Guide
What a runsheet is
The basic title research document, and what each column is for.
General information only. This guide explains common practice in plain terms. It is not legal advice, and practice varies by state, county and attorney. Ask the examining attorney how they want something done.
The short version
A runsheet is a list of the recorded documents that affect a piece of land, in date order, with enough detail on each one that a reader can follow how ownership moved. It is built from the county's records. It does not draw conclusions. It gives an attorney, a landman or a buyer the facts to work from.
What goes in a row
One row per instrument. The usual information:
- Where it is recorded. Book and page, or an instrument number, and the county.
- What it is. Warranty deed, mineral deed, lease, mortgage, release, decree, affidavit, and so on.
- Two dates. The date on the instrument (effective date) and the date the county recorded it. They are often different, and the difference can matter.
- Who and what. Grantor, grantee and the land described.
- Whether it conveys. Does it move an interest from one party to another, or is it something else, such as a lease, a mortgage or a release?
- Reservations. Did the grantor keep something back, and if so, in what words?
- Notes. Anything the person reading needs to see: a signature issue, a description that does not match, a reference to another instrument.
The sample runsheet shows every column, with made-up data.
How far back
There are three common choices.
- Current owner. Start from the source deed of the present owner and run to the present.
- A set number of years. Pick a date and run from there.
- Patent to present. Start with the first transfer out of the government and run the whole chain.
Deeper searches cost more time and show more. Which one you need depends on who will rely on the result. An examining attorney usually sets the starting point.
Why the color coding
Many runsheets shade conveyances one color and everything else another, so a reader can scan the chain of ownership without reading every row. Ours uses green for conveyances and orange for the rest. The Conveyance column says the same thing in words, so the color is a help and not the only signal.
What a runsheet is not
It is not an abstract, which adds a written summary of each instrument. It is not a mineral ownership report, which turns the chain into a list of owners and fractions. It is not a title opinion, which is a lawyer's conclusion about who owns what. See runsheet vs MOR vs title opinion.
How we build ours
We use modern software to read the instrument images and fill in each row, so the columns stay the same from county to county. A landman checks every row against its image. On projects with many tracts we divide the sheet among landmen in our network, then combine it into one runsheet.
Next: Runsheet vs MOR vs title opinion. Or go back to all resources.
Need a runsheet?
Send the county, the legal description and how far back to search. We build the runsheet with images, note anything odd, and quote it with your due date. Write to [email protected].