The Expert Podcast

…Today we're going to look at a very specific type of open source intelligence OSINT, which is property title forensics and property title forensics. Is a method of researching real estate records to obtain more than just what's on the face value Look all of us as investigators or researchers will do research in the real estate records We'll look at property deeds maybe. Ownership of records, but there's a lot of deeper information kind of like a metadata that's contained within property records That's often overlooked in fact many. Researchers will look just at the ownership of a D of a property. Just the name on the ownership and not necessarily look at what's behind the scenes. Some people even will just look at the…tax assessor and not the deed recorder…You're missing a lot of information

So what comes from property Title forensics Well, there's invisible patterns of activity that can be. And there's also unconceivable information. Let's take a look at a couple examples and we'll go back and forth between what can be found and examples of that. Here's an example of a deed. it happens to be from California Now keep in mind we've pulled some random deeds. From online, the deeds here and the people involved none of this has to do with any investigation These are just random public records that are pulled up. here's a deed that was recorded. in 1989, if you notice on this date it talks about the normal bull boiler plate. Grant deed trustee. Grant or grantee. But it does have a recording stamp If you look up here in the right hand corner it shows that it was recorded. At 8:00 AM on June 26th, 1989. Well that's important to know because. You know when the deed was recorded it may have been signed a week or two before but it wasn't recorded until this date. You want to compare the recording date with the signature date because that might indicate was it delayed on purpose by accident Normally a title company is going to rush right down and record it right away. So if you see a gap in the delay there that can mean something we'll talk about later. It also will give you a recording number. 89 3 3 4 7 6 1 at the very top. Sometimes it's referred to as a book and page.

When you see that number the first thing you want to do is pull the recordings on either side of that For example you see 3, 3, 4, 7, 6, 1. Pull 3, 3, 4 7 6 2 7 6 3 7 6 4. Why. Well because if there is a batch recording by a title company or by an attorney or by a subject even a private civilian, They may bring down multiple deeds at one time that have to do with different properties. And… they're recorded in consecutive order Deeds are not recorded group by property They're recorded in chronological order. So if a person brings down a bunch of deeds for properties, they're going to be recorded in the book one after another. A lot of times what we find is if somebody is doing. asset concealment, Or they're doing. Some other type of activity that you want to be aware of. Those deeds are recorded one after another And you might be able to find it even if it has different names different addresses. It'll tell you something about that subject. The next thing you know is there's a handwritten note in the left-hand corner 1 5 1 9 2 0 5. K F P what does that mean? Well, that's a notation written by whoever prepared this deed or the title company in this case It's first American title. That may be their file number. It may be a reference to another case. It may be a reference to a wire transfer. So you want to make a note of that and see if that shows up somewhere else and do some searching for that. What are the types of information that can come from title forensics?

Well first and foremost is financial information Obviously what we're looking for with deeds. Or with any type of asset search is financial information. Where does that come from That comes from a closing statement a settled statement. When a deed like this has been prepared. It's part of a settlement or closing on a property that closing has a form called a HUD one or a RESPA form, which has all the ins and outs of money All the money paid in all the money paid out. The wire transfers the mortgages the down payments commissions insurance, and that settlement statement is not recorded in the land records but. It's recorded by… The person that is. The return to block. So once a deed is recorded. The county will then take the recorded original and send it back to a party designated in the return to block… That person here is a trustee Norman F Starkey trustee. Sunset Boulevard. Hollywood. That person will have more information about this closing.

If it's a title company, they'll have a settlement statement now. There's nothing that requires them to disclose the settlement statement but there's also technically no law that says they can't. So one of the things you can do is contact that party to get a settlement statement again here you have a book and page 8 45 5 3 4. You want to pull 5, 3, 5, 5, 3, 6 and also 5 2 9 5 2 5 3 Oh. And so on. What are the other things you're going to look at Well look down here You have some signatures, you have the signature of the seller the grand tour, but you also have signatures of a, of a notary. Almost every real estate jurisdiction requires that documents recorded in the land records have to be notarized. In many cases they also need a witness signature. Or to. You want to look at those names You want to find out the notary here is it looks like a Terry Evanson… And, There's no witnesses on this document but it may be on the next page. You want to note those and the date that it was notarized. Because you want to make sure. That the person actually notarized it And you want to look and see if they notarized other things for this subject. if you see the same notary on a document and this one's from 1986, and then also you see the same person William Daniels sold a property in 2005.If the same notary signed it, then it's not somebody who was just sitting around the title office That was a notary it's somebody who works for that person or is associated with that person So you want to verify. Maybe who their identity is and also make sure the notary stamp is valid Make sure the date of expiration is before. Or after the date of notary.

Here's another good example Notice this one. This one. was signed October 18th, 1986 It wasn't recorded until November 25th more than a month later. It was recorded Why did it take that long to get recorded? You also have some checkoffs here You notice that. There's checks next to each of the important things APN number, the resend to block. Those are usually done by the office. That… recorded this to make sure that all the important details are done Let's look at another one. There's a warranty deed Notice again check marks. This is a different county altogether, and they checked all the important things on the document to make sure that they're there. You have some handwritten notes here Again could be a file number. Right Franklin. Mill's title that's who has the closing statement They have all the financial information. You have a signature. Of the recorder. you have signatures the grantee. Or grand tour. you have a parcel number you have… The mailing address PO box 6, 6 0 6 9 4 You notice that's hand written. You want to look at that address to see. What it also traces back to. Here's another one with a bunch of signatures. You have witnesses.You have a notary. You have dates… And you all. in this one. Have an example of a legal description of this particular property. You want to look at that legal description to see if it's got any references to other properties Sometimes there's. Batch. Deeds recorded. And there are, blanket mortgages on more than one property.

So here's a couple of other types of. Intelligence that can be gleaned from doing title forensics. We talked about relationships slip ups. This is where witnesses sign. And those witnesses aren't really part of the transaction, but who are these people? If they're witnesses that came with the person signing the document they may be colleagues coworkers. Relationship partners. You want to look at those people and search them to see what their relationship is. You want to look at mortgage patterns to see if a person is buying and selling properties. Is there mortgage balance going up or going down to the take out bigger mortgages or lower mortgages that can ind. a flow of funds. Are they putting more money in properties and hiding assets that way Or are they taking money out by doing cash out refinance or equity lines in that case Where did that money go? He also want to look at liens and judgements.

Are there other claims against the person, for example? In many cases if there's a judgment against the party due to a lawsuit it gets filed in the land records in the same county recorder's office. So you now you can find somebody who has an adversarial relationship with your subject If somebody sued Joe Schmoe. They may have some records about Joe Schmoe. they may have things like IRS child support, sales tax collection government liens. even if they're paid even if it's an old judgment that's since been satisfied it's still going to be in the land records. So who is that Plaintiff to the lien? Are they. contract that went bad Are they a relationship partner, relationship partners Great Because…a former spouse is going to have joint tax returns that may help you with your investigation…

Does subject own additional properties Here's why. If you see that a subject has other properties that they've owned. Even if they've since been sold, who did they sell them to? And is it a fraudulent conveyance Did they really still control that property Was it a quit claim deed with a $10 set? consideration, who's paying the taxes on the other property Are they still paying the taxes? Who's the insurance under, right? You want to make sure you're eliminating any possible? Other. Third party claims against your subject to make sure they're not hiding assets. Under…somebody else's name, property conveyance.

Has the subject property been transferred Isn't been flipped over and over and over. And there's a reoccurrences of owners on the title because those prior owners may connect back to your subject and have information about assets or re quite frankly might be holding assets. So let's look at one last deed. Here's one that's more data than signatures You notice this is all filled in There's no handwritten, however, You are going to find. On this particular property, a return to… Goodstein Realty That's where this document goes Once it's recorded, you also have a presenter Commonwealth lawyer's title. So here's two parties. That have some relationship with this property besides the owner… Right. You have a title company and a return to these are both parties that have information about this owner They may have financial statements. If it's a condominium board like this one is here. They may have financial affidavits They may have credit applications. They may have copies of bank accounts. Right. The Realty company might have a copy of a check because they may have. They may have had to pay a fee. To that company. It also was noticed that this was done by a power of attorney Well who's got that power of attorney.

Look this is just five random deeds We went through here in less than 10 minutes. That have a huge. A treasure trove of information about these subjects… And you may find that if you spend an hour or two, looking through every last document for a subject, you may find more there. Then you could ever find on TLO on surveillance. On any kind of bank account search because real estate records are durable They're in the public record system You don't have to do anything special other than spend time. And it may seem like a needle in a haystack but I can guarantee you you look at 50 or 60 property records. You'll find more than one needle You'll find a whole package of needles in the haystack. And once you connect them all together and matrix them, you'll find a very clear picture. Of your subject their assets or their activities.