Find a Deed Online

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A deed is a legal document showing who has title to a piece of real estate. Deeds are recorded by county recorders or register's offices in the county where the property is located. Many of these records are now available online in searchable databases. While this has made finding out who owns a deed easier, it can still be a complicated process, so it's best to be prepared for an intensive search.

Steps

Searching With Tax Records

  1. Determine in which county or parish the property is located. Since deed records are typically recorded at the county level, having this information is necessary. There are several ways to find out what county or parish a piece of property is in.
    • Probably the easiest way is going to the National Organization of Counties' (NACo) website, at http://explorer.naco.org/, and using their "city/zip" search function at the top of the page. Just type the city name or the zip code into the search bar and click on the magnifying glass icon. Even with minimal information, this should tell you what you need to know. For instance, if you type "Decatur" into the search bar and nothing else, the website will produce a list of all the cities named "Decatur" in the US, along with their accompanying county. Click on the link for your county, and it should provide you with information that includes a link to the county's website along with a list of their elected officials.
  2. Start with the tax assessor. All the information that most people will need or want to know about a deed will be on record with the county tax assessor, such as the current owner, sale dates, price history, and current valuation. Tax assessor's offices in any county are responsible for appraising and valuing property for property tax purposes, so they are among the first to know when a deed changes hands. Since nearly all property owners have to pay property taxes (and therefore have to deal with tax assessors) this information is also among the most readily accessible in any county. Even if you need to know more information later, this is the easiest place to start.[1]
    • The websites of county governments can be among the least user friendly websites out there. It would not be unheard of for a person to thoroughly search the county's website for an office within the county government to no avail, only to find that the link to that office was hidden in some obscure area. When you're on the county's website, if you don't find a link for the assessor's office within a few minutes of looking around, it might save you some time to give the county a call and make sure that the assessor's office is online and that the records are searchable.
    • Don't be thrown off by changes in wording, and keep an eye out for keywords. "Tax assessor," "property appraiser," "property valuation," and "tax commissioner" are terms which are either synonymous or closely related organizationally. If you see any of these, it warrants closer investigation.
  3. Find the records section. Look for terms like "real estate data," "real estate records," and "property records." Follow the link for that, and find the section on the page where you can search for property records. Most counties will allow you to search by address, by lot number, or parcel ID. Search for your chosen property.
    • Depending on your locality, there might be more than one listing for the same address. For example, 123 E. Washington St. and 123 Washington St. might both be listed as 123 Washington St. in the index. If you encounter something like this, just look at the assessor's record for both entries. The actual record will be more specific than the index, so you'll be able to tell your E. Washington address from your Washington address. [2]
  4. Examine the record. Most people aren't going to need any more information than what they'll find in the assessor's record. It should tell you the current deed holder, the deed holder's mailing address, price history and sale dates, square footage for a structure or square footage for the entire tract of land, and most importantly, the property ID and the type of deed the owner holds. [3]
    • Some counties provide more extensive information than others. While almost every county will tell you who the current deed holder is, some counties' tax assessors records show deed holders dating back many years. Look closely to see what information is being presented.[4]

Searching Property Records

  1. Find out if this information is online. A lot of counties don't put information about the deed itself online, and this is even true of counties that put tax assessor's records online. The most important information the deed itself will show (that the tax assessor's records won't) is who held the deed before the current owner and what kind of deed they had. Unless a person is making sure that a title is clear, this information is of limited use to the general public.[5]
  2. Get the property ID number. Remember, you can find this in the tax assessor's record, sometimes referred to as the parcel number or the recording number. Many county recorders do not make the primary record of deeds by address, because things like street names can change quickly and unpredictably. When this type of deed information is online at all, it is usually searchable by book/page number, by property ID number, or by sellers' and buyers' names. Property ID is usually the most reliable and easiest way to search, because it is less prone to problems like misspellings of names and streets. [9]
  3. Be prepared to pay a fee. Whether you use a county records website or a private record search site, there is often a fee for searching--especially if you want to search by address. Some land record or Deed search sites may charge a one time account fee and others may charge per search or per record. These fees range in cost from a few dollars for governmental websites to ten and twenty dollars per search for some of the private websites.[10]
  4. Fill in the required information. Once you have located a land record database and created an account, fill in as much information as possible, including the address of the property, owner’s name, or Property ID and run a search. If you get too many results, try narrowing your search by adding more information. If you get too few results, try broadening the search using wildcards or by providing less information.

Sources and Citations

  1. ↑ http://www.cityofboston.gov/assessing/search/
  2. ↑ http://taxcommissioner.dekalbcountyga.gov/PropertyAppraisal/realDisplay.asp
  3. ↑ http://taxcommissioner.dekalbcountyga.gov/PropertyAppraisal/realSearch.asp
  4. ↑ http://www.qpublic.net/ga/fulton/search.html
  5. ↑ http://www.gscassociates.com/Deed_Examples.html
  6. ↑ http://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/records-licensing/Recorders-Office/records-search.aspx
  7. ↑ http://www.wakegov.com/rod/Pages/default.aspx
  8. ↑ http://www.suffolkdeeds.com/
  9. ↑ http://www.kingcounty.gov/depts/records-licensing/Recorders-Office/records-search.aspx
  10. ↑ https://www.courthousedirect.com/PropertyReports/DeedReport
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