You’ve likely seen news stories about local celebrities or athletes buying or selling their homes in your local newspaper or social media. It’s not just A-listers that make the news, though. You and your neighbors will too. Why? Because whether you like it or not, real estate transactions become public records.

In this article, we’ll dive into why real estate transactions are public information, what becomes public information, and how you should use it to your advantage.

Why the information becomes public

The information about your home purchase and the terms and conditions of your mortgage loan is recorded among the land records in the jurisdiction where the property is located. These documents are public. Every county has a department called Recorder of Deeds or Register of Deeds or something similar, which keeps the records.

In most states, you don’t even have to do to your local recorder of deeds office. Anyone can look up a deed or mortgage online to learn how much their friends or neighbors borrowed against their home or how much they paid for it.

What can public records tell you about a real estate transaction

When making one of the most significant purchases in your lifetime, you need to gather as much information as possible. Hence, if you’re in the market to purchase a new home, public property records can be an excellent tool for your decision-making process.

Property searches can reveal quite a bit about a particular home or piece of property. You can find anything from surface information, such as the current owner and square footage of the home, to below the surface information including details on transfers of ownership, tax liens on the home, property deeds, and any current restrictions on the land.

You can also find out how long the property has been on sale, as well as how much is owed on the house, whether the home is currently in foreclosure or not, and even the original sale price of the home. All this information can be of great benefit when buying a home.

Finding real estate transaction information

Public records are available at local government offices. But with today’s technology, the information can be found online by visiting websites for city halls, county courthouses, tax offices, or deed recorder’s offices.

In addition to this, sites such as the MLS, Zillow, Realtor.com, and Trulia offer many details about real estate transactions.

Whether you’re a fan of it or not, real estate transactions do indeed become public information. So, when buying a home, you might as well use this information to your advantage to ensure you’re getting the best deal and have as much information at your fingertips as possible.

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