You can run a property title search yourself by pulling the parcel’s identifiers, walking the ownership history backward through the county recorder’s grantor-grantee index, and then checking the same records for liens, easements, and pending litigation that would attach to the land. It takes patience and careful reading, and it works best as due diligence before an offer or for a straightforward cash purchase. For a financed deal, a lender will still require a professional search and title insurance, but doing your own pass first tells you what you’re walking into.
Gather the Property’s Identifiers First
Before you touch a database, collect three things. The street address is the obvious one, but the piece that actually drives the search is the Assessor’s Parcel Number, a unique numeric code the local tax authority assigns to each parcel. The APN pinpoints the land even when street names have changed or a mailing address is ambiguous. You can pull it from a property tax bill or from the most recent recorded deed.
Next, find the legal description. This isn’t the street address. It’s a technical description of the land’s boundaries that references lot numbers, block numbers, and subdivision names, and it appears on the most recent warranty deed or quitclaim deed on file with the county. Most county systems need at least the APN or the lot-and-block combination to return the right records.
Finally, get the current owner’s full legal name, including middle initials. Common names generate a flood of irrelevant hits in public databases, and minor spelling differences will cause you to miss filings that matter. Double-check every identifier before you submit anything. A transposed digit in the APN will pull records for a completely different parcel, and you may not catch the mistake until you’re deep into the search.
One boundary worth flagging: if the property is a condominium unit, the search also requires the condo’s master deed (sometimes called the declaration of condominium), which identifies each unit, defines common elements, and sets each unit’s share of common expenses and voting rights. A condo owner holds title to the individual unit but shares ownership of hallways, parking, and other common areas according to those percentages. Skip that document and you don’t actually know what you’re researching.
Where Property Records Live and How to Reach Them
Deeds, mortgages, liens, easements, and other title instruments get filed with the county recorder’s office. Depending on the state, the same office may be called the registrar of deeds or the county clerk. That’s the single official source for the public record on any given parcel.
Online Portals
Many counties now offer online portals that let you search digitized records from home. These systems typically charge a per-page convenience fee or a daily subscription for heavier use, and you’ll usually need to create an account and add a payment method before viewing documents. Online access works well for newer filings, but coverage varies widely. Some counties have digitized records going back decades; others only carry the last ten or fifteen years online.
In-Person Searches
For older records stored on microfilm or in physical books, visiting the recorder’s office is sometimes the only option. Public terminals are usually available for self-service searching, and staff can help you request specific documents, though they cannot interpret what you find or offer legal advice. Certified copies typically run $10 to $50 depending on page count. If the records you need sit in off-site storage, expect several business days for retrieval.
Trace the Chain of Title
The chain of title is the chronological sequence of every ownership transfer for the parcel, and establishing an unbroken chain is the heart of the search. The standard period varies by jurisdiction. Most title professionals go back at least 30 to 60 years, and some states require a full 60 years for owner’s policies.
You’ll work primarily from the Grantor-Grantee Index, the county’s official ledger of property transfers. The index is organized by the names of the parties: the grantor transfers the property, the grantee receives it. Start with the current owner’s name in the grantee side of the index to find the deed that gave them ownership. That deed names the grantor who sold to them. Now search that grantor’s name in the grantee index to find the deed that transferred the property to them. Keep going, link by link, until you’ve covered the required search period.
At every step, read the deed itself. Confirm the legal description matches across every document in the chain. Check that each deed was properly notarized and recorded. Note whether each grantor conveyed their full interest or only a partial one. Inconsistencies in boundaries or names are red flags that need resolving before you can call the chain clean.
When the Chain Has a Gap
A break in the chain happens when a transfer wasn’t properly recorded. The most common causes are properties passed through inheritance without a formal probate proceeding, divorce settlements where the decree was never followed by a recorded deed, and clerical failures where a deed was signed but never filed. If a grantor appears in the index but you can’t find a matching entry showing how they acquired the property, the chain is broken.
A broken chain creates what’s called a clouded title, and it’s serious. Lenders won’t issue a mortgage on a property with a clouded title, and title insurance companies won’t insure it. Clearing the cloud usually means tracking down heirs, former spouses, or other parties with potential claims and getting them to sign a quitclaim deed, or going to court if they won’t cooperate.
Search for Liens Against the Property
Liens attach to the property itself, not just to the owner who took on the debt. They survive ownership changes unless they’ve been formally satisfied and released. This is the part of the search that keeps buyers from inheriting someone else’s debts.
Tax Liens
Unpaid property taxes generate liens filed by local government, and they’ll show up in the county’s General Index or Judgment Index. Federal tax liens matter just as much. Under federal law, when someone owes taxes and fails to pay after the IRS demands payment, a lien automatically attaches to all of that person’s property, including real estate.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6321 – Lien for Taxes Federal tax liens are filed with the county recorder and will appear in your search. They take priority over most other claims, meaning they must be satisfied before the property can transfer with clear title.
Mechanic’s Liens
If a contractor, subcontractor, or materials supplier did work on the property and wasn’t paid, they can file a mechanic’s lien that specifies the amount owed and the date recorded. These are easy to miss if you’re only searching by the owner’s name, because they’re sometimes indexed under the contractor’s name. An unresolved mechanic’s lien can lead to a foreclosure action even after the property changes hands.
Judgment and Child Support Liens
When a court awards a monetary judgment against a property owner, an abstract of that judgment gets filed in the county records and creates a lien on any real property the debtor owns. Delinquent child support obligations can also become liens against real property once the support order is docketed. Child support liens often carry high priority. In many states, they take precedence over nearly every other claim except unpaid government taxes. Each of these has to be satisfied before a buyer can receive clear title.
HOA and Condominium Assessment Liens
Unpaid homeowners association or condominium association dues can also become liens against the property. Roughly half the states have adopted some form of super lien law, giving the association’s lien priority over even the first mortgage for a limited amount of unpaid assessments. These liens don’t always appear in the standard Grantor-Grantee Index. You may need to check separately with the association or search for recorded lien notices filed by the HOA’s management company.
Check for Easements and Other Non-Financial Encumbrances
Not every encumbrance is a debt. Some restrict how the land can be used or give other people a right to cross or access it, and they can change what you’re able to do with the property even though no money is owed.
Easements
An easement gives someone other than the owner a legal right to use part of the property for a specific purpose. Common examples include utility easements for power or water lines, access easements that let a neighbor cross the land to reach a public road, and drainage easements. Express easements are created by written agreement and recorded with the county, so they’ll appear in your search.
Prescriptive easements are different. These arise when someone has used part of a property openly, continuously, and without permission for a statutory period, typically between 5 and 30 years depending on the state. Because they’re established through use rather than a written document, they won’t appear in the public records. An easement by necessity can also be implied by law when a parcel is sold in a way that leaves the remaining parcel without access to a public road or utility, and those may also lack a recorded document.
Covenants, Conditions, and Restrictions
CC&Rs are typically recorded by developers and govern everything from building heights and setbacks to exterior paint colors and whether you can park a boat in your driveway. They run with the land, which means they bind every future owner regardless of whether the buyer knew about them. Violating a CC&R can result in fines or a lawsuit from the homeowners association or neighboring owners, so read them closely.
Lis Pendens
A lis pendens is a recorded notice that the property is the subject of a pending lawsuit. It doesn’t mean the owner did anything wrong. It means someone has filed a legal claim that could affect title. For a buyer, an active lis pendens is a stop sign: most lenders won’t finance a purchase and most title companies won’t insure a property while one is on record. The litigation has to be resolved, or the notice withdrawn, before the transaction can move forward.
What a Records Search Can’t See
A title search examines recorded documents, but it can’t tell you whether a neighbor’s fence sits two feet over the property line or whether a shed encroaches onto an easement. That’s what a land survey is for. Title insurers operating under ALTA standards require survey information that goes beyond public records when insuring title without broad survey-related exceptions, precisely because encroachments and boundary overlaps can only be identified through a physical inspection of the property.2National Society of Professional Surveyors. 2026 ALTA/NSPS Standards If you want full title insurance coverage, plan on a survey.
What to Do When You Find a Defect
Finding a problem is the point of doing the search. How you fix it depends on what it is.
- Outstanding liens are typically paid off by the seller at or before closing, and the lienholder files a release with the county recorder. For tax liens, the taxing authority issues a certificate of release once the balance is cleared. Get confirmation that the release has actually been recorded, not just that a check was mailed.
- Clerical errors in deeds, such as a misspelled name, wrong lot number, or incorrect legal description, can usually be fixed with a corrective deed or corrective affidavit, depending on the state. These get recorded to replace or amend the flawed document, and notice to all parties on the original deed is usually required before recording.
- Missing links in the chain often get resolved by having the missing party or their heirs execute a quitclaim deed relinquishing any interest. When the parties cooperate, this is the fastest path.
- Disputed ownership with an uncooperative party usually calls for a quiet title action, a lawsuit asking a court to determine ownership and eliminate competing claims. The process involves filing a petition that describes the title problem, serving every party with a potential interest, and obtaining a court order that declares ownership. These can take months, so build that into your timeline.
In most real estate transactions, the seller is responsible for delivering clear title, and the purchase contract typically gives them a set window, often 30 to 60 days, to cure any defects discovered during the search. If the defects can’t be resolved, the buyer usually has the right to walk away and recover their earnest money deposit.
When to Stop and Hire a Professional
Doing your own title search is a reasonable approach for preliminary due diligence, like checking for obvious liens or ownership questions before making an offer. It can also make sense for cash purchases of low-value properties where the buyer is comfortable accepting some risk. For a financed purchase of a primary residence, you’ll almost certainly need both a professional search and title insurance to close, because the lender will require it and the cost of missing something is far higher than the search fee.
Title insurance covers what the search can’t catch: forged signatures in the chain of title, undisclosed heirs, recording errors, and other defects that existed before you bought the property but weren’t discoverable from the public records alone.3U.S. Department of the Treasury. Exploring Title Insurance, Consumer Protection, and Opportunities for Potential Reforms A lender’s policy protects the bank; an owner’s policy protects your equity. They’re separate purchases.
Hiring a title company or abstractor to run the search typically costs $75 to $200 for a straightforward residential property, with complex histories or documentation gaps pushing the cost to $300 or more. A standard residential title search generally takes 10 to 14 business days end to end, longer if the property has a complicated history or older records must be retrieved from off-site storage. Properties in counties with fully digitized records tend to move faster. If your DIY search turns up anything you can’t cleanly resolve on paper, that’s the point to bring in a professional rather than close on a property with a question mark on the title.