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You need to gather as much information as you can about the current property owner and the property itself. You do this so that you can more easily locate the current and past deeds for the property in which you are interested. Most property tax records can be located at the tax assessor’s office in the county or city in which the property is located. These records are open to the public and many places have their records online.  You must have the street address for the property in which you are interested. You can locate the tax assessor’s office for your area at: http://publicrecords.onlinesearches.com/Assessor-and-Property-Tax-Records.htm. Once you have identified the local tax assessor’s office, check their website to see whether you can search online for tax information for the property. If they do not have an online search option, call the office and ask them to explain the steps you must take to obtain this tax information for the property. The property tax records will provide you with the following information:  the parcel number, lot number, a general description, and the tax history, both paid and unpaid of the property. This information will assist your deed search. Many states now provide access to deeds online, for either a small fee or for free. This is the fastest way to begin locating deeds for the property and conducting your title search.  You want to locate the most recent deed first. This deed will contain the name of the owner of the property, which should match the name of the person from whom you are purchasing the property. Each deed will reference other previous deeds and maps of the property location and any liens. You want to gather deeds for the previous 50 to 70 years to ensure that the title of the property has passed correctly. This is called the chain of title and will be discussed in more detail below. You should gather all of the deeds available online. If the online system does not maintain deeds for that many years, you will have to do in-person search (discussed below).  You can conduct an internet search for the words “land records” and the name of your state and this should direct you to any online system or local title plant. To see what online land record system looks like you can visit: http://www.masslandrecords.com or https://www.myfloridacounty.com/official_records/index.html?thisPage=MyFloridaCounty.ORI.Order.state.Start. If the county where the property is located does not have an online deed search system or it does not go back far enough in the past, you will need to locate and visit the office responsible for recording deeds for the area where the property is located. In order to conduct a successful search, you must bring copies of all of the deeds that you located and/or the information that you obtained at the tax assessor’s office.  You can search for the deed recorder’s offices at: http://publicrecords.onlinesearches.com/Assessor-and-Property-Tax-Records.htm. Once you have located the correct office, contact the office and ask the best way to proceed with your search. The courthouse or office workers will be able to tell you whether you have gathered enough information to conduct your search. You will locate the most recent deed first. Most offices maintain this information in a deed book. You should check whether the information gathered at the tax assessor’s office directs you to a specific deed book. If so, that is where you will find the most recent deed. Each deed will contain information about the previous deed, which will allow you to locate that document. This information will include the deed book number and the page number within the book where the previous deed is located. You should continue pulling and copying all of the deeds until you have gathered deeds covering 50 to 70 years. This can be a very time consuming process but you can locate all of the information that you need. Once you have gathered all of the deeds, you want to start with the most recent and move backwards in time to check that ownership passed properly. This means that a person who bought a property is listed as the seller when the property changes ownership.  You should create a chart that contains the following columns: Deed, Seller, and Buyer. Starting with the most recent deed, you want to make sure that the seller was the buyer on the previous deed. You want this pattern of seller/buyer to continue uninterrupted from the present back 50 to 70 years. By filling this information in on a chart, you can more easily see if there are any gaps in ownership, which could effect the current property owner’s ability to lawfully sell you the property. For example, if you come upon a seller on a deed whose name was not listed as a previous buyer, there is a break in the chain of title. It may be that the title was not properly recorded or that a person fraudulently passed himself or herself off as an owner to an unwitting seller.  Before purchasing a property with a break in the chain of title, you should speak with a real estate attorney to determine the risks associated with the purchase.
Check the tax assessor’s records. Search for the property deed online. Visit the office that records deeds. Establish chain of title.