DIY (cheap) Title Research?

Question

howdy!

i'm looking for a way to do title research via county/city records, but i haven't been able to come up with anything. is there a way to do it? mostly just looking for ways to weed out different tax deed properties, foreclosures, sketchy seller-financers, etc. - a little extra armor in the trenches! haha.

all the best,

dan

Tom Gimer · Answer

Not sure where you'll be doing your research but here are things you'll likely need access to...

Land records ... to determine ownership, open mortgages, other encumbrances

Court records ... for judgments, pending litigation, BK

Tax records ... real property taxes are liens

Local violations, liens, water may factor as well

And you often don't just click a few buttons and get results... usually you have to review docs and piece things together

Good luck.

Matt Stewart · Answer

@Daniel Porter  You can start by looking for the county recorder's website where the property is.  I'm not sure if it's offered where you are, but here we can do a search for public records through the website.  It allows you to view liens, deeds, judgements, etc...   It doesn't take the place of a proper title search, but if it's available and free you may be able to use it find some initial info.

David Tubesing · Answer

It isn’t going to be listed on the deed (though I’ve seen it where the they had all this linked together)

the Reports you find on auction.com that I think your referring to are paid by the seller to put there.

With this being said, I do need to get better at and this will be easier in some counties to find the public records than others.

Daniel Porter · Answer

are they listed on the deeds? if i go to auction.com and look at a potential foreclosure, they'll have a list of the title chain, comps, etc. lots of info, for free. i just don't know where to find that at.

David Tubesing · Answer

I honestly would like to learn how to step up my game on this too. However, the cost of paying for a title search is too expensive for me. The best I have found is to find where the County records are and just look them up myself. However - things like Fire Dues, Weed Liens, Etc (things that really matter to us Tax Investors at least in my area that I invest in are just a phone call away. This also helps me find out about ones in the process.

DIY (cheap) Title Research?

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