Video Transcript:
So the question comes up frequently, how far back does a current owner search go? And can it go back farther? This is Dave at Title Search dot com. The most common type of title search which is requested from us by most clients is what's called a Current Owner Search or an O & E search; stands for owner and encumbrance. What that does, it will search the title records back to when the current owner took title. And the reason why that's most common: it's a pretty good balance between cost and complexity of the search versus the information you're going to get. Obviously, on any property, you could go back 50, 60, 100 years of title records. It can get very expensive and take a long time. But what happens is, how far back adds complexity to the cost and the time of the search. A current owner search will be the most efficient way for most clients to get the information they need because there's a presumption that a title search was done at that time of transfer. So that up until that transfer, title searches were done everything was taken into account. That's not always the case, but that's what people will presume. And then if you search from that point forward, you'll get the current status of the property. The reason that's important to know is because each owner search beyond that is like a new search. If John Smith owns a property now, doing a title search while his ownership exists is a title search. If you do a search for Bob Jones, who owned the property before, that's almost like doing a new search. Each ownership period before has a search scope associated with it. Some clients will even order, instead of number of years, they'll order a number of owners; like a three-owner search or a four-owner search. If that's your need for your search, let us know. A current owner search is the most common. It's the most efficient, cost the least amount of money, and gives you the most bang for your buck in information. But if you do need a search back for a particular need -for example, SBA loan title searches require a 30-year search, regardless of the number of owners. Sometimes searches require by statute to go back 50 or 60 years. So if you have a certain need for your search, let us know. But a current owner search is going to give you the most information. Because in most cases, when that current owner took title, there was a search done then and most things were taken into account. Anything beyond that probably is going to be less likely to be an issue currently on title, although there are exceptions. Get some good legal advice from your attorney to know what search you want, but a current owner search is by far the most popular. When attorneys, title companies, mortgage companies order a title search from us, they order a current owner search in most cases, so that's probably what you need. If you have more questions, reach us at our website, titlesearch.com.