I have closed fifty subject-to deals without a search up front. Why change now?

Fifty deals is real experience, and I'm not questioning it. Your structure is only as good as the recorded facts under it, though. Reading the record costs $149, credited in full against the premium when the file closes with an Intelligent Title policy, and it happens before you draft, not after you sign. Order before your next structure and experience the difference of knowing what's underneath it.

This is just a title search. I pull the county record myself in twenty minutes.

Your county lookup is useful, and you clearly know your way around it. It's one source, though. Half of title files need nine or more sources, and 27 percent need documents obtained in person, according to ALTA's study of title production. A full search and examination covers the rest, with sources and dates, within 24 hours. Order before you draft.

The seller told me the balance and said the loan is current, and I have a signed authorization.

That's a good start, and the seller may be completely right. A payoff authorization covers one loan. The search shows everything else recorded, including older mortgages that were never released, judgments, and taxes. Order before you draft and build on the whole picture.

My closing attorney or title company handles this when we get to the table.

They'll do their job well. This is the same search they'd run, ordered before you draft instead of at the table. It replaces nobody in your process. Order it when the seller conversation gets serious.

I look at ten properties to structure one. Am I paying $149 ten times?

Only if you order on all ten. It's $149 per property, credited in full against the premium when the file closes with an Intelligent Title policy. Order on the ones you're serious about, and if you run volume, write to us at orders@intelligentitle.com about portfolio pricing.

What if I read the record and decide not to structure the deal?

That's a legitimate outcome. The fee covers the search and examination, performed either way, and the findings are yours. More often, what the record shows changes the structure rather than ending it. Order before you draft.

What is my exposure if you miss a lien on a wrap I am already servicing?

That's a serious concern when you're servicing the payments. Every finding shows its source and search date, a licensed title professional makes every judgment call, and the indemnity sits with Stewart Title Guaranty Company and WFG National Title Insurance Company through the policy. Order before your next structure.

Where does this fit before I have the seller signed? I do not want to slow the conversation down.

You shouldn't have to. Order it when the seller conversation turns serious. The initial response comes back within 24 hours, before terms are drafted, so you negotiate from documents instead of recollections.

I structure at night and on weekends. Who answers then?

I do, for pricing and status, at any hour. A dedicated title closer and closing team run the file, and a licensed title professional makes every judgment call. Order whenever you're working; I'll be here.

Do you have a problem with creative structures? Will you refuse to close a subject-to?

We examine the record, not your business model. Whether a policy can be issued is decided by a licensed title professional, and ordering a search commits neither of us to a policy. Order before you draft and let's see what the record shows.

Due-on-sale is the thing everyone warns about. What does reading the record actually change?

It's right to take it seriously. The search doesn't change a lender's rights under 12 U.S.C. 1701j-3, and nothing here gets around them. What it does is show you which loans are recorded before you build a structure on them. Order before you draft.

I am vesting into a land trust or an LLC. Does that change what I need?

It makes the record more important. We report the vested owner and chain of conveyance as recorded, with sources, before the vesting is drafted. Your counsel decides the structure. Order before you draft.

For Creative Finance Purchasers & Sellers, Pre-Policy Intelligence

For direct buyers, sellers, and investors structuring subject-to, wraparound, seller-financed, land contract, lease-option, assignment, and novation transactions. These deals move fast, close outside the conventional lender process, and are the only category of real estate transaction where the title search is routinely never run before signing. Pre-Policy Intelligence puts the record in front of you at contract stage, while every decision is still ahead of you.

A smiling business owner in a denim shirt inside his shop

Built for creative finance buyers and sellersSubject-to, seller-financed, wraparound and lease-option structures.

SECTION 1

Why This Page Exists

Creative finance moves faster than the conventional title process. These transactions close outside the traditional lender process, which means no lender is automatically ordering the title search. The record examination has to be ordered deliberately, at contract stage, before earnest money moves and structure is set.

That is exactly what Pre-Policy Intelligence does. Placed at contract execution, the $149 order opens the title file immediately, ownership, liens, encumbrances, judgments, taxes, legal description, so every party structures the deal against the known record and closes with a real policy.

The parties running these deals deserve the same information advantage a conventional lender gets. Pre-Policy Intelligence delivers it, early, automatically, and in time to act on it.

SECTION 2

The Four Questions the Record Answers Before You Sign

Is the person signing as seller the owner of record? In subject-to and wrap transactions, the party across the table is often not who the deed shows. A grant of authority, a prior unrecorded assignment, an intervening probate, an entity that was dissolved, every one of these appears in the record, or fails to. The vesting question is the question.

What is actually owed, and to whom? The mortgage the seller describes may not be the only mortgage on record. Second liens, HELOCs, mechanic's liens, tax liens, judgment liens, and prior mortgages that were never released are all recorded, and all bind the property regardless of what the seller says. In a subject-to, you are agreeing to make payments on liens whose actual identity and status you should know before you commit.

What else is recorded that nobody mentioned? Restrictive covenants, easements, access restrictions, memoranda of leases and options from prior buyers, recorded contracts for deed that were never released, foreclosure filings that were withdrawn but not vacated, lis pendens that are still on record. Any of these can render the deal you are contemplating something other than what you were told it was.

Is the structure insurable at all? Not every creative finance structure can be insured, and not every closing firm will handle every structure. That is a question we can answer before you commit, not after.

Rural farmland parcels with a farmhouse and a line of trees — Land and rural parcelsSingle-family, multifamily, mixed use, retail, industrial, hospitality and land: the same $149 search and examination for every property and transaction type.

SECTION 3

What the $149 Order Does

Work on the property begins the moment your Pre-Policy Intelligence order is received, ownership and vesting examination, lien and mortgage identification, encumbrance and easement disclosure, judgment and tax review, legal description verification, and identification of recorded instruments that bear on the structure you are contemplating. Intelligent Title's initial response is targeted within 24 hours of order. Findings are delivered to the ordering party. You direct distribution from there.

What the $149 pays for. The $149 pays for the title search and examination described above. It is work Intelligent Title performs on the property, and the findings are delivered to you whether or not the transaction ultimately closes.

How the credit works. When the transaction closes with a title insurance policy issued by Intelligent Title, the full $149 is credited against the title insurance premium at closing. You do not pay twice for the same work.

What the findings are for. The search and examination are yours the moment they come back. If they show a defect, an undisclosed lien, a vesting problem, or a seller who is not the owner of record, you learn it while every option is still in front of you: cure it, renegotiate, restructure, or decide. When the file closes with an Intelligent Title policy, the $149 is applied in full to your premium. We would rather state that before you order than after.

The same title company that begins the work at contract stage issues the policy that closes the deal. One title relationship, contract to closing.

SECTION 4

The Contract Timeline Rewards Early Ordering

Standard contract forms schedule the title commitment near the end of the deal, often 15 days before closing, or 5 days in a cash transaction, with a short window to object. That timing works when a lender is driving the file. In creative finance, it means the document that answers the title questions arrives after the window to act on it has effectively closed.

Ordering at contract execution flips that timing to your advantage. The record examination runs while the contract is fresh, contingencies are open, and every option, proceed, restructure, negotiate a cure, require a payoff, is still on the table. Early information gives you time to act on what the record shows and keeps the deal moving on your schedule.

A buyer who orders at contract execution has weeks. The information is the same, the timing is the advantage.

SECTION 5

State Disclosure Rules Favor a Searched File

Between 2021 and 2026, a wave of state statutes began regulating wholesaling, assignment, and installment sales. Most of them impose disclosure obligations that a party cannot satisfy without knowing what is in the record.

Maryland is the clearest illustration. Its law requires a wholesale seller to disclose that it holds only an equitable interest and may not be able to convey the property (Md. Real Prop. § 10-715, Ch. 508 of 2025). Whether you can convey is a question about the record.

A partial catalog of the same pattern across other jurisdictions:

Oklahoma: License; pre-contract disclosure of intent to assign at a higher price; 2-business-day cancellation right; may not cloud title (SB 1075). Effective 2021, amended 2025.
North Carolina: License; non-waivable 30-day cancellation right; 14-point disclosures; violation is per se unfair trade practice (HB 797). Effective Oct 1, 2025.
Pennsylvania: Wholesale transactions treated as brokerage; 30-day cancellation, or any time before conveyance if disclosures were omitted (Act 52 of 2024). Effective Jan 2025.
Maryland: Two-sided disclosure, buyer discloses it may assign; wholesale seller discloses equitable interest only and possible inability to convey (Ch. 508). Effective Oct 1, 2025.
Tennessee: Bold, large-font equitable-interest disclosure; assignment effective date at least 3 business days out (TREC). Effective Mar 25, 2025.
Indiana: Solicitations must state they are not from a licensed real estate professional; 2-day nullification right; AG deceptive-act enforcement (IC 32-21-16.5-4). Effective Jul 2024.
South Carolina: Wholesaling is licensed brokerage; may advertise only the contract position, not the property (SC LLR). Effective 2024–2025.
Ohio: Separate boldface disclosure; cancellation any time before close of escrow; escrow must disburse the wholesaler's deposit to the owner within 30 days (ORC 5301.95). Effective Mar 2, 2026.
Connecticut: Registration with the Department of Consumer Protection, $285, with a required disclosure report (CT DCP). Effective Jul 1, 2026.
Missouri: Disclosure at least 14 days before contracting; violation is a Merchandising Practices Act violation (SB 973). Effective Aug 28, 2026.
Texas: Written equitable-interest disclosure to both buyer and owner (Prop. Code § 5.0205). Effective 2017.
Illinois: Wholesaling, including dealing in assignable contracts, requires a license if done twice or more in 12 months (IDFPR). Effective 2019.
Philadelphia: Annual license, criminal-history check, disclosure at least 3 days before an offer; an unlicensed wholesaler's agreement is rescindable until title transfers (Ord. 200544). Effective 2021.

Installment structures carry recording deadlines with real penalties. Illinois 10 business days, with buyer rescission available until recording (765 ILCS 67/20). Ohio 20 days (ORC ch. 5313). Texas 30 days with $500 per year in damages (Tex. Prop. Code § 5.076). Iowa 90 days at $100 per day, with no forfeiture available while unrecorded (Iowa Code § 558.46). An unrecorded interest is a live risk to whoever comes next, a point codified in Indiana (IC 32-21-4-1) and New York (RPL § 291).

Texas goes furthest and is worth reading closely if you operate there. The mandatory pre-contract notice tells the buyer to obtain a title abstract or commitment and have an attorney review it before signing a contract of this type. A separate provision requires disclosure of every recorded lien, its balance, its terms, and whether the lienholder consented, seven days before execution, which cannot be done without a records search, and exempts the transaction from that requirement entirely if the purchaser obtains a title policy (Tex. Prop. Code ch. 5). Texas also makes a wrap lien void unless the transaction is closed by an attorney or a title company (Tex. Fin. Code ch. 159), and bars a seller from using an executory contract unless it owns the property in fee simple free of liens (§ 5.085).

Minnesota prohibits selling subject to an unassumed due-on-sale mortgage without binding lender consent (Minn. Stat. ch. 559A).

The pattern across all of it: parties who arrive with a completed title examination satisfy these disclosure expectations cleanly and keep the transaction moving.

SECTION 7

Where It Applies

Subject-to acquisitions where an existing mortgage remains in place
Wraparound mortgages and all-inclusive deeds of trust
Seller financing and purchase-money mortgages
Land contracts, contracts for deed, and installment land contracts
Lease-options, lease-purchases, and sandwich lease-options
Assignment of purchase contracts and double closings
Novation agreements and hybrid seller-carry structures
Any transaction where the buyer will place earnest money before a title commitment is scheduled to arrive
Any transaction where the seller's identity, vesting, or authority to convey has not been verified against the record

SECTION 8

How It Works

Place the order at contract execution, or before, if you have the address and the seller's name.
Pay $149 as consideration for the title search and examination, credited toward your title insurance premium when the transaction closes with an Intelligent Title policy.
Work begins the moment checkout is complete. Initial response within 24 hours. Findings are delivered to you.
You decide: proceed, restructure, negotiate a cure, require a payoff or consent, or extend the contingency, all with the record in hand.
If the deal proceeds, the file continues with us through commitment, title clearance work, endorsements, and the policy that closes it.

SECTION 10

Compensation, Provider Choice, and Pricing

Compensation flows. Pre-Policy Intelligence is a title order placed by the ordering party with Intelligent Title, a full-service title insurance business. The $149 is paid by the ordering party to Intelligent Title for title search and examination work. Intelligent Title pays no referral fees, no commissions, no marketing payments, no per file compensation, no revenue share, and no thing of value to wholesalers, assignors, investors, real estate agents, mentors, education programs, coaching platforms, or any other party in connection with the order or the subsequent title insurance policy. Nothing flows to any referring party. Ordering parties and their counsel remain responsible for evaluating this structure against applicable frameworks, including but not limited to RESPA Section 8, state wholesaling and installment sales statutes, state real estate license laws, and any contractual or fiduciary obligations that may apply to the transaction.

Provider choice. Choice of title and settlement provider is preserved. Nothing about Pre-Policy Intelligence conditions any aspect of the transaction on the ordering party's choice of title provider. State law on affiliated business arrangements, settlement service selection, and title agent licensing remains intact.

Pricing. Title services are priced by individual state and county, consistent with filed or promulgated rates. Intelligent Title does not discount rates and does not offer volume tiers. Every customer receives the same terms.

PRICING

Pre-Policy Intelligence℠ is $149.

Pre-Policy Intelligence is $149. That price is the same for every property, every customer, and every transaction type. Intelligent Title does not offer volume discounts, tiered pricing, negotiated rates, or promotional pricing on Pre-Policy Intelligence.

How the $149 works

One order, one file, from today to the policy

TodayOrder Pre-Policy Intelligence$149. No policy commitment and no executed contract required.
Within 24 hoursThe initial responseOwnership, liens, encumbrances, judgments and taxes, and the legal description.
At closingYour title insurance policyThe $149 is credited in full against the premium when the file closes with an Intelligent Title policy.

Price your policy with IRISThe findings are yours from the moment they are delivered.

SECTION 11

What Pre-Policy Intelligence Covers

Read this section. In creative finance it matters more than in any other kind of transaction.

Deliverable hierarchy. Pre-Policy Intelligence produces a preliminary title picture, the earliest documented view of what is on record against the property. That picture is not a title commitment and it is not a policy. As the file matures toward closing, Intelligent Title issues the formal title commitment (governed by the underwriter's commitment form and applicable state regulation) and, at closing, the final title insurance policy (governed by the policy form and jurisdictional regulation). The three deliverables serve different purposes and carry different legal weight. Findings in the preliminary picture inform, but do not constitute, the commitment or the policy.

Record-based. Findings reflect the reasonably discoverable public record at the time of examination. Matters not of record, later-recorded instruments, and off-record rights are addressed through the commitment, the survey, and the policy, not at contract stage.

Preliminary. What you receive at contract stage is preliminary. Exceptions, requirements, and endorsement availability are determined on the commitment. The policy controls at closing.

Not a payoff statement. Intelligent Title reports recorded instruments. The actual outstanding balance, escrow position, and reinstatement figure on an existing loan come from the lender or servicer. If your deal depends on that number, get it from them.

Not legal, tax, or investment advice. Intelligent Title does not opine on whether your structure is lawful, enforceable, or advisable in your state, and does not advise on due-on-sale exposure, licensing obligations, or disclosure requirements. Those are questions for your own counsel.

Not every structure is insurable, and we may decline. Unrecorded contracts are generally uninsurable (Agents National Title), and some structures cannot be insured or closed as presented. Some settlement providers decline these transactions categorically, one closing firm publishes a blanket refusal to handle assignments, double closings, subject-to, wraps, land trust transfers, contracts for deed, sandwich lease options, and novations, observing that creative finance education "expanded faster than the legal and title infrastructure needed to execute these structures cleanly" (Georgia Title & Closing). Intelligent Title takes these files, subject to underwriting. An early examination is how you find out whether yours qualifies before you have committed to it.

Jurisdictional variation. Record availability, search turnaround, municipal lien practice, and the statutes described on this page vary by state and county and change over time. Nothing here is a substitute for current legal advice in your jurisdiction.

The $149 payment for Pre-Policy Intelligence is consideration for the title search and examination, work performed on the property and delivered to the ordering party. It is credited in full against the title insurance premium if and only if the transaction closes with a title insurance policy issued by Intelligent Title. It is not a deposit, not an escrow, not a retainer, not an insurance premium, and not a prepayment of insurance premium. No title insurance coverage of any kind is in force before a policy is issued. Rates for title insurance and related services are established by individual state and county.

SECTION 12

Getting Started

Order directly using the link on this page. For investors and operators running volume, Intelligent Title provides a dedicated intake link, agreed delivery specifications, and a single point of contact, available to every customer on identical terms.

To discuss recurring use across an acquisition pipeline, contact orders@intelligentitle.com.

Know exactly what you’re buying before you sign anything.