The seller did his own title search and.....

he says someone at the courthouse did his deed for him.  Hmmmm....

Well, the prior vested owner was a man, we'll call John Smith.  Our seller's deed was from a woman who says she was Mrs. John Smith.  The deed says John Smith is dead and that Mrs. Smith owns the property by operation of law as having been his wife.

Well, that's wrong.  She wasn't in title so does our seller actually own the property?

We asked the seller to produce an original death certificate.  The plan is to verify that Mrs. Smith was married to John Smith at the time of his death and try to figure out where an estate might have been raised, if any, etc.

Our seller cannot seem to get a death certificate so we say John Smith is not dead and therefore our seller does not own the property.  How about them apples?

Will be interesting to see how this plays out.