Have you done your own title search at the courthouse? Probably a good idea to buy it since you will be building a house on the lot.

ditto.....if you're serious about buying talk to a ^*%&@#$ lawyer.

And how much liability do the closing agent and seller have if this goes south? Pay for the insurance....

An actual title search is always part of a land purchase where I live

Consider the size of your investment versus the cost of the insurance. It's ridiculous to not protect that investment for the small price of the insurance. Buy the insurance. It's typically less than $1000.

Yes, you want title insurance.

You don't want to build a house on this property, then find out that someone else has a lien against it ... or that some conveniently-never-mentioned ex-wife owned half of it ... or that someone owns the mineral rights. Skipping title insurance is the epitome of being penny-wise and pound foolish.

At this moment, you could walk away from the property ... once you build a house, however, if someone else "owns a share" of this property, they'd have you over a barrel.

Make sure you get a survey too even though you are paying cash.

You want to know exactly what you are buying and in order to remove MANY title exceptions, you need a survey. Since you plan to build anyway, you will need a survey. Survey's are good for a long time. I think 10 years but it could be longer.

Read the title commitment too. Make sure you read the entire commitment and ask for the cover of the title insurance policy to review because that is where the standard conditions are in addition to Exhibits A and B. Make sure you understand the exceptions. Make sure the title company removes the survey restrictions prior to closing if you get the survey. I have seen title companies fail to do that and it is not a good thing.

Best advice above...get an attorney to represent you in this purchase. Another inexpensive solution to the problem of "you don't know what you don't know".

Always get title insurance and a survey. There is a vacant lot for sale near where we live. According to the realtor, the current owner placed it for sale and had a buyer who opted for title insurance. The title wasn't clean and the buyer (of course) backed out. It's been two years and the current owner still hasn't cleared it all up.

If you choose to buy the title insurance be sure you read and understand the limits of liability. Most policies only insure for the value you pay for the land. Say you buy the land for 50K, put a 300k house on it and find a defect. You are only insured for 50K not the total of your improvements. (I am no legal expert but this is what I learned when purchasing land recently).

I don't know where this lot is, but in many parts of New England, getting a clear title is very difficult as often empty land contains Indian rights.