Video Transcript:
How do you run a title search on a commercial property? This is Dave at TitleSearch.com. The mechanics of a title search on a commercial or residential property is essentially the same. You look for documents that have been recorded against that property that may affect the property; a mortgage, a lien, a judgment, easements, that type of thing. Then you determine which ones are still active by finding matching releases or assignments that may cancel that out. The reason that a commercial property is more complex as a search starts with the fact that property documents recorded in the county land records are recorded by name, meaning the index you look up to find these records is looking at a name index, not a property index. You don't look at 123 Main Street and find all the records for 123 Main Street. You find all documents for Joe Smith or for XYZ Corp. If that's the case, then it's likely that there will be more documents for a corporate name because they're going to have a lot more filings, a lot more activities than an individual might. That company might own multiple pieces of real estate. They may have other types of recordings, UCC filings, maybe civil record filings. They might even have employment filings, which are all going to be in that index that you have to sort it through. You're going to have to start with a higher number of documents. There's also multiple versions of the name. For example, if you search XYZ Corp, you'll find a group of documents. If you search XYZ Incorporated, there might be additional documents or X. Y. Z. The search systems in most counties is very literal into the syntax of how the names work. So if you're searching for a title record on a commercial property by name, it's very important to try all these variations which can find other documents. Just because you didn't find it doesn't mean it doesn't exist on the property. It's still a valid lien against that property. Searching for title records on a commercial property is the same process, a little more complex. You want to make sure that your searcher that's working on a commercial property is qualified to know how to do the research, know the subtle differences, and know that there may be other records in other areas where they wouldn't be on a residential. If you have questions about running a title search on commercial property, you can reach us at our website at title search dot com.