How to do your own thorough and proper title search

[Anthony Mellone jr]

Hello everyone ! I am trying to do my due diligence on auctioned properties, how they are bought and what the process is all about. I am hoping to one day take a shot at it after learning for sometime however my biggest fear is not doing a proper title search, missing something and then paying the consequences later. My question is : what are the steps to doing our own thorough title search ?? Thank you for any and all help ! Anthony

[Michaela G.]

It really depends on where you invest. 

I have done almost all of my investing in Atlanta, Fulton County, GA and I taught myself to go to the courthouse to go through all of the records. The docs are either scanned on their computer system or there are grantor/grantee books and deed books and maps and I can trace back more than 100 years. I've made a lot of money that way, by figuring out difficult titles, when others just didn't know how to search or didn't bother. 

THen I moved to California and found out that you can't just search under property address and get the owner's name. You really need a title company in the county I was in. 

So, if I were you, I'd go to the courthouse of your intended investment area and figure out what you can or can't have access to. 

Despite of how much I've learned, I would never ever buy a property without title insurance. !!!