West Palm Beach Title Company

West Palm Beach has a quiet claim to fame: it is the oldest incorporated municipality in South Florida, established in November 1894, a full two years before Miami. It began as the practical half of Henry Flagler's vision. The island of Palm Beach got the grand hotels; the mainland across the water got the town where the people who built and ran those hotels actually lived. Flagler had it platted, the early streets were named alphabetically for native plants, and a community took root that has been recording deeds longer than almost anywhere else in the region.

That length of history is more than a talking point. A city this old holds some of the longest chains of title in South Florida, parcels that have passed through many hands across more than a century, and a long chain is where the small defects accumulate: an old mortgage paid but never released, a gap in the record, a lien from an owner three transactions back. Surfacing those is the everyday work of a careful title search, which raises whatever it finds as an exception in the title commitment so it can be cleared before closing and stood behind by the owner's and lender's policies we issue through Commonwealth Land Title and First American. Before closing we walk through that commitment with you, so each exception, an old easement, a setback, a covenant from decades back, is something you understand in advance rather than discover after a renovation is already underway. On a property with a century of history behind it, the search also confirms there are no unpaid municipal charges or open permits left by earlier owners, and the owner's policy we issue then protects that title for as long as you hold it.

West Palm Beach also wears its history in its neighborhoods. Districts like El Cid and Flamingo Park carry historic designations that shape what an owner may do with a property, the kind of detail worth understanding before a purchase rather than during a renovation. Alongside those older streets, a wave of downtown development has added condominium towers and new construction, and buying into a condominium means buying into its association, so the building's finances, assessments, and disclosures all belong under the same careful review. Compared with the barrier-island towns nearby, West Palm Beach remains a relatively attainable market, which brings a healthy mix of primary-home buyers, investors, and newcomers to the area.

A market that ranges from century-old chains of title to brand-new towers is exactly the kind of work a boutique, counsel-led firm handles well. Union Title Services has been closing Florida transactions since 1985, family-owned and led through the affiliated Law Offices of Thomas G. Sherman, P.A. We are based in Coral Gables and we close throughout Florida, so a West Palm Beach closing sits comfortably within our work. Being counsel-led is the part that pays off when a historic-district question or a tangled older chain needs sorting: an attorney is part of your file from the start, not a referral you chase later. It is also worth saying plainly that Florida sets title insurance premiums by law, so the rate is the same at every agency; what differs is who handles your file and whether you can reach them.

Call our office and you reach the people actually closing your file, with the lawyer in the same building rather than a far-off call center. Whether you are buying a first home near the El Cid live oaks, selling a downtown condominium, or lending on either, we will make sure the record is clean before you sign. When a West Palm Beach closing is on the horizon, we would be glad to talk it through. Reach us at (305) 444-4508.