Title Search
What all should i be looking for when doing a tiltle search.
The only thing that i can think of is : Who owns the property and pending liens on the property.
Also, is the title seach i can get online from my tax asessor' s office the same as one i can get from a title company?
Murphy
a title search is/should be VERYinvolved, not somethng you get from the tax office. you start by looking for the deed to the property. then you go back and fnd the deeds for however many years you want to search (40 or 60 generally). you pull each of these deeds and read it word for word. you then determine if anything happened via that deed that requires further investigation (an easement mentioned, an adverse, divorce, death, on and on). after going back through the deeds you checkf or liens on the real estate AND against all the previous owners you've found in your chain of title. I am assuming that liens on the subject property are self-explanatory but you also must check out all prior owners to be sure something didn't somehow attach to this property. you then look for judgments. if a death or divorce has occurred, you go to the appropriate office and look at those files to be sure there is nothing that would affect title to the property. in my state, you also check for overdue child support because that constitutes a lien on real estate. you check for bankruptcies. you check to be sure the taxes are paid. you read every restriction, right-of-way, easement, etc., that was filed. I hven't done a search in a few years so I might have missed something. but, what my point is, is that this is very detailed work and unless you're just doing a cursory check, it should be handled by a professional. I can't imagne paying $50,000, $100,000, whatever for a property and not having someone check out the title to the property.
You forgot sometimes the type of title insurance you want requires that some bright person go out and actually look at the property, check the set backs and side yards and also look at those tiny little markers those who measure the land leave behind. You also at that time look for any major defaults, like the roof is missing or a wall is laying over the property line. Etc. etc.
Unless you have done an awful lot of this stuff something an attorney used to do in the old days, let the title co. do it.
Remember sometimes the happy title company wrote a prior policy and now all they have to do is a deed search and a court house search the night before they record your nice new deed.
Lots of fun and a culture all of its own. You have to dedicate a little time to learn it and then, why bother, just pick up the telephone and call the title company. If you are really unknowning, why call the title company and ask for a senior title advisor. God will then give you the message with proper diction and tonal quality. Once many long years ago to help pay for law school I was the Arbitrary Title Officer at a Title company. I think it was cause I knew Spanish and had studied the early days of California. I had seen some of the old Deeds from Spain and had an interest. Now that I think about it. It was the interest.
Cheers Lucius