What Is Title Search?

A title search is a review of public land records, deeds, mortgages, liens, judgments, tax records, and sometimes probate filings, to confirm who legally owns a property and whether anything is attached to it that would need to be resolved before a clean sale. Title companies and attorneys, not the buyer or seller, typically pull and interpret these records, and the result is usually summarized in a title report or title commitment that lists the property's chain of ownership and any exceptions to clear title.

Common issues a title search can turn up include unpaid property tax liens, old mortgages that were never properly released, mechanic's liens from unpaid contractor work, judgment liens from lawsuits against a prior owner, and, especially in inherited-property deals, unresolved probate or missing heirs on the deed. None of these automatically kill a deal, but each one usually needs to be paid off, released, or legally cleared before a title company will issue a clean title policy at closing.

For a wholesaler, ordering title early, as soon as a property is under contract, is what turns a promising lead into a deal the team can actually close. A seller can be completely honest and still not know about an old lien or a probate issue that never got cleaned up. Callers and VAs are not expected to research title themselves; their job is to gather accurate seller and property information, like names, address, and any known liens the seller mentions, and pass it along so acquisitions can order title promptly instead of discovering a problem days before closing.