In the US, it's unrealistic to assume there's a canonical federal database which tracks every potential title complication including property tax liens at the local level. In my case, I had a (resolved) issue where the property/house I was buying was a subdivided larger property with an agricultural lien (for an apple orchard) that hadn't been lifted yet.
Titles have a lot of opportunities for complications in many places; there's no simple technology fix.
The insurance is annoying but it's an area that has the potential for really expensive issues.
