How does one do a title search and what all is involved?

It seems to me that you are giving the buyer a discount- you should be able to find the information that you need at the local courthouse. if I had to do research to placate the potential buyer all deals would be off. I would charge fair market value for the property and nothing less. let them do the research or make the pay a premium for your effort.

Usually a title search is done by a title search company. I doubt if anything regarding endangered species would be on the report.

You can go down to the county recorders office to look stuff up. It should be all accessible to the public and free (unless you make copies). However, I have no idea if any of that information would be available.

You can look online in public records to see who owns the property and some lien information like mortgages. You could also go to the courthouse and ask for someone to help you do it. Hopefully, you get a knowledgable helpful person. Do you want to give us the the county and state and we can try to help find the link for you? The thing is, you still shouldn’t be guaranteeing anything, you aren’t a real estate or title expert.

If someone is buying property the lawyer hired to do the closing usually has a title search done and the buyer pays for title insurance. I guess maybe they could go directly to a title search company and skip the lawyer?

Don’t do it yourself, although you can.

Pay the money and get a title attorney who has expertise to understand the fine print, and follow up the anomalies which will be found.

That’s what title insurance is for.

There is no title insurance. If we do this, the buyer will pay for it. Guess I just need to call the attorney again.

In FL it varies by county who pays for the title insurance, but no matter what it can be negotiated in the sales contract who pays. It’s part of the closing costs. You don’t usually do it ahead if time just to sell the house if you have every reason to believe the title is clear. In some states it’s more typical for the buyer to pay, in some states it’s the buyer.

The contract states that the buyer has to pay for it.

Then he pays. It’s his problem. You said he’s getting cold feet, can he actually get out of the contract now? Are all the contingencies met? If he pulls out and breaks the contract you get the deposit if all the contingencies are cleared already.

Oh, no one has signed anything yet. No money has changed hands. As she put it, “It is so exactly what we’ve been looking for, I want to be sure there are no nasty surprises.”

Anyway, she’s the one who wants it, she has to pay for it. I won’t!

Got it.

It shouldn’t be that expensive and is usually sold out of the same office as the escrow company. When I was a realtor Title companies would usually give out Property Profiles for free. That is the information they are looked mg for and the information the title company researches before they sell a title insurance policy since they are guaranteeing a clean title

There is no escrow company.

Is the attorney holding your escrow?

There is no escrow.

So how are you transferring title? Are they just giving you the money without having a title in hand? Are you giving them title without having money in hand? Escrow ensures that the transfer happens at the same time.

@Judi There isn’t a contract yet.

I thought she went to an attorney and had them write the contract.

Right above my “Got it” she says no one has signed anything.

But does she not intend to have an escrow? I know things are done differently on different states but escrow is for the protection of all parties concerned.

I indirectly asked the same thing. I called it a deposit, just using layman’s terms, but I agree escrow money is very important. I’ve seen escrow amounts vary around the country, but I’ve never seen a contract without some escrow money. Especially with a lawyer involved I can’t imagine a contract not having some escrow money as a requirement.

We aren’t transferring title until it’s paid off. When we borrowed money from the bank to buy the land there was no escrow then, either. We just make monthly payments and they hang on to the title until it’s paid.

They must do real estate differently in Kansas.

So I called the title company. It’s $200 for a title search, then she said something about title insurance and basing it on the purchase price. What is that?

Title insurance is based on the purchase price because basically, they are insuring a clear title at the time of transfer. If the title is not clear and they didn’t disclose it then they reimburse the purchaser.

But what does the purchase price have to do with it?

The purchase price is the insurance companies maximum liability.
@Dutchess, If you’re not transferring title until it’s paid off, will they at least have a trust deed? I know they don’t do that everywhere either, but basically its a “conditional deed” conditioned on them making the payments. If they don’t make the payments you can foreclose and keep the deed.

It’s in the contract:

Tell you what…I’ll just send the contract to you on FB, and tell me what you think.

Two people can transfer property without lawyers and fancy contracts. You don’t have to have escrow. It’s just that is how it typically done to protect the seller and help keep the contract together.

Thanks.

@Judi my attorney said, “If you record the contract with the county then you will have to file a foreclosure action in order to get the property back if she stops paying, so I would not.”

Interesting. Ask him if there would be anything stopping the buyer from filing the contract with the recorders office.

What would that do? (My attorney is a “she” btw!)

It would do the same thing a if you filed it. You would “have to file a foreclosure action in order to get the property back if she stops paying” I would assume.

Well, I don’t think she’d do it for that reason. We just need to wait and see how all of this plays out. Hopefully we’ll get the results by Friday.

Short advertisement for realtors coming These little stresses are why realtors are so great. They can say, “This is normal” or “I’ve never seen anyone do it that way before but I don’t see any reason why we can’t” or “I think you could get more money than that.”
They help you to know what reasonable requests are and are not. Unless you’ve bought and sold a lot of real estate in your life they can be very helpful. They do earn their money, they don’t just collect a commission for putting the two parties together.
Sounds like you have your ducks in a row though. I hope everything works out well.