Two title quotes $6,400 apart on the same purchase. Which part is rate?

What does simultaneous issue mean here? Is the $250 loan policy really insuring $1.65M for two hundred and fifty dollars?

Who customarily pays for the owner's policy where you are? I've seen it described as buyer paid in some states and seller paid in others, sometimes varying county to county inside one state, so before you argue over $6,400 it seems worth knowing whose $6,400 it is by local custom and what your contract actually says.

Survey. On a 14 unit with parking, getting the survey exception deleted usually means producing a current ALTA survey, and that's a few thousand dollars nobody has put in either quote. If B assumed the deletion and A didn't, that's most of your premium gap and the real number is worse than both.

Title charges split into pieces that behave differently, and the split is where your answer is.

The insurance premium comes from the underwriter's rate schedule. In most states the underwriter files that schedule with the regulator, and in a few states, Texas and New Mexico among them, the rate is promulgated so every agency quotes the same premium for the same coverage. In a file and use state, two agencies representing two different underwriters can both be quoting correctly and still differ. Ask each agency which underwriter it writes for, then ask for the section of the filed schedule the quote comes from.

Simultaneous issue is the reduced loan policy charge when an owner's policy is issued at the same closing on the same property. A flat charge in the low hundreds is common where it applies.

Reissue is a discount for insuring land that carried a prior policy, generally within a window stated in the filed rules, and it usually requires producing a copy of that prior policy. It commonly applies to the coverage amount of the earlier policy, with the increase above that priced at the standard rate. The window, the percentage, and what documentation counts all sit in the rate rules, so ask each agency to point at the paragraph it's applying rather than take a yes or no over the phone.

Settlement and closing fees are generally not rate regulated, and that is where wide spreads between quotes often live, along with the endorsement package. Endorsements are priced per form. Your lender's closing instructions should state in writing which ones it requires, and anything beyond that list is a conversation.

Which quote is cheaper depends on the exceptions each commitment carries, because two differently priced policies covering different exceptions are different products.

Don't get excited about reissue on a 2019 policy. If he insured his purchase price and the property has moved up since, the discount rides on the old amount and the rest is full freight. Still worth the ask. The seller's closing packet is usually a PDF his attorney or the old title company still has, so it's one email, not a basement.

The settlement fee spread is $1,450 and you're going to spend more than that in aggravation if the escrow desk can't handle a multifamily payoff cleanly. On my eight unit the prior lender sent a payoff good through a date that had already passed, and the closer who caught it saved me a week. I'd take the cheaper premium and interview the closer at both shops before deciding on the settlement side.

Run it as basis points. A is 48 bps of purchase price, B is 72. On a deal where the rent roll assumption is worth 300 bps of value if you're wrong about it, a 24 bp difference in one time closing cost is not where I'd spend the week. @fathom's exception comparison is the part with real money in it, because a missed easement or an unreleased mechanics lien is a five figure problem after you own it.

The thing I only learned recently is that the owner's policy is a one time premium that lasts as long as you own it, so it isn't an annual expense you can compare to insurance. Doesn't tell you which quote to take, it just changed how I thought about the number.