Title search

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In real estate business and law, a title search or property title search is the process of examining public records and retrieving documents on the history of a piece of real property to determine and confirm property's legal ownership, and find out what claims or liens are on the property.^[1] A title search is also performed when an owner wishes to sell mortgage property and the bank requires the owner to insure this transaction.

In the case of a prospective purchase, a title search is performed primarily to answer three questions regarding a property on the market:

• Does the seller have a saleable and marketable interest in the property?
• What kind of restrictions or allowances pertain to the use of the land? These would include real covenants, easements and other equitable servitudes.
• Do any liens exist on the property which need to be paid off at closing? These would be mortgages, back taxes, mechanic's liens, and other assessments.

Anyone may do a title search, with the right knowledge and resources, although the preparation of an abstract of title as part of a real-estate closing is often restricted to specifically licensed professionals or attorneys. Documents concerning conveyances of land are a matter of public record. These documents are maintained in hard copy paper format or sometimes scanned into image files. The information within the documents is typically not available as data format as the records are descriptions of legal events which contain terms, conditions, and language in excess of data.^{[citation needed]} Within the United States, property deeds, deeds of trusts, easements, restrictive covenants, and other legal documents are often maintained electronically on a county-by county basis by a register of deeds, who is charged with accurately recording, maintaining, and updating records of real-estate conveyances.