Home Title Search: How to Check the Title on Your House

When people ask for a copy of the title to their house, what exists is the deed. The Texas State Law Library draws the line this way: title refers to property ownership and is not a document, while a deed is the legal document that transfers the ownership. TexasLawHelp puts the two together: if title rests on a clear chain of ownership, deeds are the links of that chain.

So a home title search is not a lookup of one certificate. It is a reading of the deed into you, the deeds before it, and every claim recorded against the house along the way. In Texas the deeds sit with the County Clerk in the county where the property exists; elsewhere the same office is called the county recorder or the register of deeds. To get a plain or certified copy of your own deed, follow our property deed search guide.

Where your county puts its recorded documents online, you can search them under your own name at little or no cost. That search shows what the recorder holds. Other parts of the picture are kept by other offices:

The Title Search & Asset Equity Analysis covers every row. An examiner spends 4 to 5 hours on each report and verifies every finding directly with the assessor, tax office, recorder's office and courts. Document images are included even when the county has not digitized them, and each mortgage, lien and judgment is matched to its release.

Some counties will tell you for free. The Duval County Clerk in Florida runs a free Property Fraud Alert: you enter a person or business name, and any document recorded in Duval County under that name sends you an alert with the Clerk's instrument number, so you can open the document in the county's online records. The Clerk notes that an alert is not by itself a cause for concern, and that a common name can bring alerts for other people's documents. If you believe a fraudulent document was recorded, the Clerk says your first call should be to law enforcement.

Illinois Legal Aid Online says many county recorders offer property fraud alerts. When one arrives, its checklist is to ask the county recorder's office about the filing, get copies of any new documents, verify that the document is expected and correct, and talk to a lawyer if it is unfamiliar. It also advises keeping your mailing address current with the county recorder and assessor.

Where your county has no alert service, a search of the recorder's index under your own name, repeated from time to time, shows the same filings after the fact.

• Before selling or refinancing, to see what is recorded against the house before a buyer or lender does.
• After inheriting a house, when the deed into the heirs or the estate may not have been recorded yet.
• After a fraud alert or a letter that points to a filing you did not expect.
• Before buying from a private seller with no title company involved; see title search without escrow.
• When a judgment, contractor lien or tax lien may have attached, and you need to know which ones were released.

The report arrives as a printable PDF. For a property, it includes:

• Chain of title as far back as the county's records go, with every deed, sale price and transfer tax
• Every mortgage, lien, judgment and lis pendens, each matched to its release
• Current vesting, the legal description, and trustee authority when title is held in a trust
• Property taxes, assessed values, building permits, easements, CC&Rs and flood zone
• Estimated value from comparable sales, and the equity left after recorded liens
• Owner investigation: other real estate, vehicles, business interests and court records
• Plain-language notes on anything that could block a sale, a lien or a collection
• Document images, even when the county has not digitized them

After delivery you can request one complimentary updated report per year, and ask any questions about your report at no additional charge. The full contents list is on the Title Search & Asset Equity Analysis page. Not included: bank or brokerage balances, a title insurance policy, or an opinion on marketability.

1. Choose the report option. Expanded Title Search with Asset Equity Analysis for a full search on your house plus its equity, or Preliminary Title Report with Schedules for the same research formatted with Schedule A and Schedule B. Both are $595.
2. Enter the property. The street address, or the assessor parcel number if there is no street address, with the county and state, and the owner's name if you know it.
3. Add the purpose and any deadline. If we cannot meet your deadline, we will reach out to you.
4. Receive the PDF. Delivered in 1 to 3+ days, depending on the county and complexity. The owner is never contacted.

Sources opened for this page on October 21, 2026: the Texas State Law Library guide to real property deeds; TexasLawHelp property deed basics; the Duval County Clerk Property Fraud Alert page and the Duval County Tax Collector announcement; and Illinois Legal Aid Online on protecting property against fraud. More on the firm is on the about U.S. Asset Records page.

Published October 21, 2026 by U.S. Asset Records. Prices and delivery times on this page are current as of that date.

Home Title Search Questions

Order a Title Search on Your Home

$595 flat per property, delivered in 1 to 3+ days, depending on the county and complexity. Every deed in the chain as far back as the county's records go, every mortgage, lien and judgment matched to its release, tax status, permits and the equity left in the house.