You always hear the ads on the radio about it. Is it actually something that the average person should worry about?

This is absolutely a scam. If your deed is recorded with the county clerk, no one can come in and take title to your property.

The only place i've somewhat seen it was in eviction court. Whereas, I do not know the t's & c's here goes:


"Tenant" was being evicted from a home he was contracted to buy via "owner finance" ... rent to own b/c he had stopped paying rent under the pretense that he had fulfilled contract to buy and was now the owner.

The eviction was null and void and per the judge "you two need a real court b/c you have a serious mess on your hands"

("Landlord" / seller) skipped a payment on a certain lien to the house.

("Tenant" buyer) paid off the lien to the home b/c he had paperwork showing he was the owner.

The contract had some section in contract showing that if seller was delinquent in certain areas that the buyer could take the house from the seller assuming a certain ratio of value / equity / something else was achieved.



Brief - seller skipped payments, buyer assumed payments. Under that contract, a title company agreed that the buyer of the house was now "full owner."


Apparently, the seller knew about the contract issue and just didn't believe it would happen. In court he said he likely lost over 100k of equity...

There are a good number of Texas counties that are collaborating with this free service.

https://www.propertyfraudalert.com/

It is an utter and complete scam. There is no such thing as stealing someone's title.

This reminds me of another thing that I consider a scam. It is coverage for your gas line and exterior water line through HomeServe with the blessings of CenterPoint Energy. Got a letter from HomeServe today (I get 4 to 6 every year). For nearly $8 a month, you get the coverage, after a year it goes to over $15 a month.

I am thinking about offering coverage for any roof damage caused by a T-Rex, patterned after this HomeServe thing.