Title Reports - What a Realtor Should Read

Part of an escrow includes a preliminary Title report. It tells us who legally owns the property, any easements, liens, rights to the property other than the owner of record, and additional items that educate the buyer about the house they are considering making their home.

Most buyers don't know what to look for in a title report. I was trained to read them, really read the reports. I look for unusual items on all of them. And, when I see something that looks odd, I always ask for the underlying documents. That is the more detailed documentation of the item on the report. Should help to explain what exactly it is.

This morning, I did just that. Two items showed easements on the property that my client is buying. We were pretty certain there were easements based upon the property location, but I felt we needed to dig a little deeper.

Oh, boy, here comes another 15 pages of documents. I'm not an attorney, but I trudged thru the legal jargon and actually enjoyed reading the documents.

One page was hand written in 1876 ! Yes, I say, 1876 !

Needless to say, I couldn't read that one! The rest of the 14 pages I did though. And, it showed me that there was in fact an easement. Put in place many years ago for the good of the people.

I then forwarded it all to my client, with my humble opinion attached to it.....we shall see what he thinks of it......if he even reads it...... ;o)