How to know if a property is free of liens and taxes?

[Leona King]

Hello, searching for my first deal, I want to know how to tell if a property if free of liens and taxes? Can I go online instead of going to county clerk office and feeling lost and time consuming? The title company wants to charge $50 for each inquiry, they are not all sales and this would add up. Any way to check for free and clear properties before I make an offer to seller?

Thank you

Leona 

[Jeff Kehl]

@Leona King are you buying foreclosures? I'm not sure why you would be checking title yourself otherwise.

When I was doing checks like that I was able to find free systems to check myself but it is very complicated and time-consuming. $50/property sounds like a bargain to me as that would cost me at least a few hundred dollars. My advice would be to try to narrow the properties down more before you do the title checks. 

My experience was that only a few of the properties were attractive enough to bid on anyway and then I would do a lot of research on them.