Real Property Searches

Real Property Searches

Real property records have all the information you may need about a property, including real property interests, deeds, plats, liens, and judgments.

Real property searches are important for many different people, in many professions. Having a detailed, accurate account of a property’s history, ownership, liens, and other information gives a picture of where the property actually stands.

 

Land Report

A land report is the report that comes out of the title search and examination process. All the information we as your title company uncovers during the search and examination gets printed out in the land report. The land report isn’t going to be the most engaging thing you’ve ever read. The land report includes several different sections, each of which shines a different light on the health and status of the property. The sections often include:

  • Property and Owner Information.

  • Legal Description

  • Liens and Encumbrances

  • Tax information

  • Easements

  • Restrictions, historical rules, oversights

  • Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions

 

Owners and Encumbrance Report

An Owners and Encumbrance report, also referred to as a ‘O&E Report’, verifies the current vested owner(s) of the property from last property purchase to most current effective date in the property records, reports unreleased mortgages and judgments and provides tax status (where available). This report identifies:

  • Vesting deed information (full value deed with a concurrent institutional purchase money mortgage)

  • Current year property tax information (where available)

  • Unreleased current owner executed mortgage(s)

  • Supplemental instrument information associated with open mortgages

  • Unreleased judgment docket(s) filed against current owner(s)

  • Pertinent page copies of the recorded instruments

 

Document Copies

Reach out to any one of our team members if you would like copies of all the documents that pertain to your property.

 

  • The legal documents that transfer the ownership of a property from one party to another are called deeds. Information contained in a public records search can reveal the name of the true property owner.

  • There are many types of deeds, but the most common are general warranty, special warranty, grant, and quitclaim deeds.

  • A general warranty deed guarantees the grantor’s right to sell a piece of property to the grantee. General warranty deeds are a promise that a clear title came from the previous property owner.

  • A grantor can use a special warranty deed to defend the title against his or her own actions or omissions. Special warranty deeds do not offer buyers as much protection as general warranty deeds.

  • A grantor does not have to defend title claims in a grant deed. Grant deeds merely contain a covenant that the grantor has not already sold the real property being given to the grantee, and that the grantor is giving the property to the grantee without any liens.

  • A quitclaim deed simply transfers whatever type of ownership a grantor has on a property. It makes no promises about the extent of the interest on said property, so a buyer must accept the risk that the grantor may not have valid ownership.

  • The grantor is the party in a transaction who conveys ownership of an asset. The grantor sells the property rights to the grantee.

    The grantee is the person in a transaction who receives something – aka the buyer. The grantee receives ownership of the property after the closing process ends.

  • A plat, or a map indicating the boundaries of an individual property, is an important document to have. For land owners, real estate agents, and attorneys, plats provide an accurate picture of the size of a property, its location, and what real property it has. Plats can show if a property extends to include a lake or pond, for example.