If you're buying a foreclosure, you definitely want to purchase an owner's policy.
"This is a time when, as a buyer, I'd want to make sure I had that policy," says Joseph Pigg, vice president and senior counsel for the American Bankers Association.
Before closing, get a copy of your title insurance policy and read it. Pay special attention to Schedule B, where the title company spells out what it won't cover, says Georgette Chapman Phillips, professor of real estate and law at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
"Schedule A giveth, and Schedule B taketh away," she says.