Title Search Cost
I am interested in investing in the foreclosure market -- which means I need to know the down-n-dirty on all properties that interest me before attending an auction or signing a contract. Since I do not want to purchase TITLE INSURANCE for every property I review, I assume the product I am looking for is a TITLE SEARCH. I have read some posts relating to different types of title searches. I have a few questions regarding this topic:
1) What is the type of title search that searches only the current owner. (If the owner has Title Insurance, the property would be checked against liens for previous owners, correct?)
2) What is the cost of this type of Title Search?
3) What is the cost of a full title search (approximately, of course)??
First I would like you to reconsider not getting an owners policy on your purchases. The danger being that is the only protection you get for Title defects. As for the body of your question a current owner search is the type you would want. This tells the short version of what is going on. there mrtg, Judg, tax, and most of all what stage of Les Pendes,
Price in the $150.00 range for Florida and if you work with your title co a little bit they will ( some of the time) give you what you are looking for if you bring the purchase back to them.
BradBrad@4ctc.net
What you're looking for is an O & E (Ownership and Encumbrances) Search. If you work with a single Title Co. and do a large volume (say over 5/month) you should be able to get them for $65-$75 each or maybe less. My last one cost $75 and that was their regular price.
Good Luck
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Quote:
On 2004-08-30 15:53, titletopics wrote:
First I would like you to reconsider not getting an owners policy on your purchases. The danger being that is the only protection you get for Title defects. As for the body of your question a current owner search is the type you would want. This tells the short version of what is going on. there mrtg, Judg, tax, and most of all what stage of Les Pendes,
Price in the $150.00 range for Florida and if you work with your title co a little bit they will ( some of the time) give you what you are looking for if you bring the purchase back to them.
BradBrad@4ctc.net
I didn't mean to imply that I do not care to purchase TITLE INSURANCE. My research shows that T/I is roughly $500 on $100K purchase. I certainly don't want to fork out $500 for each property I become interested in. I can see $75-100 being a price for the O&E search. I see that as a business cost when really interested in a property you may bid on or look into purchasing REO or otherwise.
Is it true that you can get T/I the day you go to auction and win the bid? That would be my plans. As soon as I have the bid won, I contact the title company and get the T/I.
That brings up a second question. Would they then charge me only the full price of the T/I, and remove the charges for the T/S (as my understanding is that a T/S is part of obtaining T/I with most title companies)?
That sounds what I was looking for! Thank you!
Quote:
On 2004-08-30 16:04, swetbak wrote:
What you're looking for is an O & E (Ownership and Encumbrances) Search. If you work with a single Title Co. and do a large volume (say over 5/month) you should be able to get them for $65-$75 each or maybe less. My last one cost $75 and that was their regular price.
Good Luck
CF:
One thing you could do is to find out if your county's records are on-line. You could do your own "title searches" on properties you're interested in and then, if you're confident enough to buy, get title insurance on the ones you buy (not just the ones you're looking at). Just build the cost of the insurance into your numbers in advance to see if it fits into your deal.
Another suggestion: if you do get online, search three ways for your best protection:
1. By PIN or APN (the permenant ID number of the property)
2. By owner's name
3. By street address
Because liens can be recorded against someone in any of these ways, and because sometimes they're filed under the wrong PIN number, it pays to triple check.
Paying for the title search will give you this as well, but as others have posted, it costs money. My county here in IL charges for access and for printing anything out, but it's like $45/quarter for access, with unlimited searches, so it works out to be pretty cheap for me.
Andy
Sorrrry about that I did not catch the pre purchase research part of the question.
all but two counties in Florida are on line to search. The danger lies in Dade , They are currently about 6 months behind in filings..
Check the auditors office as well as county court and federal court. Your checking for current lender and tax position at the county. your checking FED for current BK that would put a stay on the Les Pendes and prevent you from making an offer, and you would check county for current liens. all this could be done by you for free...... The other option for research would be to give a examiner in the county a couple of bucks ( $ 30 or $40 ) to check it out for you and buy pass the Title co until you win a bid.
Brad
Thank you for the insightful information!
Quote:
On 2004-08-30 16:30, arytkatz wrote:
Another suggestion: if you do get online, search three ways for your best protection:
1. By PIN or APN (the permenant ID number of the property)
2. By owner's name
3. By street address
Because liens can be recorded against someone in any of these ways, and because sometimes they're filed under the wrong PIN number, it pays to triple check.
Paying for the title search will give you this as well, but as others have posted, it costs money. My county here in IL charges for access and for printing anything out, but it's like $45/quarter for access, with unlimited searches, so it works out to be pretty cheap for me.
Andy
I read the post reply quoted above, but I can't seem to find the information I'm looking for. I have been searching for the state auditor webpage (that gave me no searchable information.) I searched the Middle Florida court district for bankruptcy records and nothing is provided. I did locate information about the owner and the property (LIS info), but I cannot search the database by address -- only OWNER NAME, DOC TYPE, CLERK FILE NUMBER, or BOOK INFO. I am not sure how to locate this information. The Property Records search gave me information about the property, property taxes, sale information, and book/page (not sure though which book it means). Can you provide some clarity to the quote by letting me know where exactly you look for this information and what to look for on the site for plugging information in? Every Yahoo! search I put in provides me with upteen bazillion sites that charge $20+ for each public records search. Thanks for your help!
Richard
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you look up the county web site for where the property is located. then you have to search for whatever they call the land records office. in PA, it's called the Recorder of Deeds. It might be some type clerk's office
Central Florida:
If you establish a relationship with someone like First American Title or Commonwealth Title Company, they will give you access to fun FREE property profiles and comps from your own computer.. When you decide you are going to purchase a property, you open up escrow and the escrow company will order a 'prelim' on the property.. This should not cost you a thing if you have established a repore with them. You could also negotiate a discount with the title company so that you get a discount on your title insurance with no sub-escrow fee. They will also honor a binder to binder policy and let you purchase title insurance with no formal escrow.. If you have a repore set up, you should not have to pay anything. You want to run your property profiles on potential properties you are going to purchase, open escrow, order title insurance, check out prelim, and then purchase your title insurance. If there is something on the prelim that can not be taken care of, then you dont purchase.
Best Regards,
Jeff Adam
P.S.- Try giving your local title rep in your area for First American or Commonwealth a call and tell them you are an investor, want to work with them and want access to either Fastweb or
Niteowlplus.
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