Want to know who owns a property? The last time a home was sold? Details about the property and if the owner has a mortgage?
There’s a way to find this out when doing market analysis: Look at real estate deed data.
Deeds, a legal document that records the transfer of ownership, are must-see documents for real estate professionals looking for key information about a property—and those documents are public records that can be viewed by anyone.
Real estate deeds are recorded after almost every real estate transaction, and the record is almost always archived in a county recorder’s office. That said, there are several reasons why investors and real estate professionals should consider obtaining real estate deed data from a third-party data provider, like ATTOM.
The information that deeds contain can be useful for many purposes, including:
- For property investors and real estate companies researching properties and their owners;
- For marketers developing leads and lists of potential clients;
- For lenders and brokers looking to assess the risk of a property;
Because real estate deed data can be so useful, it is worth looking at what deeds are, their various types, what information they contain and where you can find them.
What is a Real Estate Deed?
A deed is a legal document that assigns or modifies the ownership of a property. Certain deeds will also include information about liens or mortgages.
Deeds can come in many forms. The most common type of deed is a “general warranty deed,” which is intended to protect the buyer by ensuring the property is unencumbered and can be sold. The seller attests that the property is free and clear of liens. A “grant deed” is like a warranty deed but gives less legal protection to a buyer.
Another common type of real estate deed is a “quick claim deed,” which is often used in property transfers among family or to add a spouse to the title.
Other types include a “gift deed,” when a property is transferred without any money changing hands; and an executor’s deed, which transfers a deceased person’s property to beneficiaries in a will.
Another category of deeds are mortgage and trust deeds, both of which can record details of the terms of a mortgage or other liens.
What do Real Estate Deeds Contain?
Deeds typically contain the date when a property changed hands, the buyer and seller’s name, the trustee if applicable and a legal description of the property. If there’s a mortgage, the deed may include an additional document known as “a rider” that includes basic information about the mortgage.
County recorder offices charge a fee to the buyer of a property for recording and keeping the record of a deed, and counties are legally required to make these documents available to the public.
But it is not always easy to find specific properties using county records, especially for real estate investors or other professionals researching multiple properties across a wide area.
Although counties often have searchable databases where deeds have been digitized, that’s not always the case. In some cases, you’ll need to go to a country office and request a copy of the deed.
Another issue with county deed records is that it can be challenging to do property research of multiple properties in areas that cross counties.
Why ATTOM is a Good Source of Real Estate Deed Data
A good source of real estate deed data is third-party providers, including ATTOM. There are several advantages to assessing deed information via a third party.
Firstly, the company can take the pain out of research. ATTOM has access to real estate deeds from more than 3,000 county recorder offices across the country.
The company has simplified working with deeds by assigning a unique identifier to each property transaction known as the ATTOM ID. All transactions recorded against the same property can be identified by using its identifier.
This can be useful to anyone that wants to quickly pull up the information or plans to access several deeds in an area for property research.
Another advantage to using a third-party is that you can obtain additional information about the property. ATTOM’s database of electronic deeds can be used in conjunction with other property records to provide a fuller picture of a specific property, its neighborhood and outwards.
ATTOM, with an in-house team of geographic information system (GIS) experts, for example, prioritizes drawing accurate, granular maps at the property level outwards.
The company has a data warehouse of 155 million parcel boundaries in the U.S. and in portions of Canada, an area representing about 99% of the U.S. population. The company also has digitized 187 million building footprints that lie within the parcels.
Using mapping as a base, the company can provide relevant data about the property itself and nearby schools, shops and services, the infrastructure of the neighborhood, the area’s density, traffic patterns and risks.
ATTOM provides real estate deed data through our property data API or bulk data delivery solution. It has consolidated data from several sources, including property tax information, mortgages, foreclosures, environmental and natural hazard risk, and the neighborhood data.
Take, for example, the details of the mortgage. Most deeds will only contain basic information about the mortgage details, whether there is a mortgage or other liens, for example.
By contrast, ATTOM can usually provide specifics about a loan, the name of a mortgage lender, the type of loan and the amount, whether the rate is adjustable or fixed.
Real estate deed data, combined with other datasets, can tell the complete story of a specific property, or hundreds of properties as your company does market research in an area.
Written by: Jennifer Von Pohlmann