Title issues holding up your sale? We buy California houses for cash and clear what can be cleared through escrow. Offer in 24 hours, close in as little as 7 days.
Read the preliminary title report, specifically Schedule B
If you take one thing from this page: order a preliminary title report before you list, not after you have a buyer, and read the exceptions.
A prelim has two useful parts. The first says who the record owner is and how title is vested. The second, usually Schedule B, lists the exceptions: everything the title company is not prepared to insure against. Liens, easements, restrictions, unreleased loans, notices, and anything else clouding the record.
That list is your actual to-do list. Sellers routinely skip past it because it reads like boilerplate, then discover in week six of escrow that item 14 is a judgment lien from 2011.
If your problem is the deed document itself rather than the state of title, a wrong name or a defective notarization, that is a different repair and our guide to deed problems covers it.
The old loan nobody ever reconveyed
The single most common cloud we see on California title, and one of the easiest to fix.
You paid off a mortgage or a HELOC years ago. The lender was supposed to record a reconveyance releasing the deed of trust. Nobody did, or the lender was acquired and the paperwork was lost. The loan is gone, the lien is still on record, and it will stop your sale.
California requires the beneficiary to deliver a reconveyance after full payoff, with penalties for failing to, but chasing a lender that no longer exists is its own project.
Two things that help:
Ancient liens expire. California limits how long the power of sale under a recorded deed of trust survives. Where the final maturity date is ascertainable from the record, the lien expires ten years after that date. Where it is not, sixty years after recording. A 1974 deed of trust with no stated maturity is not an eternal problem, but a 2016 one is.
Title companies do this every day. Given your payoff statement, the final statement, or cancelled cheques, a title officer can often clear an unreleased lien without litigation. Find those documents before you need them.
Judgment liens and what actually survives
A creditor with a money judgment can record an abstract of judgment in a California county, which attaches to real property you own there. It then has to be dealt with at sale.
Three things worth knowing.
They expire, then get renewed. A judgment lien created by recording an abstract lasts ten years from the date of recording. Creditors can renew, but plenty do not, and an unrenewed lien past its life is no longer enforceable.
California's homestead exemption is substantial. Homeowners have an automatic homestead exemption on a principal residence, tied to county median home prices and adjusted annually for inflation, with a floor and a ceiling well into six figures. It does not remove the lien, but it protects a slice of proceeds from being taken by a judgment creditor at sale. Many sellers assume a judgment lien wipes out their equity when the exemption in fact shields a meaningful part of it.
Creditors negotiate. A judgment creditor facing a sale that will not close often takes less to release. Escrow is leverage, and it is the moment when a stale lien is most likely to settle at a discount.
None of that is legal advice on your judgment. It is the reason to get the payoff figures and ask, rather than assume the number on the abstract is what you will pay.
The heir nobody knew about
This is the one that quietly kills sales, and it usually surfaces on property that has passed through a family.
If a prior owner died and their interest was never formally transferred, whether through probate, a trust, or an affidavit of death of joint tenant, some fraction of the property may still be owned by their estate. A half-sibling nobody has spoken to in twenty years can hold an undivided interest, and a title company will not insure around them.
The routes out are a probate or a trust administration if the estate was never handled, or a quiet title action, or in practice buying out the interest with a recorded deed from the missing party. Which one applies depends on facts nobody can guess from a web page.
If the property came to you through a death and you are not certain how title was transferred, order the prelim now. This is the defect with the longest lead time, and it is the one most likely to appear six weeks into escrow.
Insuring over a defect instead of curing it
Something most sellers never hear: a title company does not always require a defect to be cured. Sometimes it will insure over it.
If the underwriter judges the risk small enough, a technical defect, an ancient lien, an old easement of no practical effect, it may agree to remove the exception and take the risk. Sometimes it will ask for an indemnity, a bond, or a declaration from you.
That matters because "the title company flagged it" is not the same as "you must litigate this". The right question to a title officer is not "how do I fix this", it is "what would you need to insure over it". Occasionally the answer is a one-page declaration rather than a four-month quiet title action.
Ask that question before you accept that your only route is court.
Your timeline with My Home Sold
Step 1: Send us the prelim
If you do not have one, we will order it. It is the document that turns guesswork into a list.
Step 2: We work the exceptions
Each item on Schedule B gets sorted into cleared through escrow, negotiated, insured over, or genuinely requires a court.
Step 3: Written offer in 24 hours
With the payoffs subtracted and our honest read on what clears easily and what does not.
Step 4: Close
Releases wire from escrow and get recorded. Where litigation is truly the only route, we say so rather than string you along.
Your options compared
| Factor | Traditional listing | Clear it first, then list | My Home Sold |
|---|---|---|---|
| When defects surface | Usually mid-escrow, badly | Before you list, on your terms | Before we make the offer |
| Time to close | 60–120 days, if title clears | Months first, then the sale | 7–14 days for clearable items |
| Buyer's lender involved | Yes, and they are strict | Yes | No |
| Out of pocket first | Often, mid-escrow, under pressure | Yes | $0 |
| Risk of a second collapse | Real | Low | Low |
The tradeoff, plainly: we buy below retail, usually 10–20% depending on condition and market. If Schedule B lists one unreleased 2009 deed of trust and you have the payoff letter in a drawer, clear it and list normally. You will net more, and we will say so.
The cash route earns its discount when the exceptions run long, when an unlocated heir is involved, when a judgment creditor is being difficult, or when a financed sale has already collapsed once on title.
Compare the routes in our guide to selling a house fast in California.
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Common questions
Questions people ask about this
- What counts as a "title issue" on a California house?
- Anything that affects clear ownership: old mortgages never reconveyed, recorded judgments, mechanic's liens, missing deeds in the chain of title, undischarged probate, lis pendens from old lawsuits, ex-spouse interest from a prior divorce. Title companies surface all of these in the preliminary title report.
- Will a title issue stop my California cash sale?
- Not usually. Most title issues are paperwork (reconveyance of an old loan, release of a paid-off lien) that the title officer can cure in days. The few that need litigation we identify early, and you decide whether to wait through that or sell as-is to a buyer (us) who can handle it post-close.
- Do you buy houses where the title is in someone else's name?
- Whether we can buy depends on why the title sits in another name. If a deceased relative owns it, you may need probate or a small-estate affidavit before you can sell. If your ex-spouse is on title from a divorce, we need their signature or a court order. Tell us the story and we'll tell you what's needed.
- How long does it take to clear typical title problems?
- Curable issues: 1–3 weeks. Judgment liens that need to be paid off: 1–2 weeks (we get the payoff, pay at closing). Missing reconveyances: 2–6 weeks (depends on the prior lender's response time). Litigation-required cures: months, we'll tell you if that's what you're facing before you commit.
- What if there's a lien I didn't know about?
- The preliminary title report will catch it. Once we see it, we'll tell you, factor it into the offer, and pay it off through escrow, the same way we handle any disclosed lien. The surprise doesn't kill the deal; hiding the surprise does.
Written by
Adrian HernandezCEO/Owner, My Home Sold
Adrian Hernandez founded My Home Sold in 2015 and has led it through more than 900 direct home purchases across Southern California. He has appeared on FOX 11 Good Day LA discussing the shift in the Southern California market and what it means for homeowners whose listings are not moving.
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