A house changes hands in about ninety minutes, and almost everything that determines whether the transfer works happened in the weeks before anyone sat down. This article explains what a title commitment actually says, why the exceptions matter more than the coverage, and what the escrow agent is really doing with the money. It covers the settlement process itself, the disclosures that govern it, and the kickback rules that shape which companies get referred business. It then covers title insurance claims — what is covered, what is excluded, and why the policy is not what most buyers think it is. It closes with the failure modes: the survey nobody ordered, the exception nobody read, the lien nobody found, and the wire instructions nobody verified.