All you need is a title company to handle the paperwork. Many title companies are owned and operated by lawyers who specialize in real estate transactions. One item to make sure of though is be sure and take a trip to the court house land records office AFTER you buy the land. You want to make sure the title did, in fact, transfer to you.

Once upon a time, I paid a title closing lawyer $500 to handle a closing. Unfortunately, I assumed she had done her job and had recorded the deed at the court house. Two years later I found out BY ACCIDENT she had not lifted a finger and the title was STILL in the seller's name! THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ASSUME THE PEOPLE YOU ARE PAYING ARE PROPERLY DOING THEIR JOB. NEVER EVER ASSUME ANYONE HAS DONE ANYTHING THEY WERE SUPPOSED TO DO. In some cases. you have to "sweep up after the help".

When I found out about the unrecorded deed, I went to her office FOUR separate times asking her to fix the problem to no avail. She had my five hundred bux and still wouldn't do anything to fix the problem. I should have filed a complaint with the BBB and the Bar Association but at that point, I needed to sell the house and get out of town. I was short on time.

I found out the fix was easy, something I could have easily done myself. It is known as a Deed of Correction. A ten year old could type one up. We sent it to the seller, he signed it and then my NEW AND IMPROVED title agent recorded it in the land deeds office. No muss, no fuss.

Title company is going to charge him thousands for the paperwork. I bought a property for $4k and they wanted another $3800 for the processing. I did a motorized grant deed and only cost $250.

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The nice thing about using a title company is they will perform an EXHAUSTIVE title search to see if there are any liens or levies against the title. At closing, they make D*MN sure the liens and levies are paid off so that you receive a CLEAR TITLE (which, I assume, you want). That said, see my post #7 above. Take your time to carefully interview the title closing company because they are the people that make this deal work (or in my case, it did not work out so well which is why I had to seek out a SECOND title company who actually knew what they were doing and took care of the problem the first title company had created).

The title company can also arrange for the purchase of title insurance that covers you, the buyer.

If you don't want to pay a title company due to high costs, you could seek out the services of a real estate paralegal who might be willing to work for less. Even with this, PROOF READ every word on the deed and if you don't understand what it says, ASK.

The last few loans through a bank had around $1500. in loan and closing cost fees. Cheap insurance against past due mechanic liens, delinquent taxes, and some even have coverage if recent improvement in the area will effect next years taxes. Also keeping a loan on any property right now is not a bad idea. I don't see inflation going anywhere but up, means paying the loan back (actually buying) with cheaper dollars.

There is another side to keeping a loan on a property. ANYTIME a lawyer is considering suing you for whatever reason, they do a quick asset search to see if you have anything of value. Why sue someone who is BROKE? There is a reason lawyers are known as sharks, they are ALWAYS after the MONEY.

If they check the land records and see a $300,000 house with a $290,000 loan against it, they generally MOVE ON and look for easier kills.

On the other hand, if they see you have a $300,000 house that YOU OWN FREE AND CLEAR..........GAME ON BROTHER!!!