Title Search

"Deeds are important because they can provide notice to others about the ownership status of real estate. A system of centralized public records helps determine whether a purported seller owns land and has not already granted it to someone else. By using Grantor and Grantee Indexes, a purchaser can trace title through preceding owners, presumably back to a patent from the sovereign. The purchaser can look up the seller in the Grantee Index, check the Grantor Index for later conveyances, and then continue examining the seller’s predecessors. The good lead doctrine requires a property description to provide a way to discover with certainty the land granted. Marketable Title legislation can make an apparently good title truly good when a search thirty or forty years back reveals no contrary grants and there have been no contrary claims during that period. A purchaser investing substantial money, and a bank financing the purchase, may also require title insurance. Title insurance protects against claims arising from title problems, including mistakes in a title search. Title companies maintain title plants and may produce abstracts of title containing documents related to a piece of property."