A stranger’s unpaid contractor bill can stop your closing cold. Somebody worked on the house in 2014, never got paid, and recorded a claim that sat in the county index while three owners came and went.

That’s the sort of thing a records search drags into daylight.

I’ve bought a lot of houses, and the preliminary title report is the first thing I read, ahead of the inspection and the comps. A roof I can price. A clouded chain of ownership can sink a sale. If you’re curious who’s writing this, here’s more about our company and how we work.

What Is a Preliminary Title Report in Real Estate?

Think of it as the house’s permanent record, pulled before anybody hands over money.

Once escrow opens, a title company searches the public record and writes up who legally owns the property and every recorded claim attached to it. Title industry associations define a preliminary report as one prepared before a title policy is issued. It shows who owns the parcel and which liens and encumbrances the coming policy won’t cover.

Now the part that trips people up. A prelim isn’t a guarantee, and it isn’t the insurance policy. The report itself usually says it isn’t a representation of the condition of title. If you treat it as a promise about who owns what, you’re taking that risk on yourself.

So why read it? Because what you know, you can act on. If a prescriptive easement crosses the back of the lot, you can negotiate, walk away, or ask the seller to clear it before closing.

It’s a standard step on nearly every residential sale.

What’s Included in the Preliminary Title Report?

The legal description comes from recorded documents, and nobody walks the lot to check it. A fence that’s sat in the wrong spot for forty years won’t show up anywhere in the preliminary title report. That gap matters on hillside lots and older subdivisions, where the paper line and the real one drifted apart long ago.

Most prelims follow a similar layout. Schedule A names the owner of record, the estate being insured, and the kind of policy proposed, with the legal description usually attached as an exhibit. Schedule B lists the exceptions, and a separate section spells out what has to happen before coverage issues. In plain terms, A tells you what you’re buying and B tells you what’s wrong with it.

Those exceptions tend to cover taxes, assessments, bonds, CC&Rs, easements, rights of way, and liens. You’ll also see deeds of trust from any mortgage still recorded. HOA covenants show up in managed communities.

Each exception is numbered. Your escrow officer or broker should walk you through them line by line, and if they brush past the list with “that’s all standard,” push back. Routine items and real problems sit in the same column, formatted the same way.

The report shows the tax status too. Unpaid taxes are among the easier fixes, since they come out of the seller’s proceeds at closing. The hard problems need a signature from somebody who moved away in 1998.

Why Do Buyers Need a Preliminary Title Report Before Closing?

That signature problem is why timing matters.

Every exception is a hole in your coverage. The report shows you what your title insurance policy will exclude unless somebody clears it first, and whatever’s still listed at closing stays your problem.

Picture paying several hundred thousand dollars for a house. Now picture learning afterward that a neighbor holds a recorded right to drive across your driveway. At that price, a surprise restriction is more than an annoyance.

A lender won’t fund the loan without a lender’s title policy, and that coverage is built on the prelim.

People sometimes ask whether they can skip the review on new construction. I tell them no, because new homes still sit on land with a history, and developer CC&Rs often restrict rentals, parking, and even paint colors.

Reading it costs you nothing extra. Skipping it is the expensive choice.

How Long Does It Take to Get a Preliminary Title Report?

For years I told sellers the prelim would land in two days, and I was wrong often enough that I quit promising it.

Timing depends on the file. A clean, recently sold single-family home often comes back within a few days of escrow opening. A house that’s been in one family since the Eisenhower administration takes longer, and so does one that went through probate or sits in a trust.

Older records slow things down. The county recorder keeps every deed, deed of trust, lien, and release, and plenty of counties don’t put their older records or indexes online. Sometimes a searcher has to pull paper or microfilm in person.

Want your preliminary title report faster? Open escrow early, give the title officer the full legal name of every owner on title, and flag anything unusual up front, like a trust, a divorce, a deceased co-owner, or a lot split.

In an active market, homes can go under contract within a few weeks. A records search that takes several days fits inside a normal escrow. It doesn’t leave room for a week where nobody opens the PDF.

How Much Does a Preliminary Title Report Cost?

“So what’s this going to cost me?”

On its own, usually nothing. In most states, there’s no separate charge for the prelim, because it’s folded into the title insurance premium paid at closing.

The policy is where the money shows up. Premiums are usually based on the purchase price for an owner’s policy and the loan amount for a lender’s policy.

I’ll defend this one: shop your title company. A few states set title rates by law. Where companies set their own, the same policy can cost more at one office than another, so ask for a written fee sheet before you commit.

Most buyers never compare. They go with whoever the agent names, which is usually fine and now and then costs a few hundred dollars for no reason.

You pay the premium once, at the close of escrow, with no monthly bill like auto or homeowners insurance.

Who Pays for Title Insurance in a Home Sale?

“If the buyer’s the one getting insured, why am I paying for it?”

Fair question, and the answer usually comes down to local custom. In many markets, the seller pays for the owner’s policy that protects the buyer, while the buyer pays for the lender’s policy their mortgage requires. Other areas split it differently, and escrow or closing fees often get shared.

All of it is negotiable in the purchase agreement, and in slower markets I see buyers pick up more of the bill.

If you’re selling and the numbers are tight, a direct buyer changes the math. We buy houses for cash and cover closing costs on the properties we buy, which takes a whole column off the seller’s side of the statement. Ready House Buyer works with owners who’d rather not fund two title policies out of equity they need for the next place. If you’re in the Dallas area, here’s how we buy houses in Dallas for cash.

One thing to check on your closing papers: the owner’s policy amount should match the purchase price, and the lender’s policy should match the loan amount.

What Are Common Title Issues Found in a Property Report?

A seller once called me about a 1920s bungalow her mother had left her. The prelim showed her mother still vested as sole owner with no probate ever filed, plus a sibling’s name on a deed from the eighties that the whole family had forgotten.

That’s the problem I see most: ownership nobody cleaned up after a death. Heirs take over the house in practice and never record anything, then find out at sale time that legal ownership and the family’s understanding don’t match.

Mechanic’s liens come next. A subcontractor, laborer, or supplier can record a lien after furnishing work or materials to improve a property, and remodel-heavy neighborhoods see plenty of them.

Easements are the quiet ones. A utility easement rarely hurts anybody, while prescriptive easements and shared driveway rights can change how you use the lot.

Then come the paper problems. A deed of trust got paid off years ago and never reconveyed. A judgment lien hits somebody whose name looks like the seller’s.

Most of these get cleared. Not all of them get cleared fast.

What Happens If There Are Liens on the Preliminary Title Report?

Monday morning, a seller learns about a judgment lien from a credit card suit she lost in 2019. By Thursday, escrow has the payoff demand and the lien is set to be released at closing.

That’s the normal arc, since escrow exists partly to handle liens. Mortgages, tax liens, HOA assessments, and judgments usually come out of the seller’s proceeds. Escrow orders the payoff demands, confirms the amounts, and wires the funds, and you mostly just approve the numbers. A lien release from a lender that no longer exists can take weeks to track down.

Trouble starts when the debt is bigger than the equity. Two mortgages and a tax lien can leave a house upside down, and then somebody has to negotiate a short payoff or the sale falls apart. That takes weeks.

Some older liens can expire under state law, depending on the type and when it was recorded. That’s a question for an attorney, and I’d rather send you to one than guess at a deadline in print.

A lien won’t kill your sale on its own. Finding one on closing day might, which is the whole case for pulling the preliminary title report at the front of escrow.

What Does a Title Company Do During Escrow?

Order the report, clear the exceptions, issue the policy. It sounds tidy.

Then comes the curative work. I’ve watched escrow sit for two weeks while somebody chased a reconveyance from a lender that had merged twice since the loan was paid off.

When the same company also acts as escrow, it handles the money too, from deposits and payoff wires to prorated taxes and recording fees.

The research side is quieter and matters more. An examiner reads the recorded chain, checks names against judgment and tax records, and the company decides what it will insure. New documents can hit the record after the search date, so there’s a final check right before recording.

How Do People Buy and Sell a Home at the Same Time?

Get the order wrong and you could own two houses with two mortgages, or none and have nowhere to sleep.

That risk is why so many move-up buyers make offers contingent on selling their current home. In a competitive market, a contingent offer has to be clean to compete.

You’ve got a few ways to handle the overlap. A rent-back lets you sell and stay put for a set period after closing. A bridge loan borrows against the equity you already have. You can also sell first for cash on a flexible closing date, then buy with no contingency at all.

I lean toward selling first for most people, because a buyer with cash in the bank negotiates from a stronger spot.

Work with Us on Your Home Sale

Some owners don’t have time to list, stage, or wait on a buyer’s appraisal. A job transfer, an inherited house, or a lien they can’t pay sets the clock for them.

With no lender, there’s no appraisal contingency and no underwriting delay, and the only real timeline is how fast title can clear the exceptions. Ready House Buyer makes cash offers on houses in the markets we serve. We buy as-is, you pick the closing date, and there are no commissions or repair demands. Here’s what that looks like if you want to sell your house fast in Fort Worth.

We aren’t the right fit for everybody. If your house is in good shape, you’ve got six months, and your neighborhood is moving, listing with a good Realtor® will likely net you more. I tell sellers that regularly, and some of them list.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the Purpose of a Preliminary Report?

It lets you see every recorded claim against a property before your money is gone. The insurer is telling you in writing what it will cover and what it won’t, and whatever it won’t insure becomes your responsibility once you own the place.

What Does the Term “Preliminary Report” Mean in a Real Estate Transaction?

Think of it as a snapshot, not a verdict. Someone searched the public record as of a certain date and is showing you what they found. Your protection comes from the purchase agreement and the title policy issued at closing.

How Do I Get a Preliminary Title Report?

You’ll get one once escrow opens, ordered by the escrow officer, your agent, or the lender. If you want one outside a live sale, call a title company and ask what it charges, and have the owner’s full legal name and the parcel number ready.

Is a Preliminary Title Report the Same as a Title Commitment?

They do the same job under different names. Some states use the preliminary report, while many others use a title commitment, and both describe what the insurer will and won’t cover before the policy is issued.

Can a Title Problem Show Up After I Already Own the House?

Yes, and that’s what the owner’s policy is for. A forged signature in the old chain or an unknown heir can surface years later, and covered problems like these are where your policy steps in. Anything listed as an exception on the report sits outside that coverage, which is why I keep pushing people to read Schedule B.

Should I Hire an Attorney to Review My Prelim?

For a standard single-family home with clean exceptions, your escrow officer and agent can usually walk you through it. Call a real estate attorney when something structural shows up, such as an unresolved probate, a boundary that doesn’t match the fence, or a lien tied to a business.

Does the Report Show Unrecorded Problems?

No, and that’s its biggest limit. The search covers what’s filed in the public record, so an unrecorded lease or a handshake agreement between neighbors about a shared driveway won’t appear. That’s why a physical inspection and a frank talk with the seller still matter.

What If I Disagree with an Exception Listed on the Report?

Say so quickly. An exception can sometimes come off when the title company gets the right paperwork, like a recorded reconveyance, an affidavit, a quitclaim from somebody with a stale interest, or a court order. Other times it’ll offer an endorsement that insures over the problem for an added premium. Raise it during your contingency period, while you can still cancel.

Can I Use the Seller’s Old Title Policy Instead?

Not for your own protection. A policy covers the person named on it, so the seller’s coverage does nothing for you after the sale. Handing the old policy over may still speed the search, and some companies offer discounted rates in certain cases.

Who Should I Call If I Think My Title Company Treated Me Unfairly?

Your state’s department of insurance usually handles complaints about title companies. Start with the escrow officer’s manager, though, and ask for a written explanation of the charge or delay.

Do Cash Buyers Still Get a Preliminary Title Report?

We do, every time, and I’d argue cash buyers need it more. With no lender in the sale, nobody else is checking the chain of ownership for you, and skipping title work is how people end up owning a lawsuit instead of a house.

How Does an HOA Affect What Shows Up on the Report?

Properties in managed communities carry recorded CC&Rs, which show up as an exception you’ll never clear because they run with the land. The association can also record liens against owners who fall behind on dues, and those get paid off at closing.

Is a Prelim Different When a Property Sells As-is?

The document is the same, though the stakes shift a little. An as-is sale means the buyer accepts the house’s physical condition, which has nothing to do with title. A cash buyer taking on a run-down house still wants clear ownership and the exceptions resolved.

If you’re staring at a preliminary title report full of exceptions you don’t understand, we’re glad to look at it with you and tell you plainly what we see. Reach out whenever you’re ready, and no hard feelings if you decide to list instead. You can connect with us by phone, email, or the form on our site.