General

• Instruments affecting realty, such as deeds, mortgages, judgment liens, leases, tax liens and installment contracts, can be recorded in the county of the location of the property. The recorder in each county files a copy of the instrument by date and time. The recorder indexes the property instrument with a description to be made available for title searches.
  
  

Notice

• Subsequent purchasers of a parcel of land may have either actual or constructive notice of the record of title. Actual notice occurs when a purchaser has, in fact, acquired knowledge of the record. Constructive notice arises when the instrument has been properly recorded, and it therefore gives notice to all subsequent purchasers.
  
  

Recording Acts

• State recording acts determine the priority of records of title. Therefore, there are priorities in title to a particular property between the indexes of owners who have complied with the requirements of the recording act. The three types of recording acts are race statutes, notice statutes and race-notice statutes. Race statutes allow the first property owner to a specific property who records first to own the title to the land. In other words, if more than one person asserts ownership to a title of land, the first person to record her title prevails. Under notice statutes, a bona fide purchaser of land who lacks notice of a prior unrecorded purchaser of the same land owns the title. However, the second purchaser of the land has received notice if the first purchaser properly records his deed before the second individual purchases the land. Under race-notice statutes, if two claimants purchase a particular parcel of land, the second purchaser only prevails if he records his title first. Therefore, if the second claimant purchases the land before the first claimant records his title, and if the first claimant records his title before the second claimant records, the first claimant prevails.
  
  

Chain of Title

• Title searchers can discover the history of title transactions to a particular property. Title searches are most often performed when an individual prepares to purchase a parcel of land. The title searcher identifies the chain of title leading up to how the grantor of the property acquired the land. Therefore, the process of title searching enables the buyer of land to determine whether the grantor possesses good title to the land.
  
  

Failure to Record

• When a purchaser of land fails to record the title to the land, subsequent title owners to the particular parcel of land may have priority to a previous bona fide purchaser, depending on the state's recording act. Also, failure to record a title to land gives the grantor of the property power to convey the title to a subsequent purchaser. Consequently, the subsequent purchaser may record the title before the first purchaser records. Also, if a subsequent purchaser of land performs a title search, an unrecorded title will not be revealed.