Video Transcript:
So what's the difference between a deed and a title on real estate? This is Dave at TitleSearch.com, Certified Title Abstractors. On real estate, a deed is a document which evidences one event in the history of that property. It evidences when a property was transferred or even part of the property was transferred from one party to another. For example, John Smith sells a property to Sally Smith, and it'll have the names of the buyer and seller, a description of the property, sometimes a dollar amount of that transfer, and then signatures and notaries and all the other legal elements of that deed. That's filed in the county recorders office or wherever the venue is for that property. A title for a property is a more all-encompassing theory of the ownership and claims on that property. It's not a document which exists in public records. In fact, title by itself really isn't a document, more of an understanding of what the status of that property is. A title abstract or a title search report is the result of reviewing all of the deals and liens and mortgages and other pieces of paper that have been filed for that property to create that title abstract report. And that report is a snapshot of what exists on that property at that moment in time. It could It could have been changed five minutes later. It could have been different five minutes before. But at that moment in time, it's going to show you exactly what's going on with that property. A deed is simply going to tell you an event that happened at some point in history. It's not going to tell you what happened before that, what happened after it, or even the status of the property. It's just going to say, "Here's what happened to this property on this date." There may be other liens and mortgages that existed on that date that aren't going to be reflected on that deed, just that one event on that property. If you're looking to discover the information about one event, a deed is what you might need. If you're looking to understand the status of a property and what claims could be against it, what liens could be against it, then a title abstract or a title report is what you might need. If you have questions about deeds, mortgages, liens, or title information on a property, you can reach us at our website at title search dot com.