Conveyancing works differently in every country, and any article claiming a universal sequence is describing one jurisdiction and hoping. What does travel is the list of things that lose people money when nobody checks them. This is that list.
Each item below names a market where we have documented the problem, because an abstract warning is easy to nod at and hard to act on.
1. Establish who actually holds title, and on what document
"Title" is not one thing. In Thailand the difference between a Chanote and a lesser land document determines whether the plot can be transferred at all — we set out the Thai title deed hierarchy in detail. In Maharashtra the Satbara extract (7/12) is the record that shows ownership, tenancy and encumbrance in one place, and buyers who skip it discover the tenancy afterwards.
Ask for the register entry itself, dated recently, not a copy the seller supplies. Read who is named on it. Confirm that every named owner is selling.
2. Check the register for what is attached to the property
Mortgages, liens, unpaid tax, rights of way, inheritance claims and tenancies follow the property, not the seller. In much of southern Europe and Latin America, unpaid utility and community charges transfer with the title too.
This is the single check most often delegated to the agent and most often worth paying a lawyer to do independently.
3. Establish that the building was legally built
A structure can be physically present, occupied, photographed and marketed and still lack the permission that makes it legal. Extensions, pools and converted outbuildings are the usual offenders. Regularisation may be possible, may be expensive, and may be impossible.
Where the ownership structure itself is the thing being built — as with the three legal structures available to foreign developers in Bali — the same question applies to the company as to the concrete: was it constituted properly, and does it still comply?
4. Confirm you are permitted to own it before you commit
In 35 of the 65 markets we cover, a foreign buyer faces a licence, a required structure, a designated zone or an outright bar. Several of those permissions are granted routinely, which is precisely why they get treated as a formality and left until after a deposit has moved. See foreign-ownership rules across 65 markets for where your market sits.
5. Confirm you are permitted to let it
Ownership and letting are separate permissions, and the second is tightening far faster than the first. A licence that exists today may not be transferable to you on sale, and in several European cities new ones are no longer being issued. If the investment case depends on letting income, this check is not secondary to the purchase — it is the purchase. Our guide to short-term rental rules by market covers where the regime is moving.
6. Establish the boundaries and what comes with them
Survey plans and physical reality diverge, particularly on rural and coastal land. Costa Rica's maritime zone — the first 200 metres from the high-tide line — is concession land rather than freehold, and is sold to foreign buyers as though the distinction were administrative. In Panama the difference between titled land and "rights of possession" is the difference between an asset and a claim.
7. Read the contract for what happens when it goes wrong
Deposit forfeiture, completion delay, failure to obtain permission, defects discovered after handover: the clauses covering these are where a purchase is actually protected or not. We set out the clauses worth insisting on separately, and the legal aspects specific to a stand-alone villa where there is no developer guarantee behind you.
8. Know your own tax position before you sign
Reporting obligations attach to the buyer in their home country regardless of what the seller's jurisdiction requires, and the penalties for missing them are routinely larger than the tax. Declaration rules for UK, US and Australian buyers covers what has to be reported and when.
The one rule underneath all eight
Instruct a lawyer who is paid by you, is not connected to the agent or the developer, and is qualified in the country where the property sits. Every check above is one they perform routinely and you cannot perform at all from another country.
The fee is a rounding error against the purchase and is the only part of this process where spending less reliably costs more. Nothing here is legal advice, and procedure varies by jurisdiction — use it to know what to ask, not as a substitute for asking.