Posted by Jimbob on October 13, 1998 at 10:13:03:
Ken,
You do not research titles at the courthouse, you research them through title companies. The reason the courthouse said there are no guarantees is because you might pull up a record today, and tomorrow a lien gets recorded against it.
The best way to approach this is to call a local title company and tell them you want to run a preliminary title search on a piece of real property. A preliminary search may not reveal all liens against the property, but it will give you a good idea of how much equity is in the property. If there is a lot and you have a seller on the hook, you can go for the full blow title report, that normally runs around $500.
Jimbob