How to Pull a Title Report in TitlePro 247 (LA 1176)
How to Pull a Title Report in TitlePro 247 (LA 1176)
Transcript:
Steven Butala:
Steve and Jill here.
Jill DeWit:
Hi.
Steven Butala:
Welcome to The Land Academy Show, entertaining land investment talk. I’m Steven Jack Butala.
Jill DeWit:
And I’m Jill DeWit broadcasting from sunny Southern California.
Steven Butala:
Today, Jill and I talk about how to pull a title report in TitlePro 24/7.
Jill DeWit:
Whoa. Let me stop you right there. Let me give you the real title. The real title is going to be Title Report-Worthy Due Diligence.
Steven Butala:
Or What’s A Title Report?
Jill DeWit:
We’re trying to dispel some things here and make sure everybody’s doing this right, so I have a lot I’m going to cover here. This is going to be a good show.
Steven Butala:
Every week we ask our customer service people to give us hot topics. What should we talk about? What are people asking about? And this was at an actual direct quote, “How do you pull a title report in TitlePro 24/7?” Multiple people asked. I’m not sure why. We probably talked about it.
Jill DeWit:
Property report. Property report.
Steven Butala:
First of all, that’s not actually like the not … Yeah. Exactly. That’s not the right question.
Jill DeWit:
That’s what we all say, property report.
Steven Butala:
Before we get into it, let’s take a question posted by one of our members on the LandInvestors.com online community. It’s free.
Jill DeWit:
[Sheria 00:01:08] … Sheria, I’m going say. I hope I’m saying that’s right … asks, “Who do you use to do an inexpensive title search? I recently used EasyTitleSearch.com, and it was $55. The thing is, it’s my first time ever doing it, so I don’t know if it’s good or not.”
Steven Butala:
That’s the thing. This is perfect for this.
Jill DeWit:
I have a lot to say here. “How are you guys doing title search and how much are you paying? It seems like most title companies charge between 150 to $250 to do them, which doesn’t make sense if you’re just doing some investigation.” So we’re going to talk a lot about this in the show, but let me answer this question here first real quick. One of the things that I do in my due diligence is I go back and I search a chain of title. And between our three products, I have-
Steven Butala:
What’s a chain of title?
Jill DeWit:
Thank you for asking. The chain of title is to make sure the guy before this property, the deed was done correctly, everything lines up, the legal description. You check all that. The deed before that, I want to make sure he bought it. He sold it. “Yeah, that’s the buyer. That’s the seller.” Grantor, grantee. Make sure that’s all correct. The legal description’s right, nothing funny going on. The dates line up. Great. Go to the guy before that and the guy … and so on. That’s a chain of title.
Jill DeWit:
I want to make sure that when that guy sold it to you and you sold it to me and I’m selling to him, it all looks correct and there are no issues. The legal description wasn’t off, APM wasn’t off. A company wasn’t misspelled or something left out or a missing document. That would be a cloud on that. But we don’t need to get into that right now. So that’s the chain of title. Just to give you the gist, like going back and researching the pink slip on your car kind of thing. Was it stolen in the middle there and somebody missed it? Okay.
Jill DeWit:
Now, then, the question is to do this … So how do I check the chain of title? I do-
Steven Butala:
Is this the topic?
Jill DeWit:
Well, I’m going to go into this in just a minute. First, I want to answer this question because it’s very important because I’ve been in this exact situation.
Jill DeWit:
We have all the tools. Land Academy members have all the tools to do this ourselves, to do this cursory overview and really do a good job. I shouldn’t say cursory overview. Do a good job just confirming the titles between the three products, between DataTree and TitlePro and RealQuest Pro, all those three that we offer. I can go back and pull vesting deeds and deeds before that. I can see mortgages that are recorded, all kinds of recorded documents, and really do a lot by myself.
Jill DeWit:
I have had times in my career where, gosh darn it, I’ve had a company … And it was so funny because I remember the last time I … This was less than a year ago. I couldn’t find anything. There was one property. I’m like, “Why is nobody have anything on this property?” I couldn’t find a single recorded deed, anything anywhere, right? So I did what Sheria did. I’m like, “You know what? I’m going to pull up one of these companies and see how much they charge,” just like this. “I’m going to pay them and see what they come back with.” And what do you think happened?
Steven Butala:
Nothing.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly.
Steven Butala:
Because they have [inaudible 00:04:13] data sets.
Jill DeWit:
They came back-
Steven Butala:
Because everybody’s working from the same data sets.
Jill DeWit:
Exactly. They came back and said, “Sorry, can’t do it. Here’s your refund.” I’m like, “All right,” proved my point. If I can’t find it, they can’t find it. So my other point is you Land Academy and House Academy members, you guys have most of the stuff at your fingertips. You may not realize it, and I’m going to talk about that in the meat of the show.
Steven Butala:
Today’s topic, How To Pull A Title Report in TitlePro 24/7. This is the meat of the show.
Jill DeWit:
As I was saying, this is kind of my show today, so you can just kind of take a break if you want.
Steven Butala:
I’m taking it.
Jill DeWit:
Okay, good. So the real title of the show is You’re Not Pulling A Title Report In Any One of These Products. That’s not what you’re doing. A title report is a culmination of things that a title company pulls, and they put it all together in a pretty package, couple pages, and call it a title report. You have the ability to do a lot of this on your own, and so that’s why I’m really calling this show Title Report-Worthy Due Diligence. I don’t want to mislabel it or let anybody think that, “I can go in AgentPro 24/7 and pull a title report.” You can’t. You can pull a property report. You can pull all the vesting deeds. You can pull lien reports. You can do all those things. Packaging it up and calling it a title report is a made-up product that title companies do, and they sell it to you doing all the same stuff. That’s the reality.
Steven Butala:
Well said.
Jill DeWit:
And they’re not perfect, by the way. So there are things … Even though they say, “We’re selling you this insurance, this and this and this,” when you really go read it, they only insure against the things that they find. They don’t insure against the things that they don’t find. And if you’re in this business long enough like we have been, I have found things that they missed, and I get to pay for it. They don’t cover it. They’re telling insurance meant nothing. It’s just kind of a thing.
Jill DeWit:
So what I want you to think about is what are you doing here? I want you to think about the type of deals that you’re doing. And I want you to know what you need to dig for and what you don’t need to dig for because that’s what’s important. Are you doing a self-close, or are you closing through a title company?
Jill DeWit:
We, nowadays, because of the size of the transactions that we’re doing, the money that’s involved, and the type of property that are going to be built upon, usually, all the companies out there, all the banks out there … My buyer’s probably taken out a loan. They want a “title insurance.” They want this special policy with tile insurance coming from a title company. Fine. We can hand them that. So that’s the kind of deals that we’re doing.
Jill DeWit:
In the past or for you starting out, you might be buying things for $1,000. Does it make sense for you to go to get $1,500 policy on this? It might not. Depends on the circumstances, of course, on what’s going to happen at the end of the property. But, sometimes, you’re going to self-close, so maybe it’s just like a pretty little $1,000 property you’re going to sell for $3,000 that someone’s just going to picnic and spend the weekends there and put up a tent now and then. They’re not going to need title insurance for that. But I do want you to do your homework and know that you’re buying it right, and you checked all the boxes.
Jill DeWit:
So here’s what I usually do with my due diligence. This is what … You want me to keep going. You want …
Steven Butala:
Oh, yeah.
Jill DeWit:
Okay. All right.
Steven Butala:
I mean, I can simplify some of this if you want.
Jill DeWit:
No, I don’t want you to.
Steven Butala:
That’s what I figured.
Jill DeWit:
This is going to be good, and I have a feeling my team’s going to agree to re-use this show a lot.
Steven Butala:
Okay, good.
Jill DeWit:
And I want you to, hopefully, bookmark save this show because this is going to help you.
Jill DeWit:
What you need to do is … I could do a webinar on this, too, and I might. So, anyway. What I want you to think about is … First thing you should do is decide if … You want to confirm the basics. That’s the thing. Whether they’re going to do a title close or a self-close. When you’re staring at a property and deciding and doing your … This is your title report-worthy due diligence. You’re going to use ParcelFact or NeighborScoop, and you’re going to confirm the basics like ownership, access, slope, zoning, maybe look at how much they paid for the property. There’s a couple … Maybe see what the annual taxes are, kind of peek ground a little bit. That’s what you’re going to do on your initial due diligence.
Jill DeWit:
Phase two, and this is for both, whether you’re doing a self-close or title close. This is what I do, also, because I don’t want to open escrow and find out there’s something wrong with the property. I’m not going to do it afterwards. I need to know ahead of time before I pull the trigger. Second thing, too, before I pull the trigger, when I’m a self-close or call a title agent, I’m going to call the county if I need to or just do whatever I have to. I could do it online. I want to confirm taxes. I want to confirm the usage of the property. I make sure it’s going to do what I think it’s going to do. And get all my billability, if it’s appropriate for that, get those questions answered. That’s the second step.
Jill DeWit:
Now, the third step, I felt good about all that. If I’m going through escrow, heck, now I’m done. Mic drop. I open escrow, they do the rest, so they’re going to dig deeper. They’re going to pull lien reports. They’re going to pull all that stuff. That’s what I’m paying them for. I’m happy to do that. If I uncover any of that, if I want to … and share it with them, I will, but that’s it. Then at the end of the title close, I bought the property.
Jill DeWit:
Now, for me, self-close, okay, now I’ve done all the steps one and steps two. Step three, for me, is I’m going to put on my title agent hat, and I’m going to go into TitlePro 24/7, and I’m going to pull lien reports. I’m going to go back and check the chain of title. I want to make sure, and I want to go back … Most title companies … I need to confirm these numbers, but on all of my experience still it holds 30 years, maybe more. 30, 40 years is usually as far back as they’re going to go. Most title companies are not going to call you and say, “Hold on, Jill. My guy needs another week because we’re only at 1910, and we need to see if we can find a deed before 1910.” They’re not going to do that kind of thing. So that’s what I want you to do, and you have all of that at your fingertips.
Jill DeWit:
And like I was saying before in the question, you can see … And I want you to be with a fine-tooth comb with it. Make sure grantor, grantee is exact. I want you to make sure the legal description’s exact. You might find things in there … I hate to bring up the word, but you might find exclusions as far as access easements and things. Make sure you’re aware of this stuff. Look for that stuff in there, so you know what you’re buying. Because sometimes stuff gets dropped when you go from deed to deed. I want to make sure that you know and … Trying to think if there’s anything else. Oh, and then the lead reports. You can do that. And, again, you have this at your fingertips and, at the end, you buy it. Does that-
Steven Butala:
[inaudible 00:11:25] That’s a fantastic presentation, impromptu presentation, Jill, seriously.
Jill DeWit:
Thank you.
Steven Butala:
The two or three things that really matter when you’re buying a piece of real estate, and it might be a skyscraper or it might be a small piece of property, and Jill just nailed it. Number one, is the person or the entity that you’re buying it from, the person that you’re talking to on the phone? So in the case of a skyscraper, it’s going to be XYZ Company. And you need to look at or make sure, when you’re in negotiations of buying this thing or selling it … Yeah, buying it, really … that you’re not wasting a lot of time because … And you can do very easy checks. Like, okay, so you’re talking to the person on the phone. You’re going to buy the property. It’s owned by XYZ LLC. Does that make sense to you? Yes, it does. That’s our company. Our CEO will sign it when we’re done.
Steven Butala:
It’s the same thing right down to a tiny little property. Where the problem comes in with that is that … And this is probably 95% of it for me. I would love for you to correct me if I’m wrong here.
Jill DeWit:
Okay.
Steven Butala:
The vast majority of the problems happen with chain of title because someone dies who owns a property, and their heirs or somebody else who’s getting the mail, thinks that they own it-
Jill DeWit:
Correct.
Steven Butala:
… because it’s in the will. So they’re staring at a will saying, “My mom gave me everything. It says it right here, and it’s still in her name, but I own it,” and that’s just not the case.
Jill DeWit:
Correct.
Steven Butala:
So getting title insurance, they’re going to smoke that out, and they’re going to say, “Hey, you can’t close this deal unless you do this, this, this, and this, and we’ll do it for you,” in some cases. In some cases, they can’t or it’s cost prohibitive. That’s what matters here.
Steven Butala:
Then the second biggest issue is liens, so think of a house. You would never want to buy a house … You’re buying a house from a couple who have a mortgage, and you’re paying $200,000 for it. They have $150,000 mortgage on the house. You would never want to buy that house for 200 grand, and go get a mortgage to buy it, and then have to pay their mortgage, too. That’s what a lien report says. Lien report says, “Hey, Bank of America’s got a mortgage on this thing for these people,” so that mortgage needs to be extinguished as part of the purchase price. So, yeah, my bank’s going to give escrow 200,000. They’re going to give 150,000 to the former owners’ mortgage company. That extinguishes that lien.
Steven Butala:
We’re checking for liens, checking for liens. There’s no other liens at all. There’s no second position mortgage. They’ve been paying their water bill. That’s like 99% of all of what title really does. So this whole notion of, “Hey, how do I go get a title report?” When someone says that, “How do I go get a title report in 24/7, or wherever?” what they’re really saying … The person who asks the question, what they’re really saying is, “How do I get comfortable with the fact that I can buy this property, and there’s not going to be issues with former owners coming back and saying, ‘Hey, I thought that was my property'”?
Jill DeWit:
Correct.
Steven Butala:
Which, by the way, we’ve done 16,000 deals, almost never happens. And, actually, I can say, on one hand, some issues have come up and-
Jill DeWit:
They’ve been able to solve them. You can solve them.
Steven Butala:
Yes, always. Always. So it’s not something you really need to worry about, but we do need to … The whole point of this, for me, is to dispel this, “How do I pull a title report?” Well, you don’t.
Jill DeWit:
Right.
Steven Butala:
You collect information and write it down and collect a little file and say, “This looks good. This looks good. It looks pretty good to me. I’m going to buy it.”
Jill DeWit:
I’m going to schedule this, so … This first quarter, I’ll tell you right now, Land Academy people … or anybody listening, by the way. You don’t have to be a member to get in on this stuff. This first quarter, I’m going to have a sales webinar. I’m thinking maybe the second quarter. I think I’m going to do a title report-worthy due diligence. And when I do these webinars, I’ll do screenshots and show you. I can get in and show you what I’m looking at, what I’m looking for. I think everybody would love that, so let us know, by the way. That’d be great.
Jill DeWit:
Happy you could join us today. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you can find us right here on The Land Academy Show. Tuesdays and Thursdays, please listen, because all this stuff relates to you, too, over on The House Academy Show.
Steven Butala:
Tomorrow, the episode on The House Academy Show is called Wholesaling A House With Confidence. You are not alone in your real estate ambition.
Jill DeWit:
It does. I want to really make sure everybody knows you should be listening five days a week because some of our topics, they cross over into both, and you can just put on … You can say, “All right, how does this apply to land? Duh. Drop $100,000, or something.” or depending on the deals you’re doing, add $100,000.
Steven Butala:
The truth is more and more and more in the groups that we have, the membership groups and everybody that we do deals with, they’re going through title for however … I’m not sure why. We’re all doing less small deals and better larger deals where the margins are bigger, so we just go through title and not a lot of this applies. But it’s kind of like learning to drive a stick shift. You need to know the basics. This is your career. You want to be able to hold a conversation about it and understand what the chain of title is and have a working knowledge of these phrases and terms. So that’s what this is really about. It’s not about, “Oh, my gosh, man. I got to make sure that this property … The chain of title back to the homestead is okay. And if there’s no liens on it … What is this lien? There was a lien on [inaudible 00:16:52].” It’s not that.
Jill DeWit:
Right. Exactly. Don’t hurt your head. It’s okay. The Land Academy Show remains commercial-free for you, our loyal listener, so wherever you’re watching, wherever you’re listening, please subscribe and rate us there.
Jill DeWit:
We are Steve and Jill …
Steven Butala:
We are Steve and Jill. Information …
Jill DeWit:
… and inspiration …
Steven Butala:
… to buy undervalued property.
If you enjoyed the podcast, please review it in Apple Podcasts . Reviews are incredibly important for rankings on Apple Podcasts. My staff and I read each and every one.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me directly at steven@BuWit.com.
The BuWit Family of Companies include:
I would like to think it’s entertaining and informative and in the end profitable.
And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts.
