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Plain-English articles on current owner searches, title reports, and lien research, written by the team that produces certified title reports every day.
A winning bid at an association sale buys the association's position, not a clean parcel. What the sale actually wipes out, what survives it untouched, and the redemption and procedural risks that follow the buyer afterward.
Read articleStorefronts below, apartments above, and two different kinds of title work in one building. How the ownership may be structured, the commercial filings an ordinary residential search never looks for, and what the leases hide.
Read articleFarm ground is several estates stacked on one description, and the deed is the layer least likely to cause trouble. What a search covers on agricultural land, and the access and water questions that decide it.
Read articleOn most waterfront the deed stops at the water and the dock stands on ground you do not own. Where the property line actually ends, what the dock depends on, and which of it a county records search can and cannot reach.
Read articleA co-op buyer owns shares and a lease rather than real estate, so the usual search returns the corporation's mortgage and nothing about the apartment. Where the liens actually are, and what only the managing agent can tell you.
Read articleA sale does not end a lease, and residential leases are almost never recorded, so a clean title search tells you nothing about who is living there or how long they can stay. What to ask for before you waive anything.
Read articleStorms damage buildings and leave paperwork on the land record. Contractor liens from the rebuild, conditions attached to disaster aid, and buyout restrictions that bar rebuilding, all found years later at the next sale.
Read articleCharitable property is usually given rather than bought, and the gift came with conditions. Use restrictions and reverters in the deed, the question of who can actually sign, and the tax consequences that follow a sale.
Read articleSurvivorship is created by specific words in the deed and broken by things nobody announces. What a search actually checks, why the phrasing decides the outcome, and the deed people are most often wrong about.
Read articleOn leased land, one party owns the dirt and another owns the building. Why two searches are needed rather than one, what the recorded memorandum will and will not tell you, and what decides whether the leasehold is financeable.
Read articleA CDD, MUD or improvement district can add thousands a year to a property and keep collecting for decades. Part of it is recorded against the land and part of it lives with the tax collector, which is why buyers find it late.
Read articleA recorded right of first refusal lets somebody else step into your buyer's shoes and take the deal. Here is where the right comes from, how a title search finds it, and why discovering one late can cost you a closing date.
Read articleOnly one kind of timeshare is real estate, and only that kind appears in the county land records. How to tell which one you own, what a search of the interval shows, and why unpaid assessments follow the interest.
Read articleNothing on the report expires, but the public record keeps moving underneath it. What a search fixes as of its effective date, what can land in the gap, and how close to the closing it ought to be run.
Read articleA contractor's claim can be recorded months after the work and still take its priority from the day the first shovel went in. How construction liens reach the record, and the window where a search finds nothing.
Read articleA city permit does not override a recorded covenant, and a neighbor can enforce one even where the ordinance allows the rental. What the land record holds, what it does not, and why the order matters.
Read articleA foreclosure clears some liens and leaves others attached, and the sale itself can be the defect. What survives, what does not, and why an REO deed is not evidence that the title is clean.
Read articleA quiet title complaint is assembled almost entirely from the land record, and the search is what makes it survive. What your attorney needs on the desk before anything is filed.
Read articleDividing a parcel divides some things and leaves others attached to every piece. What carries across to each new lot, what the deed will not tell you, and the release most people forget to get.
Read articleTwo to four units looks like buying a house and behaves like buying a business. What the record shows about the leases, the liens and the permits, and the three questions it cannot answer for you.
Read articleYou pay toward it for years and the seller keeps the deed the whole time. What the record should show before you sign, and what can happen to the house while you are still only a tenant.
Read articleCities have opened up accessory dwelling units, and a recorded covenant on your lot can still forbid one. What the land record controls, what the city controls, and why they are different questions.
Read articleDistressed property is distressed on paper too, and the defect you inherit surfaces when your buyer's lender orders their own search. Why the cheap moment to clear it is before the renovation, not after.
Read articleA second-lien lender is buying whatever equity is left after everything ahead of it. What the search confirms, the findings that shrink your borrowing room, and why an old line of credit with a zero balance still matters.
Read articleBuying a house from a parent or a sibling removes most of the people who would normally insist on a title search. The liens and unrecorded interests arrive anyway, and they attach to the property rather than the relationship.
Read articleYour mortgage has probably been sold, and the record may or may not show it. What an assignment actually does, why the recorded chain has gaps by design, and when those gaps matter to you.
Read articleBuying a condominium means buying a unit and joining an association at the same time. What the county record holds about each, and which documents you have to get from the association itself.
Read articleA transfer on death deed is recorded while the owner is alive and does nothing until they die. What it looks like in the county record, what it does not protect a beneficiary from, and why the search still matters.
Read articleMost UCC filings never touch real estate, but a fixture filing is recorded in the county land records and attaches to things bolted to the building. What it covers, why it survives a sale, and how to clear one.
Read articleAdding a child or a spouse to a deed is a real conveyance with real consequences, and one of them is that the new owner's creditors now have something to look at. What to check before the deed is signed.
Read articleA reverse mortgage has to record in first position, which means everything ahead of it must be cleared and every owner must sign. Here is what the search needs to establish before the file gets that far.
Read articleRecorded restrictions control what you can build, park, run, and rent, and they bind your lot whether or not your deed repeats them or an association exists to enforce them. What the record shows, and what it cannot resolve.
Read articlePaying cash removes the lender, and the lender was the party who insisted on a title search. What a cash buyer should order instead, and why a problem found after closing is much harder to undo.
Read articleA deed that reserves a life estate splits the property between the person living there and the people who inherit it, and a sale needs all of them. What the record shows, and the gap that appears after a death.
Read articleA lis pendens claims no money and does not have to be large to matter, because it puts every later buyer and lender on notice of a lawsuit over the property. What the record shows, and why an old one is the finding we see most.
Read articleA deed signed by an agent instead of the owner is ordinary and it is also where a surprising share of title defects come from. What the record shows about the authority behind the signature, and which dates decide the question.
Read articleThe seller's lender agreeing to take less is only the first approval a short sale needs, because every junior lienholder can refuse too. Why the complete lien list, in priority order, is the document that decides the deal.
Read articleWhen the seller carries the note, nobody is underwriting the title for you and the seller usually stays on the record while you pay. What to search before signing, and what to record so your interest is visible.
Read articleUnpaid municipal water and sewer charges can attach to the property rather than the person who ran them up, and in some places without anything being recorded. What the search catches, and what must be ordered separately.
Read articleA bankruptcy case sits in a federal court file, not in the county recorder's index, and a discharge is not a lien release. Here is what a records search on the property can actually show you, and what it cannot.
Read articleAn exchange runs on deadlines that do not extend for a title problem, which makes the identification window the moment to search. What to check on the replacement property and on the one you are selling.
Read articleMunicipal code violations can turn into recorded liens that survive a sale — and open cases often live only in city files. Here is where they show up in a title search, and where they don't.
Read articleA misspelled name is not the same problem as a wrong lot number. Here is how corrective deeds, scrivener's affidavits, and re-recorded instruments show up in a title search — and when paper isn't enough.
Read articleThere is no single answer, because depth is something you choose when you order. Here is what each common scope covers, what sets the outer limit, and how to pick the right one for your transaction.
Read articleIn much of the country the minerals were sold off generations ago, and the deed you signed may not mention it. What a title search shows about severed minerals, and what depth of search it takes to find out.
Read articleAn easement gives someone else the right to use part of your property, and most of them are recorded. Here is which ones a title search reports, which ones it cannot, and why a search is not a survey.
Read articleA tax deed can wipe out some liens and leave others standing, and the rules depend on the state. What to check in the record before you bid, and why a fresh tax deed is often hard to insure.
Read articlePaying off a loan and clearing it from the county record are two separate events, and the second one gets skipped more often than people expect. How to confirm a mortgage was actually released, and what to do when it was not.
Read articleA judgment against an owner can attach to their house, but only after someone records it in that county. Here is how a judgment becomes a lien, where it appears in a search, and why a name match is not the end of the inquiry.
Read articleThe two names are used interchangeably and the products are not identical. What each one is built to answer, where they overlap, and which one you actually need for a purchase, a refinance, or a debt question.
Read articleA converted garage, a finished basement, a deck nobody pulled a permit for. Why the title report is silent about all of it, what does reach the land records, and the one phone call that answers the question.
Read articleTaxes and title live in two different county offices, and only some tax items reach the land records. What a search normally reports, what has to be asked for, and which number escrow will actually use.
Read articleA quitclaim deed is a real deed that promises nothing about what it conveys. Here is what one in your chain tells you, what it does not clear, and the two things worth checking on either side of it.
Read articleA title search finds the recorded HOA documents and any assessment lien filed against the unit — but never the balance owed today. Here is the difference between the two records, and why a careful buyer gets both.
Read articleSellers usually meet their own title problems inside escrow, when a fix costs time and leverage. What a pre-listing search finds, what it costs you to know early, and when to skip it.
Read articleTwo documents that do the same job under different names, released by different instruments, in different states. What each one looks like in a title search, and which release you should be hunting for.
Read articleThe same panels on the same roof can be owned outright, leased from a third party, or financed by a charge tied to the property. Only some of those appear in a county records search, and only some follow the house.
Read articleNobody has ever owned the house, which makes buyers assume the title is spotless. The lot has a record of its own, and the riskiest item on it is a lien that has not been filed yet.
Read articleThe honest version: a search reports what was recorded in the county searched as of the day it ran. Here are the four categories of claim that fall outside that, and what covers them instead.
Read articleIt shows the recorded legal description, the plat it references, and every easement filed against the parcel — and it cannot tell you where the fence sits. Here is the division of labor between a search and a survey.
Read articleA manufactured home can carry its own certificate of title while the land underneath it carries a deed — two records, two agencies, two searches. What to ask for depends on which one secures your deal.
Read articleMost findings on a title report are paperwork rather than disasters. The four kinds of problem a search turns up, what each one takes to clear, and which one actually needs a lawyer.
Read articleEstate sales turn on one question a search answers directly: who can actually sign the deed. The three routes inherited property takes to the record, and the liens that outlive an owner.
Read articleCounty indexes match strings, not people. Here is how a single owner ends up recorded four different ways, which name variants actually matter, and what to send so the search covers all of them.
Read articleA refinance searches your own history instead of a seller's, so nothing clears itself at closing. The four things the report has to establish, and the old lien that stalls the most files.
Read articleA street address is a mail delivery label, not a property identifier. Here is why the recorder's index runs on legal descriptions, what happens when the two disagree, and where to find yours before you order a search.
Read articleRaw land has no house to inspect, so the recorded history carries the whole load. What to read for on a vacant parcel: legal access, severed mineral and water rights, special assessments, and plat restrictions.
Read articleWhen title is vested in an entity rather than a person, the search changes: which name to search, why name variants hide recorded liens, and why the operating agreement or trust instrument is never in the county record.
Read articleA two-owner search reaches back through the previous owner's deed, not just the current one. Here's the extra transfer it surfaces, who asks for it, and how it sits between a current owner search and a full chain of title.
Read articleIn a private, no-agent, no-lender sale, nobody is assigned to check the record — so nobody does. Here is what the county file can be hiding, when to order the search, and how a lien becomes a payoff instead of your problem.
Read articleCounty records are public and often free to browse, so why pay for a search? Because a portal gives you one office's index — and a certified abstract tells you what is against the property, with the documents to prove it.
Read articleProperty ownership is public record. Where to look for free — the county assessor and recorder — where self-research falls short, and when a verified ownership search is worth it.
Read articleAuction sales are as-is, with no title insurance at the courthouse steps. What foreclosure wipes out, what survives it, and the lien-position trap that turns bargains into losses.
Read articleA section-by-section walkthrough of your title search report: vesting, legal description, open mortgages, liens and judgments, tax status, and the document copies behind it all.
Read articleA title search discovers what's recorded against a property before you buy. Title insurance protects against covered claims after closing. Here's when you need each — or both.
Read articleThe most common recorded surprises — unpaid taxes, mechanics liens, judgments, HOA liens, undisclosed mortgages, and vesting problems — and why each one is cheaper to find before the closing table.
Read articleReal turnaround numbers from nationwide order volume: most current owner searches back in under a day, standard in-person searches in 2-3 business days, and what makes the slow ones slow.
Read articleBoth reports read the same county records — the difference is depth. How to choose between a current owner search and a 30-60 year chain of title, with the cases where each one wins.
Read articleA plain-English walkthrough of every finding in a current owner search report: vesting, the last deed of transfer, open mortgages, liens and judgments, tax status, and the legal description.
Read articleFast, accurate, certified title reports, nationwide. Order online in minutes, or talk to our team about the property information you need.
Questions? Call 877-848-5337 ext. 138 or send us a message