Commercial Insights For the Title Industry - May 2026

A Monthly Briefing for Title Industry Professionals

Commercial Market Pulse

ALTA 36 Energy Project Endorsement Series in the Spotlight

ALTA is putting renewed focus on its ALTA 36 series for utility-scale solar, wind, battery storage, transmission corridors and subsurface rights -- a growing commercial niche where mineral estates, easements and nontraditional rights drive risk and a specialty area where Michigan agencies with underwriting depth can win.

MLTA Annual Convention -- Boyne Mountain, July 12 to 14

Michigan Land Title Association has confirmed its 2026 annual convention at Boyne Mountain, the final summer-format event before moving to a fall cadence; agenda includes Legislative Update, ALTA Update, ESTA, Data Security and identity-verification programming relevant to every Michigan commercial agency.

Bank Optimism on Commercial Lending Softens Through Q3

The Fed's April Senior Loan Officer Survey shows CRE lending sentiment moving from cautious optimism to softening -- tighter standards, declining construction appetite and widening spreads between strong sponsors and the rest; expect commercial deal timing to favor borrowers with clean title and pre-cleared underwriting through Q3.

Transaction Spotlight

Details anonymized to protect client confidentiality.

Former Cannabis Grow Facility — Sold on Land Contract to a Non-Cannabis User

A purpose-built Michigan grow facility recently changed hands on a land contract, with the new buyer converting the property to a non-cannabis commercial use. The interesting work here was on the reuse side -- title structure that supports a buyer taking equitable ownership and improving a specialty-built property over a multi-year payoff, while protecting the seller's recorded position and the new user's ability to refinance or sell once the contract matures.

Land contracts continue to be a useful tool on commercial reuse deals where a buyer needs runway to redeploy the building and a seller wants a clean exit without forcing a market refinance. Commitment structure, vendee policy considerations, and recording sequence all matter, and they are exactly the kind of details where careful underwriting earns its keep.

Commercial Title Insight

Surveys and Endorsements on Commercial Commitments

On commercial commitments, the survey decision drives the endorsement decision. A clean ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey with the right Table A items checked unlocks the standard suite of survey-dependent endorsements -- ALTA 9 series (restrictions, encroachments, minerals), ALTA 17 series (access), ALTA 18 series (single tax parcel), ALTA 19 series (contiguity), and ALTA 25 series (same as survey) -- and lets the title agent affirmatively delete the general survey exception rather than carrying it through to policy.

Without a current survey, most of these endorsements either get declined by the underwriter or come back conditioned in ways the lender does not want to see at closing.

The practical play is to ask the survey question early. Confirm with the buyer's counsel and the lender what Table A items the survey will include, match those items to the endorsement schedule on the commitment, and flag any gap before the commitment goes out.

On a complex commercial deal -- multi-parcel, easement-heavy, or lender-driven -- this single coordination call usually saves a round of revisions later and gives the closing team a defensible record of why each endorsement was issued or declined.

From Dave's Desk

May has been a mixed signal for Michigan commercial -- refi pipeline pulled forward, but the April CPI print and softening lender sentiment are pushing larger deals to demand more upfront title clarity before commitment.

That is good news for any agency willing to do the underwriting work in advance, and a useful prompt to lean into survey coordination and endorsement planning on every commercial file you touch.

— Dave

Working Together

We welcome co-agent referral arrangements on commercial transactions. If you have Michigan commercial business you'd like to refer or co-agent, please reach out directly.

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About Midwest Title and Dave Nykanen

Midwest Title's Commercial Division handles Michigan's most complex commercial closings -- from multi-parcel assemblages and entity-level acquisitions to co-insurance placements and large-scale development deals.

Founded and led by Dave Nykanen, a licensed Michigan real estate attorney with three decades of experience in commercial real estate as both a practicing attorney and a title agent, the division brings legal and underwriting depth that commercial transactions demand.

Contact: commercial@mwtmi.com | Midwest Title | Commercial Division | Michigan-Licensed Title Insurance Agent

This newsletter is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.