Seeking afordable title searches

[Rob Dold]

Hi all.

Does anyone have a good referral for affordable title searches? I'm expanding into the world of tax lien/deed investing so will need to be conducting title searches on a regular basis.  One title company I reached out to charges $120 per title search.  Wondering if this is about right in terms of cost or whether there are other more affordable companies out there.  

Any input or referrals would be hugely appreciated!

Thanks, Rob

[Ned Carey]

@Rob Dold in my area the actual abstractors who do the search charge about $75. If you want an attorney to order one and then review, and explain it it would typically be about $150 in my area. 

More importantly though, is why do you want them?  Generally a tax lien foreclosure wipe out any mortgages or judgements tied to the property. You don't need to know if there are mortgages or judgments because they won't matter if you have to foreclose. They certainly won't matter if an owner chooses to redeem his or her property.

A "title search"  may not include IRS lien, Bankruptcy, death estate searches etc. These things may be important when buying tax liens. When  title or escrow company handles a settlement, they look into a lot more things than just the land records. How the person you are getting the information from, defines "Title search" may depend on exactly what you get. You need to be clear on specifically what information you want.

I have bought many thousands of liens an have never gotten a complete title search before buying any of them. On large liens, ($15k +) where there is a risk of tying up money and budget for a long time is a risk, we usually do a quick bankruptcy search.

Now of course every state is different and you didn't say where you would be investing. It is possible that in some states these things are not always wiped out and then of course you need more information.  However I am not aware of any state where debts against the property are not wiped out.   Anyone with different information please update me.