Tax Deed Auction title searches??

[David P]

I have a question about tax deed auctions. When I'm doing my research on the properties, I don't want to pay to have a title search done to see if there are additional liens on the property. After researching 10 properties that can really add up.

Are there places online or otherwise recommend using for title searches that are free? Thanks for any tips.

[Ralph S.]

The clerks office where the documents are recorded. You'll need a little help from the staff to get going, and you'll have to be very careful not to miss anything or misinterpret something, but it's the same thing the title company does when it does a title search. Then there is also the risk of something existing (unpaid repair bill, unpaid water bill, etc) that will/may be recorded later.
You may even want to extend your search with a call to the local municipality; see if there are any assessments pending that could result in a future lien.

Just to share an example, I did a search on a property, and matched up each loan with it's satisfaction, checked the date sequence and was happy to find the loan being foreclosed on was the only loan outstanding. Then, I examined each satisfaction of mortgage more closely and discovered that one satisfaction had been recorded twice, and that there really were two loans, and the one being foreclosed was the second. It's time consuming and you have to be careful. That's why it costs money.....