I was just thinking the other day I need to contribute to this board a little bit. I’m not an expert, or a newbie, in between I would say. But I have never seen this advice posted here so here I go.
Seek out a local paralegal (attorney’s assistant usually around here) and offer to pay them well to sit down with this person for a few hours and learn title searches. Make sure it is a big firm for your area that does lots of closings. I did this and the education I learned has already paid off many times. The commercial deal I did was very complicated, as most are, but I had a sound understanding of NC state law and was able to see that a 400K lien was canceled, which completely cleared the title. Because of the way public records work in my county, it was difficult to see this. I am pretty certain that this was the exact reason I was the sole buyer interested in this property.
Every professional real estate investor needs to have a sound understanding of state laws concerning liens, mortgages (or deeds of trust), judgements, etc. and how they relate to real estate in your area. Lets face it, you can’t pick up the phone and call your attorney every time a possible deal comes up. There are just too many that I look at every day to do that. The attorneys I’ve used wouldn’t go for that anyways. You need to learn how to do title searches yourself, to weed out all the bad apples. THEN, when you think everything checks out, call your attorney and order title insurance BEFORE you close so your A#SS is covered in case everyone missed something. Happened to me once but it was a minor city assessment for around 500 dollars.
I hope this advice helps somebody.
John