To do a title search on a property yourself, you gather the property’s legal description and the current owner’s exact name, then work backward through the county recorder’s grantor/grantee index, pulling every deed and recorded document tied to the property or its past owners for the last 30 to 50 years, and cross-checking court and tax offices for liens the recorder does not hold. The process is straightforward in concept and detail-intensive in practice. Missing something can mean paying off a stranger’s debt or, in the worst case, losing the property.
Gather the Right Identifying Information First
A street address gets you into the right neighborhood but it is not enough. Addresses can be ambiguous when properties have been subdivided, combined, or sit near jurisdictional lines.
What you actually want is the legal description, the language that defines the property’s exact boundaries. Legal descriptions take different forms depending on the region. Platted subdivisions use lot-and-block numbers. Older areas often use metes and bounds, with compass directions and distances. States using the government survey system reference section, township, and range. You can find the legal description on the current deed, a prior title insurance policy, or the county tax assessor’s records.
You also need the current owner’s full legal name exactly as it appears on the deed. Recording systems index documents by name, so a missing middle initial or a misspelling can cause you to overlook records that matter. If you are buying the property, ask the seller for a copy of their deed. It carries both the legal description and the recorded name. The county assessor’s office or its online portal will also give you the current owner’s name and the parcel number.
Where Property Records Live
Property records are kept at the county level. The office is called the county recorder, the county clerk, or the register of deeds depending on the jurisdiction. Whatever the name, this office holds the official record of every deed, mortgage, lien, easement, and other document affecting real property in its territory.
Most counties now offer online portals that let you search recorded documents by owner name, parcel number, or address. Coverage varies widely. Some counties have decades of digitized records. Others post only recent recordings and require an in-person visit for anything older. Some charge per-page viewing fees; many offer index searches for free.
Do not assume one office has everything. Tax liens may sit with the county tax collector rather than the recorder. Court judgments that create liens against property are often indexed with the court clerk. Federal tax liens filed by the IRS are recorded at the county but originate from a separate system. A thorough search checks all of them.
Walking the Chain of Title Backward
The chain of title is the sequence of recorded transfers connecting the current owner back through every previous one. A clean, unbroken chain means each transfer was properly documented and no gaps exist where ownership is uncertain.
County recording offices keep grantor/grantee indexes that log each transfer by the name of the seller (grantor) and the buyer (grantee). Start with the current owner. Find them in the index as a grantee. That entry tells you who sold them the property. That prior owner becomes your next search target: look them up as a grantee to find who sold to them, and keep going. You are working link by link toward the past, checking that each connects cleanly to the one before it.
How far back you need to search depends on the property and the situation. Many states have marketable title acts that set a statutory cutoff, typically 30 to 40 years, beyond which most old claims and encumbrances are treated as extinguished. Lenders generally accept a 30-year search, though some require 50 years or more. If you hit a gap or an irregularity, plan to trace further back. Properties that have passed through foreclosures, tax sales, or estate proceedings tend to require deeper digging because those transfers carry a higher risk of defects.
At each link, pull the actual recorded document, not just the index entry. Index entries contain errors. The deed itself shows the legal description, the parties, any conditions or reservations, and the type of deed used for the transfer.
What to Look for in the Records
The chain is only part of the picture. You are also searching for anything recorded against the property, or against past owners, that could reach you after you buy.
- Deeds and deed type. A warranty deed means the seller guaranteed clear title and agreed to defend against future claims. A quitclaim deed transfers only whatever interest the seller happens to have, with no guarantees. A quitclaim in the chain is not automatically a problem, but that transfer deserves closer scrutiny.
- Mortgages and deeds of trust. These record a lender’s security interest. Every mortgage from a prior owner should have a corresponding recorded release or satisfaction. An unreleased mortgage from an old sale is usually a paperwork failure rather than a live debt, but it clouds the title until corrected.
- Tax liens. Unpaid property taxes, federal income tax liens, and state tax liens all attach to the property. Tax liens generally take priority over other claims, so they get paid first when the property changes hands.
- Mechanic’s liens. Contractors, subcontractors, and material suppliers who were not paid for work on the property can file these. Filing deadlines vary by state and the lien’s priority may relate back to when work began rather than when it was recorded. If the property has seen recent construction or renovation, check for these carefully.
- Judgment liens. When someone wins a money judgment against an owner, that judgment can become a lien on their real property. Look for these in court records and sometimes in the recorder’s office. They follow the property until paid or expired.
- Easements. These give someone else a right to use part of the property, such as a utility company running lines or a neighbor using a shared driveway. Easements are permanent unless their own terms say otherwise, and they survive changes in ownership.
- Restrictive covenants and HOA declarations. These limit how the property can be used. They may prohibit certain construction, require architectural approval, restrict rentals, or mandate association dues. They bind you as the new owner, so read them.
- Lis pendens. This is a recorded notice that a lawsuit affecting the property is pending. It clouds the title and warns potential buyers. Do not proceed without understanding the underlying lawsuit; a court ruling could unwind your purchase.
For each item, note the recording date, the parties involved, and whether there is a corresponding release or satisfaction recorded later. An old mortgage with a recorded satisfaction is resolved. Without one, it is a problem to address before closing.
What “Clear Title” Actually Means
The goal of the search is to determine whether the property has clear title, meaning no unresolved liens, disputes, or defects that would prevent a clean transfer. Clear title does not mean zero encumbrances. Utility easements and routine restrictive covenants are common and expected. It means no encumbrances a reasonable buyer would refuse.
Marketable Title Versus Insurable Title
These two phrases show up constantly in real estate contracts and the distinction matters. Marketable title is the higher standard: a title free enough of defects that any reasonable buyer would accept it without hesitation. Insurable title is a lower bar. It means a title insurance company is willing to insure over a known defect at standard rates, accepting the risk that the defect might cause a problem later.
The practical difference shows up when you try to resell. A future buyer may refuse to accept insurable title when they expected marketable title. If your purchase contract requires the seller to deliver marketable title and your search turns up a defect the title company is willing to insure over but not eliminate, you have grounds to push back before closing. Pay attention to which standard your contract uses.
HOA Liens and Super Lien Status
If the property sits in a homeowners’ association, unpaid HOA assessments create a lien. In roughly 20 states, HOA liens carry “super lien” status, meaning a portion of unpaid assessments jumps ahead of even the first mortgage in priority. The amount that receives super priority varies, but it typically covers six months to a year of unpaid dues. Standard title searches can miss a developing problem here because the current assessment balance may not be recorded in the county records. Contact the HOA directly and get a written payoff statement before closing.
What a DIY Search Cannot Catch
Even a careful search has blind spots. Some defects exist outside the public record system, and no amount of index work will reveal them. This is the main reason title insurance exists.
- Forged deeds. A deed with a forged signature is void from the start and transfers no ownership, regardless of how many later buyers relied on it in good faith. Unlike a merely defective deed, a forgery has no statute of limitations. An innocent purchaser who paid full value can still lose the property.
- Incapacity of a prior grantor. If someone who signed a deed lacked the mental capacity to understand the transaction, that deed may be voidable. Unlike forgery, incapacity does not automatically make the deed void; it gives the incapacitated person or their legal representative grounds to challenge the transfer in court.
- Undisclosed heirs. When a property owner dies, title passes through probate or by operation of law. If probate missed an heir, or a previously unknown will surfaces after probate closes, those heirs may have a valid claim. The risk is highest with estate transfers that happened decades ago.
- Survey discrepancies. The legal description in the deed may not match the physical boundaries on the ground. Fences, driveways, and structures sometimes encroach in ways that create adverse possession claims or boundary disputes. A title search reviews documents, not physical conditions.
- Unrecorded interests. Certain rights, such as a spouse’s homestead interest or rights arising from adverse possession, can exist without any recorded document. They will not appear in any index search.
None of these are common. Each can be catastrophic. They mark the line between what a title search can do and what title insurance is designed to cover.
When You Should Hand It Off
You can absolutely conduct your own search. The records are public, the indexes are accessible, and the basic method is logical. Where most people struggle is recognizing what they are looking at. A recorded easement from 1987 may read like boilerplate until you notice it gives a neighbor permanent access through your future backyard. An unreleased mortgage from a bank that no longer exists is easy to miss if you are not specifically checking for satisfactions.
Professional title searchers and abstractors do this work every day. They know where each type of record is kept in their county, which indexes to cross-reference, and what red flags to watch for. A professional search on a residential property typically runs between $75 and $300, though complex or rural properties with longer histories cost more. That is a modest expense against the price of the property and the consequences of missing something.
Title companies bundle the search with title insurance as part of closing. If you are buying with a mortgage, the lender will require both a title search and lender’s title insurance as a condition of the loan, so a professional search happens whether or not the buyer arranges it separately. Doing your own search early is still useful: it lets you spot problems before you write an offer, and it gives you a way to check the title commitment when it lands.
If your search turns up a defect, the fix ranges from simple to slow. Clerical errors are often corrected with a corrective deed or a scrivener’s affidavit. Unreleased liens from paid-off loans are cleared by getting the lender to record a satisfaction. Serious defects, such as gaps in the chain or competing ownership claims, may require a quiet title action, a lawsuit asking a court to declare who owns the property and extinguish other claims. A quiet title action can take months. Build that possibility into your timeline and do not waive your title contingency until the defect is resolved.