To get a title report on a property, you can order one from a title company, ask a real estate attorney to arrange one, or run a preliminary search yourself through your county recorder or clerk’s office. A residential title search typically costs between $75 and $500 and takes about 10 to 14 business days, depending on the property’s history and how well your county has digitized its records.
Three Ways to Order a Title Report
Title companies handle the vast majority of reports. They dig through public records, including deeds, mortgages, lien filings, probate records, and court judgments, to piece together the ownership chain and identify anything that could complicate a transfer. You can contact a title company directly. If you’re already working with a real estate agent or lender, they can refer you to one, but you are not locked into that referral.
In some states, an attorney must be involved in the title process. A handful require an attorney’s title opinion before title insurance can issue, and others require attorney supervision of the closing itself. If you’re buying in one of those states, your title company or lender will let you know early. In the remaining states, title companies handle the search and examination without mandatory attorney involvement.
You can also do a preliminary search yourself. County recorder and clerk offices maintain public records that anyone can access, and many counties now offer online portals where you can search recorded documents by owner name, address, or parcel number. Deeds, mortgages, lien filings, and plat maps are all public. The depth of these online systems varies widely. Some counties have digitized records going back decades; others only have recent filings online and require an in-person visit for older documents.
A DIY search has real limits. Pulling up recorded documents is one thing; interpreting them is another. A professional title examiner knows how to trace the chain of ownership, spot gaps, identify unreleased liens that should have been cleared, and flag problems that wouldn’t be obvious to someone unfamiliar with the records. For any actual purchase, a professional search is worth the cost. The DIY approach works best as a preliminary step to check for obvious red flags before you spend more money.
What to Have Ready Before You Order
Gather the basic property details first: the full street address, the current owner’s name if you know it, and ideally the parcel identification number from the county assessor. Having this information upfront prevents delays caused by misidentified parcels, which happens more often than you’d expect in areas where addresses have changed or multiple lots share similar descriptions.
Tell the title company why you need the report. A report ordered for a purchase involves a deeper search than one ordered for general information. The company will confirm what they need from you, give you a cost estimate and expected turnaround time, and typically ask you to sign an order agreement before starting.
What a Title Report Costs
A standalone title search typically runs somewhere between $75 and $500 for a residential property, depending on location and the complexity of the property’s history. Properties with multiple past owners, existing liens, or messy records push the cost higher. Commercial properties cost more than residential ones. If you’re ordering a full title commitment with insurance as part of a home purchase, the total title-related charges at closing will be significantly higher once you add insurance premiums and settlement fees.
Title service fees generally break out into the search fee, the examination fee, the lender’s title insurance premium, and the settlement agent’s fee.1Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Are Title Service Fees? Some companies bundle these into a single charge, which makes comparison harder. Ask for the itemized version so you can see where one company might be cheaper on the search but more expensive on the insurance premium.
On your Closing Disclosure, title charges appear on page 2. The search fee, lender’s title insurance premium, and settlement agent fee show up in the services section, while owner’s title insurance, if you buy it, is listed separately.2Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Closing Disclosure
Turnaround for a residential title search generally falls between 10 and 14 business days. Simpler properties with clean records in well-digitized counties can come back faster. Properties with extensive histories, multiple owners, or records stored only on paper can take several weeks. The title company’s current workload matters too. During busy real estate seasons, expect delays.
As for who pays, the buyer typically covers the title search and lender’s title insurance, though this is negotiable. Local customs vary, and in some markets sellers routinely pay for the owner’s title insurance policy. Your purchase agreement should spell out who is responsible for each closing cost.
Your Right to Shop for Title Services
Title services are among the largest closing costs in a real estate purchase, and federal law protects your ability to shop for them. Your Loan Estimate lists title-related services you can shop for in Section C of page 2, and the specific shoppable services vary by lender.3Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Shop for Title Insurance and Other Closing Services Title search fees, settlement agent fees, and title insurance premiums are all fair game for comparison shopping in most transactions.
Federal law also prohibits a seller from forcing you to buy title insurance from a specific company as a condition of the sale when a federally related mortgage is involved. A seller who violates this rule is liable to the buyer for three times the charges imposed for that title insurance.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 12 USC 2608 – Title Companies; Liability of Seller A lender or agent may suggest a title company, and that suggestion is fine, but you’re free to choose a different provider.
What a Title Report Shows You
A title report is a detailed summary of a property’s legal history. It pulls together several categories of information that together give you a complete legal picture of the parcel. The core elements include the current legal owner’s name, a legal description that precisely identifies the parcel, and a history of how ownership has changed hands over the years.
Beyond ownership, the report lists all recorded liens against the property. These are debts that use the property as collateral, and they must be paid off before the seller can deliver clear title. Common examples include mortgages, unpaid property taxes, and judgment liens from court-ordered debts. Federal tax liens deserve special attention because they attach to all of a taxpayer’s property and can limit your ability to get financing if one shows up. The IRS files a public Notice of Federal Tax Lien to alert creditors that the government has a legal claim against the property owner’s assets.5Internal Revenue Service. Understanding a Federal Tax Lien
The report also discloses easements, which are rights that allow someone other than the owner to use part of the property for a specific purpose. A utility company might hold an easement to run power lines across the back of the lot, or a neighbor might have a shared driveway easement. These survive a sale, so you inherit them whether you like them or not.
Finally, the report identifies other encumbrances such as restrictive covenants that control how you can use the property. Homeowner association rules, building restrictions, and land-use conditions all fall into this category. A covenant that bans commercial activity on a residential lot, for example, would show up here.
Title Report or Title Commitment: Which One Do You Actually Need
These two documents get confused constantly, and the difference matters when you’re deciding what to order. A title report is a snapshot of a property’s legal status at a particular moment. It tells you what the records show. People order them for all kinds of reasons, including general curiosity about a property they don’t plan to buy right away.
A title commitment goes further. It is a promise from a title insurance company to issue a policy after closing, subject to specific conditions and exceptions. The commitment spells out what the insurer will and won’t cover, giving you a window to resolve problems before you finalize the purchase. If you’re buying a home with a mortgage, your lender will require a title commitment and a lender’s title insurance policy, and that document, not a standalone report, is what drives the closing. If you simply want to know who owns a property or whether it has liens, a standalone title report is all you need.
Reviewing the Report When It Arrives
Read the report line by line. Start with the ownership section and confirm the seller’s name matches the person you’re dealing with. Check the legal description against any survey or plat map you have. Then move through the liens and encumbrances carefully.
Pay attention to liens that should have been released but weren’t. A mortgage the previous owner paid off years ago might still appear as an open lien if the lender never filed a release. This is one of the most common title issues. It’s usually fixable with some paperwork, but it can delay your closing if you don’t catch it early.
Look closely at easements. An easement for underground utility lines across the back of the property is routine and unlikely to affect your plans. An easement granting a neighbor access across your driveway is a different story. If the report shows restrictions or covenants, read them with an eye toward how they’d affect what you want to do with the property. Building height limits, setback requirements, and use restrictions can all surprise buyers who skimmed this section.
If anything looks wrong or confusing, bring it to a real estate attorney or your title company before you proceed. Minor issues like a misspelled name on a deed, a missing notary acknowledgment, or an unreleased lien that was actually paid off are handled through curative work: a corrective document is prepared, signed by the appropriate party, and filed with the county recorder. More serious problems, such as a boundary dispute, a claim from an unknown heir, or a forged deed in the chain of ownership, may require a quiet title action, which is a lawsuit asking the court to determine who owns the property and to extinguish competing claims.
Timing is everything with title defects. Discover them before closing and the seller is motivated to fix them because the sale depends on it. Discover them after closing and your options narrow, unless you purchased an owner’s title insurance policy that covers the specific defect.6Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What Is Owner’s Title Insurance?