Licensed, and price-identical
Title agents and companies are licensed through the Texas Department of Insurance, which keeps a public lookup, and the owner policy premium is promulgated by the state, meaning identical at every company for the same coverage. So the license check is quick, and haggling is pointless. What actually varies is everything else: how fast they clear problems, how well they communicate, and whether your closing lands on the day it was promised.
Vet the communication
Ask two questions when you shop: who exactly will be handling my file, and how do you tell me about problems, on the day you find them or the week before closing? A title company earns its fee in the messy middle, chasing payoffs, releases, and heirs, and the good ones surface issues immediately so there is time to fix them. If you cannot get a straight answer about who owns your file, that is your answer.
Ask about the survey up front
Around here the survey is the piece that quietly slips closings, because good surveyors are genuinely hard to book. Ask whether your deal needs a new survey, whether the existing one can be used, and how early they order it. A title company that names its surveyors and orders in the first week is planning around the local bottleneck; one that shrugs is planning to discover it three days before closing.
- Title agents are licensed through the Texas Department of Insurance
- The premium is identical everywhere, so vet on communication and pace
- Ask how they handle the survey, the common closing bottleneck here
Regulated under the Texas Department of Insurance's title insurance rules
Questions people ask about how to choose a title company
What should I check no matter what?
Four things, every time: proof of liability insurance sent directly from their insurer, not a photocopy; how long they have worked this area under this name; local references you can actually call; and a written scope before any money moves. Anyone offended by those four is answering your question.