Given that June is National Homeownership Month and that, for many, purchasing a home is the most significant transaction they’ll engage in over the course of their lives, we thought it fitting to address what personal details and information the acquisition, maintenance and disposition of this asset can reveal about the subjects we are investigating.

While we aren’t always asked to look into a subject’s history of homeownership, any investigator worth their salt can attest that scrutinizing property and other related records can provide a window into a subject’s solvency, issues of financial means and distress, military service, additional property ownership, company affiliations, marital status and other relationships. Traditional property records, such as deeds and mortgages, are typically filed at the county recorder’s office (sometimes called the Register of Deeds office or the County Clerk’s office), whose records can either be searched and viewed online or in person, depending on the county. Property-related information can also be found in a subject’s litigation history, press profile, social media content and breached data on the deep and dark web, among other sources.

Tips and tricks for navigating property records

Property records can be cumbersome to review, full of technical jargon and legal descriptions of plats, blocks, and more. Below are some key pieces of information to look out for when reviewing property records:

  • Confirm whether the purchase was a cash transaction or whether the property was mortgaged. How much did the purchaser put down, and what might that imply about their financial picture at the time of purchase? If it was a cash transaction, does the purchase align with your knowledge of the subject’s approximate income and lifestyle?
  • Note the interest rate. Is it market or subprime?
  • Note the lender. Is it an atypical lender? Is it guaranteed by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), indicating or confirming a subject’s military service?
  • Research the counterparty in the transaction. Could they be a relative or an entity controlled by the subject, thereby allowing the subject to maintain control over the asset despite the appearances of a sale?
  • Review references to a power of attorney. Who was appointed to this role, and how recently? What connection do they have to the subject? 
  • Review the tax bill. Where is it being remitted, and to whom? Are taxes overdue on the property, indicating financial pressure?

Below are just a few recent examples of significant findings we identified through research of property-related records.

Deed confirms remarriage, points to allegations of poor financial decision-making

Our client requested due diligence on an interior design firm’s executives in advance of an acquisition. We noticed early on that commercial databases were reporting that one of our subjects—the company’s CFO, who had been married to a woman with whom he had a daughter—was potentially living with another man. After being unable to quickly ascertain the two men’s relationship from the subject’s minimal social media content, we reviewed the deed to the subject’s home, which reported that the two men were, in fact, married. This signaled a need to locate the divorce record naming the subject and his ex-wife, which upon review contained allegations against the subject concerning poor handling of finances during their marriage and the existence of more than 30 credit cards—most with outstanding balances—in our subject’s and his ex-wife’s names.

The deed also contained references to the subject using his husband’s last name, a name variation we had not previously known to include in our research.

Lis pendens reveals criminal case, fraud allegations

Our client, a private club, requested a due diligence investigation into one of its members to confirm his sources of wealth and ensure he did not have any reputational issues or other allegations of misconduct related to his wealth and professional background. In conducting property records research on an address the subject had been associated with, we identified a lis pendens—or a legal notice indicating the property was involved in a pending lawsuit—filed with the county recorder. The lis pendens filing not only confirmed that our subject was the ultimate owner of the company that owned the property in question (a $6 million penthouse), but it contained a court order from a civil case filed against our subject in the county’s supreme court alleging he was involved in a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme.  

These property records also revealed an alternative name variation for the subject that we had previously been unaware of, explaining why we had not initially identified the civil case in our litigation research. Upon searching the new name variation, we also identified a criminal case filed against our subject in federal court related to the same fraud scheme.

Property-related court cases reveal threatening and abusive behavior

On face value, property-related civil cases, such as an eviction case or a land use dispute, aren’t exactly the most exciting finds as an investigator. But dig a bit deeper, and the documents from these cases can contain interesting information and allegations concerning the litigants. For example:

  • A “real property” case filed against our subject first appeared to be a neighbor dispute regarding where each owner’s property began and ended. Within the complaint, however, the plaintiff alleged our subject routinely trespassed on her property, publicly confronted and harassed her at their homeowners’ association meetings, and was so threatening that she needed an escort to her car after one such meeting. The plaintiff also claimed our subject had driven his car over her lawn and that other neighbors had called the police regarding our subject’s behavior in the community, prompting us to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for relevant police and incident response reports.
  • A civil complaint filed by our subject requested the court remove his ex-girlfriend from the title of a property they co-owned. In her counterclaim, the ex-girlfriend alleged our subject had displayed “disturbing” and “violent” behavior during their former relationship and that he had a “severe alcohol problem” that caused him to act “erratically.” This counterclaim led us to identify an order of protection filed by this ex-girlfriend against our subject as well as police reports confirming our subject had physically assaulted her.

In sum, real property and related records represent a fascinating intersection of personal and financial information that should not be overlooked or discounted.