Recently I listed a house where the owner had passed away. The owner had purchased the property in 2006 from a friend and did not use a title company as it was a cash transaction. When the house went under contract and escrow was opened the title company found a lien of $527,000 that had never been released in 2006 when the property changed hands. The title company did find the release of the second.
The title company started to search the records looking for the Trustee. Unfortunately, the trustee had passed away and his records were destroyed. It looked like this transaction would not close if this lien could not be released. While discussing the issue with the title officer it occurred to me that the house was in Queen Creek, AZ. Part of Queen Creek is in Maricopa County while a majority is in Pinal County. This property was in Maricopa County. I suggested the title company check Pinal County and sure enough – there was the release. It was still quite a bit of work to get the original lender to re-issue a new release but thanks to the perseverance of Theresa Boehnke at Grand Canyon Title all paperwork was in place for the closing.
The moral of the story is always use a title company for real estate transactions. It may cost a little money but can save a lot of headaches and money in the long run.