The Expert Podcast

So the question comes up about real estate records are real estate transactions a public record what about closing statements what about accessory documents well real estate records by definition by law are public documents a deed that's signed over to one person to another a mortgage that's signed to finance a property a lien against a property those are all public records where are they kept well real estate records are retained in almost every state by county recorder's office the county recorder don't confuse that with the county tax assessor that has to do with real estate.

The county tax assessor keeps track of how much properties are worth and how much taxes you got to pay that does not show the transfers it may show who they think the owner is because that's who they're going to look for taxes but the person paying taxes could also be the accountant of the owner or an attorney or business manager it doesn't have to be the owner usually it is though proper real estate records are kept by the county recorder or the clerk of recorders called different things in different counties.

There are 3611 counties in the country every county has the records for the properties within that boundary of jurisdiction so if the property is at 12 main street in a certain town wherever that town is located in what county that's where the real estate records will be and they are literally kept as paper documents you can walk in that's called the deed book room and there are big rows of books on the wall with all these deeds in it or mortgages or liens or many other types of documents but those are the most common and they can be searched.

They're searched by what's called an index where you look up a name of a party joe schmo it'll give you a list of all the documents that joe schmo has recorded with their name on it and then you can look up the book and page because that's what i'll tell you joe shmoe mortgage this date book and page number and you literally pull that book off the shelf flip the page 21 there's the document with joe schmoe and the document is listed by both parties buyer and seller although with the deed it's called grantor and grantee it's not buyer and seller.

So if you're doing an investigation you want to look for those records but more importantly you want to read the actual document you just don't want to look to see a document exist or there was a deed you want to read it through step by step it's called title forensics you want to know everything about that deed what's a language was there any kind of life estate was there a retention was there owner financing there are so many pieces of information on that deed that are helpful to understand the nature of the transaction and other parties.

You want to read you want to get a copy of it and put it in your file because there are going to be things like witnesses to that signature notaries attorneys title companies closing agents handwritten notes fax numbers all over that deed you don't want to leave it the chance and when you have that you can pull all of the other records with that name mortgages liens even for other properties and put them all together in your investigative file and do what's called a matrix.

You're going to cross reference all the information from one document to another names of notaries names of signatures title companies and put it all together you'll not have a picture of that person's finances did they pay off a mortgage did they refinance and they cash out you'll see the picture coming together by looking all these documents as a whole not just one at a time.

What about closing statements well typically the closing statement or hud one settlement statement are not filed as a public record however you may be able to still get that there are at least eight or nine different people who have a copy of that settlement statement the title company escrow company they have a copy both parties to the transaction the buyer and seller they have a copy so if you're investigating let's say the seller and you know the seller won't give it to you well contact the title company hey can i get a title copy this settlement statement they may say no contact the buyer hey you know a couple years ago you sold this property to joe we're getting some information putting it together can i get a copy.

There are two real estate brokers that have copies of it the seller's agent and the buyer's agent they may be able to give you a copy insurance companies have copies of that settlement statement the utilities have copies of the settlement statement there may be other parties to the transaction like the lender who had the loan before the property was purchased that got paid off they had a a loan lien release they have a copy of that settlement statement.

The reason why it's important to look at all those options is that settlement statement is like gold it has so much financial information bank account numbers wire transfers other parties who got paid out of the settlement who put money into the settlement who signed the settlement copy the real estate contract there are just so many pieces of information from that settlement statement that even though it's not available in the first level of searching for real estate records getting it would be to your benefit it might take a little bit of uh persistence to find one of those eight parties to give you a copy and there's reasons why they might want to do that it might be financial incentive that you offer them it might be doing business with them on another property it might be many things but getting that settlement statement is crucially important to a proper investigation.

There is also other real estate information about a property that can help with investigating a party one is the permit records at the zoning office and if you're investigating a person who owns a property or even he used to own a property pulling the permits that they had issued to them even before they bought the property can be helpful to get an idea of the layout of the house if they pulled a permit you'll know the name of the contractor that they did business with that contractor will have banking information the contractor will know um what the structure was of the addition that they built or the work that they did it'll give you blueprints floor plans signatures many things will be on that permit.

And it will give you an idea if the if the um edition was financed look if you're wondering about a person's financing and you found out they just did 80 000 edition on their house three months ago and they paid cash there was no lender that tells you something they had at least 80 000 liquid cash in that moment so those permits can be very very valuable and it gives you another party that you can contact to get records maybe that contractor took photos of the work as they were progressing because a good contractor is going to keep track of the work as it goes to make sure that when there's inspections done they can show the inspector look this is the gauge wire we used or this is the routing of the plumbing or we put the proper size stud lumber in the walls they'll have photos and they might be able to share them with you and there might be other information in those photos that can help your investigation.

Real estate information has to do with hoas hoas many times gets a full application from every resident in the house to be approved to live in that community there usually is no statutory requirement to keep those private in the right circumstances they could give that out or they might give it out to the board of that hoa so those are documents that could be valuable.

Insurance documents can be valuable there's things called a clue report which is a history of all claims that have been filed at that residence by any owner so if you can get a clue report to find out that a person reported jewelry missing or damage or water intrusion that might give you some valuable information about the person the people living in the house the structure of the house their insurance company where they might have coverages if you need to notify insurance companies.

So don't overlook real estate records searching real estate deeds and liens and mortgages can be incredibly valuable to any investigation and even for pre-litigation research on a potential subject put your comments below and your questions let us know what other information we can provide about investigative research.Retry