trip shops up:
- Wrap transactions — an existing loan stays in place beneath a new note
- Double closes — two separate transactions funded and recorded in sequence
- Assignments, including double assignments
- Layered assignments — LaFair has closed a deal with four assignments stacked on it
The economics explain the reluctance. A $60,000 file with a deceased owner in the chain and a tax suit takes more hours than a $400,000 financed MLS purchase, and generates a fraction of the premium. Volume shops are built to process clean, financed, agent-driven transactions at speed. A file that needs legal research, probate analysis and coordination between three or four parties who each see different numbers doesn’t fit that machine.
There’s a second layer beyond mechanics. On assignment deals, the closer has to know what information can be disclosed to whom. LaFair calls these “sensitive transactions where you have to know what information you can share with who and what keeps the process moving smoothly towards closing.” A closer who mishandles that can blow up a spread — or a relationship — without ever making a technical error on the title itself.
Because there’s no school for what we do, it’s the school of hard knocks. You either have to be trained on how to do it or you have to learn how to do it. It’s not something that software can teach you or a button you can push.
— Jessica LaFair, Cottonwood Title Company
Why the Skill Is Disappearing From the Industry
There is no formal training pipeline for title curative work. LaFair is blunt about it: “because there’s no school for what we do, it’s the school of hard knocks. And you either have to be trained on how to do it or you have to learn how to do it. And it’s not something that software can teach you or a button you can push.”
That single fact explains most of what investors experience when they call around for a title company. The knowledge transfers person to person or not at all. As the generation that learned it retires, and as software gets better at automating the clean transactions, fewer people ever encounter the hard files — and fewer still get taught how to work them.
LaFair’s own path illustrates the point. She is second generation; her mother ran a title company in North Texas. She started professionally in 2008 and worked from a receptionist seat up through back-office operations before opening Cottonwood in 2020. Her comment on it: “in our industry, there’s a lot of individuals that learn just one sector of what our business is made up of.”
The practical takeaway for an investor is uncomfortable but useful. Curative capability is a property of individuals, not brands. A national title brand with a strong name in your market may assign your file to a processor who has only ever closed financed resales. A three-person shop may have a closer with twenty years of probate and tax-suit experience.
Ask who is working your file. Ask what they have closed. The logo tells you nothing.
How to Vet a Title Company Before You Go Under Contract
Screen the title company the same way you screen a contractor — before you commit, with specific questions about work they have actually done.
- Have you closed this exact structure? Not “do you do investor deals.” Name it: a wrap, a double close, a two-party assignment, a four-party assignment. Ask how many and when. Vague answers are answers.
- When do you pull title, and how do you report defects? You want title pulled immediately and problems surfaced in writing early, not discovered while everyone is waiting on a HUD.
- How do you manage information flow between parties on an assignment? Ask them to walk you through who sees which figures. If they haven’t thought about it, they haven’t done many.
- What happens if something records after your initial pull? There should be a defined process — who checks, when, and who gets the call.
- Who specifically is handling my file, and what is their background? Get a name.
- What is your relationship with your underwriter and counsel? LaFair works with underwriters and counsel on unfamiliar complexities. A shop with no escalation path will simply decline your file when it gets interesting.
On late surprises, LaFair sets the standard clearly: “if we find out something at the 11th hour, truly, we probably weren’t doing our job correctly.” Her exception is narrow — something recorded against the property after the initial title search. Everything else should have been found up front.
Use that as your benchmark. A company that treats 11th-hour discoveries as normal is telling you how they work files.
Fees, Turnaround and Closing Logistics Worth Comparing
Escrow fees and closing logistics vary widely, and on small distressed files a few hundred dollars in escrow charges is a real percentage of the spread. Ask for the full fee schedule before you commit, not the estimate at closing.
One concrete structure, as described by LaFair for Cottonwood Title Company in Texas:
- No escrow fee on transactions over $250,000 — title premium only
- Flat $500 escrow fee on transactions under $250,000
- No escrow fees on refinances, regardless of size
- Complimentary notary on both sides of the transaction
That is one company’s pricing in one state, not a market standard, and title premiums themselves are regulated differently state to state. Use it as a reference point for what to ask about, not as a benchmark to demand elsewhere.
Closing logistics matter more than most investors budget for. Cottonwood built its practice around mobile closings starting before 2020, and offers remote online notarization along with mobile notaries who will meet a party at their home, office, or a coffee shop. For distressed sellers who can’t take time off work, and for out-of-state or overseas buyers, that flexibility is often what keeps a closing date.
LaFair also runs on a 24/7 availability model — nights, weekends and holidays, with Good Friday as the stated exception. Her reason is practical: some clients are abroad, and “2 a.m. my time is 2 p.m. their time.” If you regularly close with foreign buyers or sellers in other time zones, ask what hours a closer actually answers the phone.
Wire Fraud and Disbursement Controls
Verify wire instructions by phone, using a number you already had, before sending a dollar. Asked for the most expensive lesson of her career, LaFair’s answer was immediate: “Double check your wires. When you’re sending out money, make sure you’re sending it to the correct place.”
Her assessment of the industry is worth taking seriously: “I think every title company has had one scare in the history of their being.” Early in her career, her firm did not have the controls it has now. Today Cottonwood runs dual authentication and dual approvals on disbursements.
Before you fund a closing, confirm four things with the closer:
- Dual approval on outgoing wires. Ask whether one person can release funds alone. If yes, that’s a single point of failure.
- Verification callback procedure. How do they confirm the seller’s or your wire instructions, and what number do they call?
- How they will send instructions to you. Establish up front that instructions never change by email, and that any change requires a voice call to a number you initiate.
- Who is authorized to speak about funds on your file. Get names.
Do the same in reverse. When you receive wire instructions from anyone in a transaction, call the sender at a number from your own records — not the one in the email signature — and read the account digits back. Fraudulent instructions are usually well-written, correctly branded, and arrive at exactly the moment you expect them.
A wire lost to fraud is generally gone. There is no curative work for that one.
Frequently asked questions
What is curative title work and when does an investor need it?
Curative title work is the research and legal work required to remove defects from a property’s chain of ownership so the property can be conveyed and insured. The most common defects on distressed acquisitions are a deceased owner still in the chain, unreleased liens, and unpaid taxes or an active tax suit.
You need it any time the title commitment comes back with exceptions that would prevent your end buyer from obtaining an owner’s policy. Because most investors either are the buyer or are finding the buyer, insurability is what protects the exit — not just the acquisition.
Which transaction types do most title companies refuse to close?
According to Jessica LaFair of Cottonwood Title Company, the deals that get declined most often are smaller files — roughly $25,000 to $150,000 — that carry complex requirements, plus any structure the shop hasn’t handled before. That list typically includes wraps, double closes, assignments, double assignments and deeper layered assignments.
The reason is economic as much as technical. These files take substantially more labor than a clean financed resale while generating far less premium, so volume-oriented shops have little reason to take them on.
How do I know whether a title company can handle a double close or a multi-layer assignment?
Ask them to describe the last one they closed. Name your exact structure and ask how many they have done, how they sequence funding and recording, and how they control which figures each party sees. A company that has closed layered assignments will answer specifically and quickly.
Also ask who will personally handle your file and what that individual’s background is. Curative and complex-structure capability sits with individual closers, not with the company name on the sign.
What should I ask a title company about wire fraud protection before sending funds?
Ask whether outgoing wires require dual approval, whether the firm uses dual authentication, what their callback verification procedure is, and who on their team is authorized to discuss funds on your file. LaFair added dual authentication and dual approvals at Cottonwood after learning the hard way early in her career.
Then protect your own side. Never accept changed wire instructions by email, and always verify account details by calling a number you already had on file rather than one supplied in the message.
Why does a title defect show up at the 11th hour, and what can be done about it?
Usually because the file wasn’t worked properly at the start. LaFair’s standard is direct: if her team finds something at the 11th hour, they probably weren’t doing their job correctly. The legitimate exception is a document that recorded after the initial title search.
When it does happen, the response is immediate disclosure with a proposed solution — calls to underwriters and counsel, and a clear explanation to the client of what surfaced, why it surfaced late, and what resolving it will take. Prevention is the real answer: pull title early and demand a written defect list up front.
The bottom line
Before your next distressed property goes under contract, call the title company you plan to use and ask them to describe the last file they closed with your exact structure and defect profile. If the answer is vague, or if you can’t get the name of the person who will work the file, find another closer while you still have the option.
