BiggerPockets

To do it yourself, it is pretty difficult if not almost impossible... At least to do it right!

I know, I know, some will say "just go to the courthouse and pull the records at the recorders office"...

1st It is very time consuming... 2nd It is real easy to make mistakes... 3rd Why bother, you will not do a very good job anyway...

Most who I see that "do their own" are just wasting time, but feel like they are accomplishing something.

It is much more than simply what you can find at the county recorders office...

For example... When a title company does a title search and a title report, they will... Check the county recorders office, check the courts for pending litigation, check divorce records, check for city liens, sewer liens, city assessments, check code enforcement liens, check utility liens, check mechanics liens, state tax liens, federal tax liens, similar name search, etc etc...

Are you really going to go to all these departments and do all this? It is a lot of work!

Why does a title insurance company do such a good job checking it out in advance? Their goal is to never have title issues (claims) after they issue title insurance so they don't have to pay claims... It's insurance (title insurance) that their customers are buying.

Any other opinions or comments?

can a local title company (local to your home base) be used for an out of state deal?

any thought/recommendations for online companies?

" To do it yourself, it is pretty difficult if not almost impossible... At least to do it right!" eric, eric eric.....

of course, you know, i do it all the time and why wouldn't you. there's no better way to know if you're wasting your time on a deal than to do 30 minutes worth of PRELIMINARY title work to see if thay can convey clear title and what it may cost them. will i do this on every property i offer on...no, but i will on properties that i get reasonable counters on. knowing what the owners liabilities are and trying to help them work through them is the text book definition of a distressed property owner is it not.

sometimes the difference between closing a deal and not clsoing the deal is SOMEBODY knowing up-front that there may be a lien on the property. this is especailly true when you're dealing with a property being purchadsed from an estate or where one of the owners on record has dropped of the face of the earth. in theses cases, the heirs or other owners of record may not know that their missing or dead parent hasn't paid his of her taxes in 15 years and finding out a week before closing can really screw things up.

how did it go eric, if you say you can't, you're right.

will i depend on my title findings to close a deal. absolutely not. when and if we finally do get everthing ironed out and the deal is headed to close, you hire (around here anyway) the closing attorney to do the title work and issue title assurance.

in our market, the time it takes to ask someone to do something for nothing will usually kill a good deal but i get your point. once you find a good title company and close 20 to 30 deals, they may find it in their best interest to take care of you and if they can provide you a free service in less than 48 hours, your doing good..

until you become well seasoned, it's definetly not a waste of time to figure out how and where your public records are held. successful investing takes considerable effort and just remember it can take many many years to reach the point where you can pick up the phone and have people jumping to do your bidding....for free no less...

And I agree... It is good to know how to check things out... And, it is a good learning experience.

I just see too many people get caught up in "busy work" and don't get deals done.

This is 80% a marketing job... Everything else is in the other 20%...

You certainly need to pick and choose your battles! It isn't hard to get caught up in something that just isn't productive.

speaking of marketing....i've found some of my best contacts at the courthouse auctions. even though not many people are buying at the steps here, all the better investors will periodically " scope it out" . sense our courthouise is centrally located and parking isn't too bad, i'll occasionally hang out in the para-legals work area doing computer work and running comps, introducing myself to anyone that comes around. as its centrally located, should something come up, it isn't difficult to get to wherever you need to be. not to mention, many beautiful professional women there.......

it also pays to understand how to record a deed. you technically don't own a property until this is done and every once in a while, your lawyer just may be too busy on a friday afternoon to get up to the courthouse to do it. spending 45 minute dinking around with that can really payoff in a pinch.

I used to get title checks down for nothing and I did not have a track record of 30 deals before they started sending me the info. I just asked and they said sure.

Also note that not everything that can go against the title will be in the public records. Oregon has a program to deal with property taxes for the elderly. The state pays the county and collects when the property is sold. The payments that the state is funding on a zero interest loan basis are not logged in the county (from a senior title officer plus backed up by a RE attorney who practices in the state).

I agree that it is easy to review what is stored in the county records and somewhat fun the first time. A bit of a waste of time later if you are doing many deals.