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Real Estate Lawyer in Central Pennsylvania
Jameson Stone Law handles property matters for buyers, sellers, landlords, and investors across Central Pennsylvania. Daniel Jameson leads the real estate work, and the firm’s own attorneys conduct the closings rather than passing the file to a title company. Harrisburg Magazine named Jameson Stone Settlements best real estate services in 2025.
How We Work
Our Attorneys Handle the Closing
In most Pennsylvania purchases a title company runs the settlement and a lawyer sits somewhere in the background, if anywhere. Jameson Stone works the other way round. The firm’s attorneys act as closing agents on their own closings, so the person going through the documents and the figures at the table is the person who reviewed the title and prepared them. Where something needs deciding, it gets decided there rather than referred out and waited on.
Daniel Jameson leads the property work, with Brittany Johnson as settlement agent. The firm handles a high volume of residential and commercial transactions, and provides closing and title services to realtors, builders, and lenders as well as to individual buyers and sellers. Closings can be scheduled at times and places that suit the parties rather than the office.
Your Choice
You Usually Choose Who Closes Your Purchase
Most buyers never realize a choice was on the table. A realtor or a lender names a title company, the name goes onto the paperwork, and nobody objects because nobody knew there was anything to object to. A recommendation is not a requirement.
Worth knowing as a buyer:
- A seller cannot make it a condition — under RESPA a seller cannot require a mortgaged buyer to purchase title insurance from a particular company, on penalty of three times the charges
- A recommendation is only that — a realtor or lender naming a provider is offering you a default, not setting a term of the sale
- The choice is worth making early — before the agreement is signed and the paperwork is already in motion
Title Insurance
Why Title Insurance Costs the Same Everywhere
Title insurance premiums in Pennsylvania are not set by the company selling them. They come from a rate manual filed by the Title Insurance Rating Bureau of Pennsylvania and approved by the state Insurance Department, and every member company is bound by it. The rates are all-inclusive as well, so a Pennsylvania provider should not be adding charges on top beyond endorsements and a closing protection letter. Shopping around on price, in other words, mostly does not work here.
There is one lawful exception, and it is the reason this matters. The rate manual sets out a separate schedule for policies issued under the Approved Attorney Procedure. Jameson Stone are Approved Attorneys and discount those costs for clients. It is worth asking for a quote on your own figures rather than accepting a number on trust, because this is the one part of a Pennsylvania closing where the price genuinely moves.
A title search reviews:
- Ownership records — the chain of title, and whether every past transfer was properly made
- Liens and judgments — mortgages, tax liens, and judgments that survive a sale and become yours
- Gaps and claims — unrecorded easements, missing heirs, boundary discrepancies, and estates never properly settled
What We Do
Real Estate Services We Provide
Transactions
Purchase, sale, financing, and closing of residential and commercial property, including deed transfers and ownership changes.
Title and Settlement
Searches, title commitments, clearing defects, document preparation, and title insurance issued at closing.
Commercial Leases
Drafting, reviewing, and negotiating leases for landlords and tenants, including the terms most disputes later turn on.
Residential Leases
Lease agreements, security deposits, maintenance obligations, and the disclosures Pennsylvania landlords are required to make.
Our Process
How a Settlement Runs With Us
01
Review the Agreement
The purchase agreement, the contingencies, the dates, and what is actually included. Best done before signing, while the terms can still change.
Search and Clear the Title
The search and the commitment, then the work of resolving whatever they turn up, whether that is a lien, a judgment, an easement, or an estate never closed out.
Close It Ourselves
One of the firm's attorneys conducts the closing, goes through every document and every figure, and issues the policy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Title insurance premiums in Pennsylvania come from a rate manual rather than from the company selling them. Which means most of what people shop for is already fixed, and the part that is not gets overlooked.
Do I need a lawyer if the realtor already has a title company lined up?
You are not obliged to use either, and the two are not the same service. A title company searches the title, issues the policy, and runs the settlement. It cannot advise you on the agreement you signed, and where the search turns up a defect its role is to report the problem and frequently to except it from coverage. An attorney can act on it. There is a cost point as well. Pennsylvania fixes title insurance rates centrally, but the rate manual provides a separate schedule for policies issued through the Approved Attorney Procedure, and Jameson Stone discounts those costs. So this is not a choice between a lawyer and a title company at additional expense. Get a quote before you decide either way.
What happens if the title search finds a problem?
That depends what it is, and this is where an attorney rather than only a title company changes the outcome. A search commonly turns up an old mortgage never marked satisfied, a judgment against a previous owner, an easement nobody mentioned, a deed with a defective description, or an estate that was never properly administered so the seller may not have clear authority to sell. A title company will report these, and may simply except them from the policy, which leaves you insured for everything except the actual problem. Clearing them is legal work: a corrective deed, a lien release, a quiet title action, or sorting out the estate. Doing that before closing, rather than discovering it years later when you try to sell, is the whole point.
Should I have the agreement reviewed before I sign it?
Yes, and it is the cheapest point at which anything can still be changed. A signed purchase agreement fixes the terms, the dates, the contingencies, and what happens if the deal falls apart, and once both parties have signed you are largely working within it rather than on it. Inspection and financing contingencies, the closing date, which fixtures and appliances are included, and how a deposit is treated if the sale collapses are all far easier to address before signature than after. Most people call after signing, which is workable, but it closes off options that were available a week earlier.
Ask for a Quote Before You Decide
Title insurance in Pennsylvania costs what the rate manual says it costs, with one exception. Send us the numbers on your transaction and Daniel Jameson will tell you what it looks like under the Approved Attorney schedule.