Doing Your Own Title Searches

[Account Closed]

Is anyone able to do their own title search to see if there are any liens on a property or do you just contact a title company?

[David Dey]

@Account Closed

Ask and you shall receive.  (You better vote up this post for all the info u get 😜)

First the disclaimer:  this is for educational purposes ONLY!!  Realize that the info I am giving you will give you the basics but nothing replaces having a professional do your search and underwriting.  (Remember, it's not whether you are right or wrong, it's what your underwriter will insure)

Ok, that said, first you need the basics the most important sites or offices will be, your property appraiser/assessor, your clerk of courts/register of deeds/official records search, your tax collector, and your local civil records section of the clerk of courts. (Not the same as your official records)

The best site to start your journey is going to be http://publicrecords.netronline.com/

This is a portal site that will take you to public records for anywhere in the country.  (And the best part is it's free) Just click on your state, then click on the specific county.  Now choose the specific site,(example:assessor's site) then click on the words, "go to data online."

Use the search tools on the property assessor's site to find the owner's name, details on the property, and the sales history and legal description. (Pay special attention to the lot number and subdivision name in the legal description)

Once you know the owners name, go to the official records/ clerk of courts/ register of deeds and input the name to do what is called a name search.

Most of the time, you will have to input the name, last name first.

(Just a tip: with public records, less is more.  For example, if you are looking up Justin Valedon, you might input the name Valedon j this way if there are misspellings or abbreviations they will be included)

If the option is there, try to organize the search by date, so all items will be in chronological order.

In your search, you will want to take special notice of mortgages or deeds of trust, along with assignments, satisfactions or releases.  

You will also pay attention to liens, judgments, foreclosures.

Try to match the mortgages, liens, judgements and foreclosures mentioned above to the legal discription listed on the property appraiser. 

(Also, take notice of the "book" and the "page" associated with the items, this will be important when matching the assignment, satisfaction, or release to the judgement, lien or mortgage)

Ok, so here's how it is put together:

Let's say we are doing a search on 123 main st owned by John smith, bought in 1/20/2006.

We see that the houses legal description is: lot 1 block 2 of the big bird subdivision.

We will input the name in the clerks site as: Smith John

We notice he took out a mortgage from Chase Bank the same day as he bought the place.  

It looks something like this:

Date: 1/20/2006

Grantor Name: smith John 

Grantee: Chase Bank

doc type: mtg

Legal description: L1 BLK 2 BIG BIRD SUB,

Book: 1234

Page: 45

Next we notice the mortgage was assigned from Chase to Wells Fargo a year later.

Here's what that looks like:

Date: 2/1/2007

Grantor: Chase Bank 

               Smith John

Grantee: Wells Fargo

Doc type: ASG

Legal description: 1234/45

Book: 23456

Page: 457

(You see the mtg or lien references the legal description, the assignment or the satisfaction or release references the book and page of the lien)

We then see that he refinanced his property the next year.

Date: 3/1/2008

Grantor: Smith John

Grantee: Big Bank

Doc type: Mtg

Legal description: L1 BLK 2 BIG BIRD SUB

Book: 3421

Page: 678

Of course when he refinanced his property, the new loan paid off his old loan. So this is what we found:

Date: 3/20/2008

Grantor: Wells Fargo

Grantee: Smith John

Doc type: Sat

Legal Description: 1234/45

Book: 5006

Page: 678

Ok, so your head is probably spinning from information overload but this is what you are looking at.

You may not have understood everything, if that is the case, print out this post and take it to your title company's abstractor, or to the local clerk's office and have them follow the instructions with you and explain what I just showed you.

So finally, Doing a basic search like this can be a huge tool in your arsenal, but always refer back to your title company for the full works.

Hope this helps!!

P.S. Vote if this actually helped.