The Miles & Smith Group Louisville Real Estate Blog

Title Insurance – What Is It and Do You Need It?
Posted by Neal Cox on Saturday, December 14, 2019 at 9:41 AM By Neal Cox / December 14, 2019 Comment

When closing a real estate transaction in Kentucky, you will be looking at a long two to three-page document that shows all debits and credits for both sides of the deal. This settlement statement includes descriptions of what each amount is for. In most deals, title insurance appears. If the buyer is financing their purchase, there will be a line for a lender’s policy. There will also be a line for an owner’s policy, which is optional. No other line on the statement raises eyebrows more than this one. And it’s because it’s not always discussed much. So, let’s discuss what it is and if you need it.


Title insurance protects from loss related to ownership issues of a property. The title company will research the history of the property and you will ideally receive a “clean” title. This means you own the property and no one else claims ownership or has a lien against it (a lien means someone has a legal interest in the property). An...

Millennial Home Buyers
Posted by Neal Cox on Thursday, December 5, 2019 at 10:03 AM By Neal Cox / December 5, 2019 Comment

Millennial Home Buyers

I’m old enough to remember when Millennials “weren’t buying homes”. I guess they were wasting all their money on avocado toast or something. For five years now, millennials have passed baby boomers and Gen Xers as home buyers. This tech savvy generation is smart, and they are often looking for something that their elders are not. Specifically, that thing is value.

84% of millennials see owning a home as part of the American Dream. They see it as a great investment and historically, they couldn’t be more right. They witnessed the housing crisis of the early 2000s. While values dropped dramatically, prices have more than recovered. (If you bought right after this crisis struck, your investment has probably skyrocketed!).

Millennials are often looking for their “forever” home right out of the gate. They are patient. They have rented for longer...