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Re: Need for escrow (by Beck):

karik,

Thanks for disclosing your affiliation.

Mike,

There are three types of companies we've been discussing: - Escrow - Title - Closing Plus having a lawyer do the work, or doing it on your own.

- Buying/Selling your home generally involves a closing process where a title company researches and insures the ownership of the purchase and an escrow company coordinates all the paperwork between buyer, seller, title, legal forms required, and misc vendors. The escrow company is sometimes referred to as a closing company and often the title and escrow companies are owned by the same company, such as Fidelity, Stuart, and others.

- When buying/selling a timeshare, the process tends to be a lot more simplified. I don't know if this is because timeshare sales are not as regulated as homes, or if the value of the timeshare ends up heavily influencing the way closings are performed. One thing is for certain. The timeshare closing company performs the "same" tasks as an escrow company and if they are doing their job correctly they submit an estoppel or other verification form to the resort as well as retrieving the deed from the county (when applicable) to verify ownership and the like. Thus, a timeshare closing company also performs tasks which are similar but not the same as a title company.

A title and escrow company can perform closings for timeshares (even though they tend to use the same docs as for home closings and tend to be difficult, which is why I don't like using them), but I'm pretty confident a timeshare closing company is not quailified to perform closings for homes. Maybe they could process the escrow responsibilities but not the title.