public record property ownership without the guesswork

From courthouse terminals to county portals, I verify owners, liens, and parcel boundaries the same way each week. Well, not exactly - the formats drift, and that's the first tell. Last Tuesday, a seller swore her late uncle still held title; the assessor showed a transfer two months earlier, and the deed confirmed it.

What I check first

• Recorder for deeds and legal descriptions.
• Assessor for situs, APN, and tax status.
• GIS for boundaries when surveys are missing.

Selection matters: pull certified copies when money moves; abstracts are fine for scouting. Trust the primary entry, then align cross-agency timestamps; when records disagree, the recorded deed wins.

People also look for

• who owns this house
• property deed search
• county assessor records
• title chain lookup
• free property ownership search