How much does a title search cost in Tennessee?
Usually $300 to $500, and the county sets most of the difference. A title search is the examination of the county's land records for everything that touches the property: deeds, mortgages, liens, easements, judgments and estates. In six mid-size counties, Williamson and Rutherford among them, the search is inside the title insurance premium and there is no separate fee; in Davidson and Shelby the search fee is a fixed schedule filed with the state; in the other 87 counties it is a separate charge that depends on how far back the search goes, how fast it is needed, and what the record turns up. At Vanderpool Law we time the search so it is fresh for your closing, because a search that is three days old catches what one that is three months old can miss; and on a purchase we close, a preliminary search is complimentary when you ask for one, so you can know what is on the title before you are committed.
The search is one line on your settlement statement, and it is not the big one. The title insurance premium follows the insurer's filed rate wherever you close, and the settlement fee, usually $500 to $900, is the office's charge for closing the transaction. The search is the work that makes the policy possible.
Why does the county matter so much? Because Tennessee's insurance rules sort the counties into three groups by population, and the group decides whether the search is a separate charge at all. In the six counties between 275,000 and 700,000 people, which today are Williamson, Rutherford, Sumner, Montgomery, Knox and Hamilton, the title insurance rate is "all-inclusive": the search, the abstract and the examination are inside the premium, and no separate search fee can be charged. In the two counties over 700,000, Davidson and Shelby, the premium covers the examination but not the search, and the search fee is a fixed schedule the insurer files with the Department of Commerce and Insurance; on one 2024 filing a residential search is $125 in Davidson and $200 in Shelby. In the other 87 counties, the premium is a "risk rate" that pays for the insurance only, and the search is a separate charge set by whoever does it. That is where the $300 to $500 lives.
Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0780-1-12-.01(2) and -.02(1) (all-inclusive rates in counties over 275,000; all-inclusive except abstract charges over 700,000; risk rate under 275,000; abstract fee schedules filed for the counties over 700,000); First National Title Insurance Company, Tennessee Rates effective May 27, 2024, chapters 1 to 5 (the county groups and the Davidson and Shelby search schedules). Which counties fall in which group follows the census and can change. The $300 to $500 range is our figure for the risk-rate counties.The other things that move the price
In the 87 risk-rate counties, four things set the search fee. Which county. Every county keeps its own land records at its own Register of Deeds, and they are not alike: some have the full index online back decades; in others the older books are still read in the courthouse, and the fee follows the work. How far back. A lender usually wants the chain of title examined for a set number of years; a longer chain is more work. How fast. A search needed in two days instead of two weeks costs more. What turns up, and how many parcels. A property that has passed through an estate, a divorce, a foreclosure or a subdivision has more instruments to read, each one run to ground before anyone can insure the title, and two tracts are two searches even on one contract.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 66-24-101 (instruments are recorded with the Register of Deeds of the county where the land lies). The rest is our experience.Who pays for the title search?
On a purchase, the contract decides. The Tennessee REALTORS® purchase agreement lists the closing costs each side pays, and the title charges are usually on the side whose lender or policy needs the search; many Middle Tennessee resales put the search and the owner's policy with the seller and the lender's policy with the buyer, but nothing requires that split, and it is negotiated before anyone signs. On a refinance there is only one party, and the borrower pays it.
Tennessee REALTORS® form RF 401 (closing costs and title charges are allocated in the contract). The local custom is our experience, not a rule.Does a law firm charge more for the search?
No. A title company and a law firm search the same county records the same way, and Vanderpool Law charges the same for it. The difference is what happens when the search finds something: an old deed of trust never released, a judgment against a former owner, an estate that was never opened. By Tennessee law a title company cannot advise you on what to do about it. Vanderpool Law can, and does, because we represent you. On a purchase we close, ask and we run a preliminary search, complimentary, before you are committed, so a problem on the title is a conversation at the start of the deal instead of a surprise the week of closing.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 23-3-103 (the practice of law is reserved to licensed attorneys). The complimentary preliminary search is our own offer; see the free services rules.Want to know what the title search will find before you are committed? Send Vanderpool Law the contract, and Contract Superintelligence, invented by Jim Vanderpool, gives you your settlement statement in minutes.