How to Find the Ownership of a Residential Property

Occasionally it is necessary to confirm the owner of a residential property. It might be a neighboring property that you need to make a formal complaint about, such as a noise violation or an inappropriate renter. This information is a matter of public record and available for most counties online. However, if your county does not publish an online database, call the county recorder's office and ask for the information.

Things You'll Need

• Property address or parcel number

Instructions

1. Get the exact property address. Include directions such as east and west as well as any unit numbers or other address modifiers.

2. Navigate to the appropriate website for locating the public record you need. The office of the county assessor is one option. To find your county assessor's website, type your county name and "office of the assessor" into any search engine. In some states you may be able navigate to your county's registry of deeds for information about names on the title for a particular property. An additional method of looking up address information is through 411.com.

3. Find the portion of the website that links to residential property search. Arizona's, for example, is listed under their residential information. Whitepages.com refers to their service as "reverse lookup."

4. Choose an advanced search option that lets you type in the address and street. Type the address exactly according to the website directions. Make sure to spell the street name correctly and include any directional modifiers. Instructions for Whitepages.com are similar. Type in the address, city and zip for owner information.

5. Review the owner's name and address to find the contact information. If you are having trouble working with your county's website, call the office and ask for assistance. Explain your reason for needing the information and ask what the procedure is for finding the owner of a specific property.

Tips & Warnings

• Some counties will include information about who resides in the property, such as a renter. Every county will be slightly different in how they record all information found on their websites.

References

• Office of the Assessor
• Whitepages.com: Reverse Lookup