Online Title Searches
I signed up for a free trial offer with an online property/title search company just to see what they offered, and because I needed to a do a title search over the weekend and my local courthouse was open.
It seems unlikely that these companies have someone working at every courthouse to record every transaction, so I must assume that there must be some additional company these companies get their data from and that each county reports their data to.
It seems like there are too many cracks in this process to count on online data to always be up to date. So I am also assuming that I should only use these services for initial searches and that I should *always* go to the courthouse for any property that I am serious about.
Also, are there any good references on the web as to how to read these title reports so that I make sure I don't miss anything?
Thanks,
Robert
You will find, that the counties that offer the online search, already have all of the records on the computer, and the company you will be using, is basically just tapping that information
I agree it's unlikely the online title info sellers have agents nationwide. Though they obviously offer a service, they apparently just assemble and sell info that most anyone can glean, as it's mostly public and online elsewhere. Do some searches.
I use a folder of 'favorites' websites/links to the assessor's (or whomever's) property search websites for easy reference. If you cannot find the links by searching, call the courthouse and ask. They probably use the same databases online as you'll find at the courthouse itself, that's the whole purpose of online data.
I often question the need for title insurance if I can do the same research myself downtown or online and get the lowdown. And though insurance may explicitly exclude issues stemming from unrecorded documents or other data holes, it still seems like it's a good idea, though perhaps not as essential as it was even a few years ago. I'm insuring fewer titles these days.
birddog and loon,
Thnaks for the help.
In CA, unless you are special, you cannot access data that might reveal address information from outside the firewall of the local courthouse. As a result, I have to go in to the county offices do most searches. So maybe, these outside services have the magic code to query and get all data from the County offices.
Thanks,
Robert
[addsig]