Online Title Searches?
Where do you guys go to get your title searches? I'm new to REI and am considering a bunch of foreclosure and pre-foreclosure properties. I've called a couple title companies and they charge between $250-300, which is cost prohibitive for me if i'm looking 5-10 properties. Where do you guys go to get yours? Any websites that i can conduct the searches for much less? Thanks for your help! :-D
www.knowx.com
www.intelius.com
try the clerk of court for the county you are interested in. Or try an abstracting service if you have several in the same area.
Where are you? I never pay more than $50-$100 for a deep title searcha dn $20-50 for a basic one
Here in Fl when I have the preliminary it usually only goes back 10 years whereas the deep will go back to the life of the property.
On some I do property life as some properties have had the same owners for 30 years and no telling what happened before.
Online there is this - http://www.ussearch.com/consumer/cwf?action=browseproduct&pid=3062&fc=blue&TID=&adID=2041057151&sourceid=&adsource=27
And this - the detailed is better than the basic - http://www.homeinfomax.com/
For knowx - they changed the format for the lien info so forget I mentioned then
Has anybody used Charles Jones for the same purpose? Thanks.
Thanks linlin. I looked at the samples on both sites. How can you tell or what will it say when the property has liens against it? Do these reports show judgements too? I can't tell what indicates this stuff. Thanks!
Well, the process I use myself is a little different so I will share
When I have a property first I find a way to get a parcel id and an owner. I search the property appraiser/assessor and the tax collector ( for property taxes owed)
I then search online for the county clerk's website and there usually I can find if there is a lien or not. Some counties that have their information online give indepth information so you can trace the threads. If I become really interested and seriously consider the property or If it is a big ticket item or has a building on it I call up a title company and ask them to do the search or I use one of those services.
Usually if there is a lien I see something like - Mortgage - So and so bank - x amount - and the date it originated.
I have also called clerk's offices, tax collectors and appraisers/assessor and a lot of time they give me all the info I need. Like one property I was interested in - from the tax collectors office she told me all the taxes owed, values of properties in that area, and other stuff.
Why not find a property you know has a lien and pull a report on it? That will give you an idea of the services' accuracy.
Try Old Republic Title - I don't know if they have title searches nationally (although I'd find it hard to believe if they don't) but I pay per search for online searches and it is the same system the title companies use. It isn't cheap, but well worth the money if I need to know the skinny on a house and don't want to waste a trip to the courthouse.
Good luck!