"What Does a Kansas Title Company Charge to Close Your Loan? The State Publishes Every Filing"

Page two of your Loan Estimate, section C, Services You Can Shop For. Title - Settlement Fee is there, and beside it is the name of a title company you have never heard of, chosen by somebody you have not met. You are buying in Overland Park, or refinancing the home you already own in Wichita, and a few hundred dollars on that page belongs to whoever is at the head of the closing table. In Kansas, that company's closing fee is already a public record, and so is the fee of the company across the street.

A Kansas title agency that handles property in a county of 10,000 or more residents has to file its rates and its closing, escrow and document charges with the Kansas Insurance Department. The Department publishes each filing under the agency's name, so you can open two filings side by side and compare the closing fee for your kind of transaction before you decide who closes your loan.

I'm Jeff Moran, a mortgage broker in Bluffton, South Carolina, originating since 1996 and licensed in fifteen states, including Kansas, NMLS #483943, through C2 Financial Corporation. In most of the states I lend in, the settlement fee is the one closing charge nobody can look up ahead of time. Kansas puts it on file, and I want to walk you through how to use that.

Why are Kansas title company closing fees public?

Because the Kansas statute asks for more than the insurance premium. K.S.A. 40-952(c) requires title insurance agents and agencies to file "every manual of classification, rules and rates, every rating plan, every rate card and every modification of the foregoing." The filing covers title insurance "or other services in connection with real estate transactions" on property in counties with a population of 10,000 or more (K.S.A. 40-952). The Department's guidance for title agencies says what "charges" means in that sentence: closing costs, escrow charges, document preparation, commitments and ancillary services (Kansas Insurance Department, Title Agent and Agency Requirements). An agency that simply uses its underwriter's schedule still has to file that schedule as its own.

The Kansas mortgage page covers why that sets Kansas apart from most of the states where I lend.

Two agencies serving the same county can have different filed charges, because the Department does not set one statewide price. It publishes what each agency filed, and the agency is held to its own filing.

Where do you find a Kansas title company's filing?

The Department keeps all of them at one address: insurance.kansas.gov/companies/title-rates. The page lists agencies by name, and the icon beside each name opens that agency's filing as a PDF. The Department says the filings are open to public inspection under the Kansas Open Records Act, and it put them online so you can reach them without a records request.

An agency that has amended its filing shows up as one consolidated PDF, most recent schedule first.

Agencies that only handle property in counties under 10,000 residents send the Department a letter instead of a filing. If the title company your agent named is not on the list, that is the likely reason, and you can ask the company for its schedule directly.

Reading a Kansas title rate filing line by line

The first page or two usually names the agency and its underwriters, carries the effective date of the schedule, and says whether the charges apply to every Kansas county or there are separate county rate sheets. After that comes the premium schedule for the policies themselves. The page you want is the one headed something like "closing fees" or "escrow and settlement charges."

That page is laid out by the kind of transaction. The line names vary a little from one agency to the next, and these are the ones you will see most often:

• Sale closing, sometimes called a sales transaction. Some agencies file one figure when a real estate professional is involved and a higher figure when there is none. On a purchase directly from the owner, the higher line is yours.
• Refinance closing. One line, and on a refinance it is the line that matters.
• Witness-only or loan-only closing, usually split into "with disbursements" and "without disbursements." This is the line when another company handles the file and the Kansas agency only hosts the signing.
• Second mortgage closing done at the same time as a first.
• Document preparation, courier and wire charges, which are separate small lines on some filings and folded into the closing fee on others.

Two filings on the Department's page as of October 7, 2026, from Tri-State Title Services and from Guaranteed Title of Kansas, show the pattern. Each one lays its closing charges out this way, with sale, refinance and witness-only lines. One of them files a separate, higher sale closing figure for a transaction with no real estate professional on it. A filing can be amended, so the amount to work from is the one on the page the day you open it.

While you have the document open, you'll want to check three things. The effective date tells you whether the schedule is current. A county sheet matters if there is one, because an agency can file different charges for Johnson County than for Sedgwick County. You'll also want to see whether the closing fee includes disbursing the money, because a fee quoted without it leaves a second charge for later.

Who decides which title company closes your Kansas loan?

The filing helps you compare, and the purchase contract and your lender settle who actually closes. Kansas law does not hand the buyer, the seller, the lender or the real estate agent the right to pick the closing agent. The title-agent statutes, K.S.A. 40-1135 through 40-1141, say what a title agency is allowed to do as a closing and escrow agent, and none of them gives the choice to one party. So in Kansas, who closes comes from the purchase contract and what your lender will accept, the same answer the Kansas mortgage page gives for who pays the owner's title premium.

The federal rule is where your room to compare comes from. Under Regulation Z, your lender decides whether to let you shop for a settlement service. If it does, that service lands in section C of your Loan Estimate, and the lender has to give you a written list of providers along with it. The list names at least one company for each service and tells you that you may choose a different one (12 CFR 1026.19(e)(1)(vi)). The CFPB's plain-language version is that you can shop for everything in section C. You may also be able to use a company not on the list, if your lender agrees to work with it (CFPB, What required mortgage closing services can I shop for?).

If you use a company from the lender's list, or you do not choose at all, the lender's estimate for that line falls in the group that can rise no more than ten percent in total by closing. If you pick a company that is not on the list, the lender is no longer held to its estimate for that line, and the filed schedule becomes your protection instead. How to compare two Loan Estimates line by line covers the rest of that page.

On a purchase, the contract often names who closes before you ever see a Loan Estimate, and the choice is a negotiable term like any other. On a refinance, you are the only party to the transaction, so if your lender permits shopping, the filings are yours to use. Refinancing in Kansas covers what else is different on the cost side.

The steps, in order

1. You start with section C on page two of your Loan Estimate. The company named there, and the written list that came with it, tell you what your lender is letting you shop for.
2. Next, you'll want to open the Department's title rates page and find that company's filing. The closing charges page is where you'll find the line that matches your transaction.
3. Then you can open one or two more filings for agencies that serve your county. You'll want to compare the same line in each, check each effective date, and look for a county rate sheet before you trust a statewide figure.
4. On a purchase, please read the closing provisions of your contract before you ask for a change. If the closing agent is already named, your agent can tell you whether the other side will agree to a different one.
5. Please let your lender know the name of the company you want before the Loan Estimate is revised. Please ask whether that company is on the written list, because the answer changes which protection you are relying on.
6. It helps to add up each agency's lines before you compare them. A lower closing fee next to separate document preparation and wire charges can land in the same place as a higher fee that already includes them.

A worked illustration

Numbers below are made up to show the mechanism. They are not any agency's filed schedule or a quote.

Say you are refinancing a home in Johnson County, your lender has put the settlement fee in section C, and the written list names one agency. You open that agency's filing and one other, and both have a current Johnson County rate sheet.

The agency on the list files its refinance closing this way:

Refinance closing                 $475
Document preparation              $100
Wire fee                           $35
────────────────────────────────────────
Filed total                       $610

The second agency, which is not on the list, files this:

Refinance closing                 $550
  (includes document preparation
   and one outgoing wire)
────────────────────────────────────────
Filed total                       $550

The first filing has the lower closing line, but the second one comes out $60 less in total. Because the second agency is not on your lender's list, the lender is no longer held to its estimate for that line, as described in the section on who decides. So you would want the $550 on the page in front of you when you ask for the revised Loan Estimate. Both agencies are held to what they filed, and you saw the difference before closing day.

The parts of your closing the filing does not settle

Three other pieces of your closing statement come from somewhere else.

The title insurance premium is its own schedule. The owner's policy and the lender's policy are priced from the premium pages of the filing. The Department's definition of premium in Kansas takes in the search and examination work, so those charges may not appear as separate lines on the closing charges page. Your contract decides who pays the owner's policy in Kansas, and who pays for owner's title insurance explains how that negotiation usually goes.

Recording fees belong to the county. The register of deeds charges by the page to record your mortgage, and on a small loan against the home you live in, Kansas caps that fee when a short affidavit goes in with the mortgage. Recording a mortgage in Kansas, and when the fee is capped covers it.

Your lender's own charges are set by your lender and show on your Loan Estimate. Origination, appraisal, credit report and the rest are in sections A and B. Why a closing cost estimate changes between the first quote and the Closing Disclosure walks through how each block of that page can move.

Pricing your Kansas loan after you compare closing charges

You can price your own Kansas scenario without a credit pull and without giving me your name. Once you are ready for a pre-approval letter, what a Kansas pre-approval has to account for covers the rest, and you're welcome to call me with any question about a filing. Choose the option that works best for you.

Common questions

Are title company closing fees public in Kansas?

Yes, for most of the state. K.S.A. 40-952(c) requires a title insurance agent or agency handling property in a county with a population of 10,000 or more to file its rates and charges with the Kansas Insurance Department. The Department's guidance defines those charges to include closing, escrow, document preparation, commitment and ancillary fees. Each filing is published under the agency's name on the Department's title rates page.

Where can I find what a Kansas title company charges to close a loan?

On the Kansas Insurance Department's title rates page at insurance.kansas.gov/companies/title-rates. Each agency's name has an icon beside it that opens the filing as a PDF, most recent schedule first. The closing charges are usually a page or two after the premium schedule.

Can I choose my own title company in Kansas?

Kansas law does not give the buyer, the seller, the lender or the real estate agent the right to choose the closing agent. The purchase contract and the lender's requirements decide it. Under the federal rule, a lender that lets you shop for the settlement service lists it in section C of your Loan Estimate and gives you a written list of providers. You may use a company not on the list if the lender agrees. On a refinance, you are the only party to the transaction, so the choice is usually wider than on a purchase.

Does the Kansas title filing include the title insurance premium?

Yes, as a separate part of the document. The filing carries the premium schedule for the owner's and lender's policies, often the underwriter's rates adopted by the agency, and in Kansas the premium definition includes the search and examination work. The closing, escrow and document charges are filed on their own page, so comparing the closing page of one filing against the closing page of another keeps the numbers matched.

Why does a Kansas title company charge more to close a sale when there is no real estate agent?

Some agencies file one sale closing fee for a transaction with a real estate professional involved and a higher fee when there is none. The closer takes on coordination the agent would otherwise handle, and the agency prices that work into its filed schedule. Not every agency files it that way, which makes it one of the lines worth comparing if you are buying directly from the owner.

Do title companies in small Kansas counties have to file their closing fees?

No. The filing requirement in K.S.A. 40-952(c) applies to property in counties with a population of 10,000 or more. An agency that only handles property in smaller counties sends the Department a letter saying so instead of a rate filing, so its charges will not appear on the title rates page. In that case, please ask the agency for its current schedule directly.

Estimates and educational information are not a loan approval or commitment to lend.