How to Choose a Title Company and Open Escrow in Arizona
In Arizona you do not need an attorney to close a home sale: a licensed title and escrow company runs the entire closing. ClozeEZ coordinates that handoff for by-owner sellers and assembles the FSBO title packet, including the lender payoff information escrow needs. Either side can propose which company, with the choice written into the purchase contract. Opening escrow as a FSBO seller takes one step: deliver the signed contract and the buyer's earnest money to the chosen title company, and an escrow officer takes it from there, searching the title, holding all funds, coordinating your loan payoff, and disbursing at closing. Choosing the company before you list, instead of during offer week, is the single easiest way to make your closing calmer.
Understand what you're hiring
The title company wears two hats: title insurer (searching the ownership record and insuring the buyer against defects in it) and escrow agent (the neutral referee holding money and documents until the contract's promises are met). Neutral is the operative word: the escrow officer works for the transaction, not for either side. What you are choosing is competence and responsiveness, not an advocate.
Shop two or three companies before you list
Call escrow branches near you and ask for a seller's net-sheet quote on your expected price: their escrow fee (customarily split with the buyer in Arizona), the owner's title policy premium (customarily paid by the seller), and any document or handling fees. Premiums are similar between insurers; service is not. Ask one telling question: 'Do you regularly close by-owner transactions?' A branch that closes FSBO deals routinely will shepherd unrepresented parties through signing instead of assuming an agent is chasing the paperwork.
Write your choice into the contract
The purchase contract names the title and escrow company for the transaction. As the seller you can propose yours in your counter, and buyers rarely contest it; a buyer's lender may have preferences, and fighting over escrow companies is almost never worth a deal. What matters is that a specific company is named, so acceptance day has an address to send the contract to.
Open escrow the day the contract is signed
Deliver the fully signed contract to the title company and have the buyer deposit the earnest money there per the contract's deadline. ClozeEZ makes that handoff for you, sending the accepted contract and the title packet to the company named in it. Escrow is now open: you get an escrow number, an officer's name, and a preliminary timeline keyed to your closing date. Save the officer's direct phone number from this first packet; it is also your wire-fraud defense later, because every future money instruction gets verified by voice at that number.
Work the escrow checklist
Expect from the title company: a preliminary title report (read it; old liens and unexpected easements surface here, and clearing them early is cheap), payoff orders for your mortgage and any HELOC or solar loan, HOA document ordering where applicable, and the settlement statement before signing. Your jobs: respond fast, disclose every lien you know about on day one, and review the prelim and the settlement statement line by line.
Sign, fund, record
Both sides sign (Arizona routinely uses separate signing appointments, and mobile notaries are common), the buyer's lender funds, the county recorder records the deed, and escrow disburses: lenders paid off, fees paid, your proceeds wired to you, usually the day of recording. The referee hands over the trophies only when both teams have performed, which is the entire reason the system works without anyone's agent in the room.
Related questions
Who pays which title fees in Arizona?
By custom, the seller pays the owner's title policy premium, the buyer pays the lender's policy, and the escrow fee splits roughly in half. All of it is negotiable in the contract, and the calculator on this site carries the typical figures so you can estimate before you list.
Do I ever actually need a lawyer?
For a standard resale, no; the title company handles the closing. Bring in an Arizona real estate attorney for the non-standard: seller financing, a sale out of an estate or trust with disputes, boundary or easement fights, or any contract term you are being pressed to sign and do not understand. An hour of attorney review is cheap against a six-figure transaction.
Can the buyer and seller use different title companies?
The transaction closes through one escrow. In some deals title insurance and escrow services are split or negotiated, but for a typical Arizona resale one company does both, named in the contract, and everyone signs there.