Real estate attorneys: is title insurance needed?

Short answer:
1. Forgeries
2. Fraud
3. Unmentioned babies
4. 3 year limitation on legal malpractice

There are certain thing that can't be seen. After 3 years, you can't sue the attorney. Owner's title is effectively an extension of prescription. I don't do a ton of real estate (although my firm does), but I never push it. We have to present the option, and that's what I do. If I've done 100 closings in the past 2 years, I've had maybe 3 people buy it.

ETA: I don't have it on my residence and probably never will.

It's needed. A potential claim against the closing attorney isn't actionable forever.

I never push owner's insurance. My state requires we inform the purchaser of its availability, but in all the years we've closed I've probably done ten owner's policies out of hundreds and hundreds of closings.

As for the prices and rates quoted in this thread they are much higher than the customary rates in our area. Our firm writes for 3 different companies and we have preferred commission rates based on our volume. Even then I've never seen or heard of an 80/20 split. Would love to have that rate but ours is 70/30. Maybe other states are different.

Also $700+ for a title search is ridiculous unless it's commercial property, the chain is really out of whack, or there is a lot of work needed to clear title and they bump those costs over to search fees.