In a subject-to, wrap, or seller-financed deal, the record is the only thing that tells you who you are actually contracting with — and what is actually owed.

Why This Page Exists

In a conventional financed purchase, a lender forces the title work. Nobody funds without a commitment, so the search happens whether the buyer thought about it or not. Creative finance removes that party from the transaction.

The result is documented plainly by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. In its August 2024 report on contract-for-deed transactions, the CFPB describes buyers taking on installment purchase obligations without confirming ownership, encumbrances, or the seller's authority to convey (CFPB, Contract for Deed report, August 2024). The same report notes that experts estimate more than half of these contracts end in the buyer losing the home.

Whether or not the specific numbers hold in every jurisdiction, the mechanism they describe is not in dispute. When no lender is forcing a title search, and no counsel is required to run one, the buyer signs, delivers earnest money, and finds out what is actually recorded against the property — if ever — some weeks later, when the title commitment finally arrives on the conventional schedule.

Pre-Policy Intelligence is the argument that the one control the conventional process provides for free has to be ordered deliberately in these deals — and almost never is. This page exists so the buyers and sellers running these deals have a way to order it.

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.

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.

If the deal does not close. The $149 is not refunded. That is deliberate, and it is the point of the product. If the examination surfaces a defect, an undisclosed lien, a vesting problem, or a seller who is not the owner of record, and you walk away, the research did exactly what you paid it to do. Protecting a deposit and avoiding a transaction that could not have closed cleanly is the outcome the $149 was placed to secure. 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.

The Deposit Clock Is the Whole Argument

This is the mechanic that makes early ordering matter, and it is written into the contracts the parties already use.

Standard forms schedule the title commitment near the end. Florida's commonly used forms default the commitment to 15 days before closing, or 5 days in a cash transaction, with a 5-day window to object (Berlin Patten Ebling). The Texas form is explicit about the consequence: "Buyer's failure to object within the time allowed will constitute a waiver of Buyer's right to object," after which the seller may terminate and "receive the earnest money as liquidated damages" (contract materials).

Read those two facts together. The document that reveals title problems is scheduled to arrive after the window for acting on them has effectively closed, and the penalty for missing the window is your deposit.

A buyer who orders at contract execution has weeks. A buyer who waits for the commitment has days, and sometimes none.

Disclosure Laws Now Require What Only a Search Can Produce

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: the law is moving toward requiring, before signing, exactly the information a title examination produces.

On Due-on-Sale, Plainly

Because the market is widely taught otherwise, we will state what the statute says. The Garn-St Germain Depository Institutions Act permits enforcement of due-on-sale clauses and carves out nine exemptions — covering death, divorce, transfers to relatives, short leases without a purchase option, and transfers into an inter vivos trust where the borrower remains a beneficiary. An arm's-length sale to an unrelated buyer does not appear among them (12 U.S.C. § 1701j-3(d)).

Regulators have taken positions on the concealment question. The North Carolina Real Estate Commission has stated that concealing a subject-to transfer from the lender to avoid the due-on-sale clause "is generally a form of loan fraud," and that no broker should participate in such a transaction as broker, buyer, or seller (NCREC bulletin, March 2025).

We are a title insurance company, not your counsel, and we do not advise on whether a structure is lawful or advisable. We report what the record shows. But we are not going to publish a page that leaves you with the impression the statute says something it does not.

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

How It Works

1. Place the order at contract execution — or before, if you have the address and the seller's name.
2. 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.
3. Work begins the moment the order is received. Initial response within 24 hours. Findings are delivered to you.
4. You decide: proceed, restructure, negotiate a cure, require a payoff or consent, extend the contingency, or walk while your deposit is still recoverable.
5. If the deal proceeds, the file continues with us through commitment, curative work, endorsements, and the policy that closes it.

For Sellers

Sellers in these transactions carry exposure that is easy to overlook. If you convey and the buyer does not pay the underlying mortgage, the obligation is still yours, and your credit and your equity are the collateral. State consumer agencies have issued repeated warnings about exactly this pattern — the North Carolina Department of Justice on owners who sign over control while still owing the mortgage (NC DOJ), the Pennsylvania Attorney General on deeds taken without the mortgage being paid off (PA AG), and California's Department of Real Estate on equity skimming (CA DRE, November 2025).

A record examination at contract stage tells you what is recorded against your own property, what will need to be cleared, whether the party across the table has recorded anything against it already, and what a lawful conveyance actually requires in your state.

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 company. 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.

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.

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.

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.