A property research service is one of the most popular and useful types of moving home services. It helps would-be homeowners to find out the best ways to search for freehold, leasehold, or shared ownership property before they buy.
However, this is not an easy task, especially if you’re new to the property market. For starters, there are plenty of different types of property and a lot of variations in how you can search for them. But how to conduct a property owner search, and where can you search property owners accurately?
Well, we will find out in this article how to find out who owns a property in seven simple and easy tips.
What is a Property Owner Check?
Ownership verification is a critical aspect of any due diligence process for commercial real estate transactions. This type of check is typically conducted by a title company or other third party and involves verifying that the seller is the rightful owner of the property.
But you can easily find out that you can conduct a very basic property records search and actually save a ton of money.
Let’s see some good ways to do that.
Use Google Search
Although Google is a great way to find information on properties and their owners, you can’t always trust the results 100%. This is because there may be mismatches in the information provided.
However, conducting a property information search through Google is still a great way to find what you’re looking for.
How should you use Google?
- Try with the property owner’s name (from the ID card)
- Try looking for image resources associated with the owner (if you have met him).
- If you have the phone number of the property owner, you might want to search with it. In several cases, we happened to find exactly what we needed by applying this technique.
LinkedIn Can Provide What’s Needed
LinkedIn is a great platform for finding property owners, especially if you know a person who has a business. Business users often have profiles on LinkedIn, where you can find a lot of useful information.
You can even find promoted listings on this platform, making it a great resource for anyone looking to buy or rent a property.
How should you use LinkedIn?
- You can look for company information if you know the business name. This way, you can find employees, and bam – your results might be just there.
- You can type in the property owner’s name; it’s very useful, as you can find the results that match and compare them.
Pro note: Avoid checking profiles, as if the other person has a Premium plan, they will see that you've checked on their profile unless this is your personal desire, of course.
Run Mortgage Lending History
Mortgage lending history can tell you a lot about the property status. It will show you the initial price of the property that was bought. Also, you can see how many previous owners the real estate has. The less, the better.
You can also get an idea of how much the property has changed hands by looking at the mortgage history. This can give you a good indication of whether or not the property is a good investment.
Pro tip: Usually, if real estate is sold at least three times over the last ten years, then there is something fishy about either the property or the property owners.
Personal Owner Address Check
Personal owner address checks can be a great way to learn more about why an owner is selling their property and can help you avoid any potential problems with the sale.
By checking the address of the owner, you can make sure they actually live in the area and aren’t trying to sell you a property that they don’t own.
This check can also help you avoid any underwater stones that could cause problems down the line. We’ve achieved some amazing results by applying this type of method.
Previous Market Sale Information
Previous market sale information can be a good indicator of what to expect next. If you want to find out more about the property owner, have a look at this piece of statistics. This way, you can identify and shortlist reasons why this person could be selling their real estate.
To get a better understanding of why the property owner may be selling, it’s helpful to look at past market sales data. This information can give you some insight into what to expect moving forward.
Additionally, research the property owner themselves. Knowing more about their background may help explain why they’ve decided to part ways with their real estate.
Tax Reports
If you’re thinking of buying a property, it’s important to make sure that there is a proven tax record attached to it. This will give you a good indication of who has lived there in the past and whether or not they have paid their property taxes.
If you don’t pay attention to this detail, you may end up inadvertently paying for someone else’s unpaid taxes. And trust us, you don’t want to be charged for someone else’s sins. It just seems unfair.
Research Investment Properties
If you’re looking for information on a property’s owner, researching investment properties is a good way to go. You’ll be able to easily spot the right person if the real estate appears in a portfolio.
This way of research can help you find what you’re looking for quickly and efficiently. You can see if there are multiple instances where the property owner’s name appears.
If that’s the case, you’re definitely dealing with a broker. And this is something you should avoid at any cost, as you might overpay a lot if you’re hunting to find a decent home.
Summary
Property owner search is conducted for many reasons, but they all lead to one thing – to identify if a potential real estate deal is worth making or if you’d better avoid it at any cost.
Using different tools can help you tremendously in identifying the root cause of your concerns and the fixes that can be applied to them.
