Trace the chain of title. Catch the break before you buy
Rung 8 of 10 · Cognitive verifier
1 · Learn the move · Cognitive verifier
The single most expensive land mistake is buying from someone who cannot actually convey, a deceased owner whose estate never went through probate, an heir who is one of five, a prior deed that was never recorded. The chain of title is the sequence of transfers from the last clean owner to your seller, and a break anywhere in it means the seller can't give you marketable title. The cognitive-verifier pattern fits because it forces the AI to show its work and then check itself: restate each transfer in plain terms, quote the record it came from, name who held title after it, and flag any gap where the paste doesn't connect one owner to the next. Then a critique pass re-reads every link against its quoted record and downgrades anything that rests on an assumption. The hard line is that whether title is marketable or insurable is the title company's and the attorney's call, never the AI's: the lesson flags the suspected break and names the cure path, probate, an affidavit of heirship, a quiet-title action, and routes it out. You surface the gap; the professionals close it.
Here's the ownership history I pulled. Is there anything that stops this seller from selling me clean title? [paste the deed/record history]
2 · Your turn. You write the prompt
You're buying a vacant lot direct from an owner. You paste the record history you pulled: a 1998 warranty deed to 'John and Mary Reyes, husband and wife'; a 2015 obituary reference indicating John Reyes died; no recorded transfer after 1998; and your seller is 'Mary Reyes,' signing alone, who says she owns it outright. Nothing in the paste shows a probate, a survivorship clause, or a death certificate recorded. You want the chain traced and any break flagged before you wire an earnest deposit, without the AI ruling the title good or bad. Write that prompt.
Remember: the AI sees only your prompt, not this page. If the situation isn't in your prompt, it doesn't exist.
Optional. These shape the output when you run your prompt below, not your score.