To find the mortgage on a property using public records, search the county recorder’s office in the county where the property is located. Every mortgage or deed of trust is recorded there once the loan closes, and the filing is open to anyone. Most counties now host a free online search portal; the rest keep terminals and microfilm at the recorder’s counter. You can search by the owner’s name, the street address, or the parcel number, and pull up the recorded document at little or no cost.
What to Gather Before You Search
A search goes faster when you walk in with the right identifiers. Any one of these can get you to the document, but having more than one helps when the first attempt returns messy results.
- The full street address of the property.
- The current or former owner’s full legal name, since county indexes are built around the names of the parties.
- The Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN), a unique identifier assigned by the county tax assessor. It appears on the property tax bill and on the assessor’s website.
- The legal description — lot number, block number, and subdivision or plat name — which pinpoints the parcel more precisely than a street address.
Most county assessor websites let you look up the APN for free from the street address alone. Once you have the APN, you can drop it into the recorder’s search and skip the guesswork that comes with common owner names or reused addresses.
Searching the County Recorder’s Office
Public land records are kept by a county-level office called the County Recorder, Register of Deeds, or Clerk of Court, depending on the state. That office holds every recorded mortgage, deed, assignment, and lien for property inside the county.
These records are organized in a Grantor/Grantee index. On a mortgage filing, the property owner is the Grantor (granting a security interest in the home) and the lender is the Grantee. To find a mortgage on a specific property, enter the owner’s name in the Grantor field. The results list every document that person signed and recorded in the county, including mortgages, deeds, and other instruments. If the owner has a common name, switch to an address or APN search when the portal allows it.
The search results show a document index — recording date, document type, and party names. Some counties display scanned images of the full document for free. Others charge a few dollars per page to view or download a copy, and more for a certified copy. Fees vary by jurisdiction.
Older filings that have not been digitized still live at the office itself, on public terminals or microfilm. Staff can show you how the local system works, but they cannot give legal advice.
What the Recorded Mortgage Actually Shows
A recorded mortgage or deed of trust is a snapshot of the loan at the moment it was created. Expect to see:
- The full legal names of the borrower (mortgagor) and the lender (mortgagee).
- The original loan amount — the principal at closing, not the current balance.
- The date the borrower signed.
- The maturity date under the original terms.
- The legal description of the property pledged as collateral.
Roughly half of U.S. states primarily use a deed of trust rather than a traditional mortgage. A deed of trust involves three parties instead of two: the borrower, the lender, and a neutral trustee who holds legal title as security until the loan is paid. Both instruments do the same job and both appear in the recorder’s index, so the document you find may carry either label depending on the state.
What Public Records Do Not Show
The filing captures original terms, not what has happened since. Payments between borrower and lender are private and never touch the county file, so the current outstanding balance cannot be pulled from public records. The interest rate on the document is the original rate, which may have changed through refinancing or an adjustable-rate reset.
If you need the current payoff on your own loan, log into your servicer’s portal or check the monthly statement. For a property you do not own, the current balance is generally not available without the borrower’s authorization.
Finding the Current Servicer When MERS Is Listed
Mortgages are sold between financial institutions all the time. When a loan changes hands, the new owner is supposed to record an Assignment of Mortgage with the county. In practice, millions of loans are tracked through the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems (MERS) instead. MERS acts as a nominee for lenders in the land records, so MERS may appear as the named mortgagee on the recorded document even though a different company owns the loan.
If MERS is listed and you want to know who currently services or owns the loan, use the free MERS ServicerID tool. It is available on the MERS website or by phone at (888) 679-6377. Search by property address or by the Mortgage Identification Number (MIN) printed on the original mortgage. ServicerID returns the current loan servicer, and after identity verification it will return the investor who owns the note.1MERSINC. Find Your Servicer with MERS ServicerID
ServicerID is built for borrowers and their authorized representatives. If you are researching a property you do not own, the tool may not release investor information without the borrower’s consent.1MERSINC. Find Your Servicer with MERS ServicerID
Related Filings That Complete the Picture
A mortgage rarely stands alone in the record. Other instruments show what has happened to the loan since it was originated, and they can matter as much as the mortgage itself.
- Assignment of Mortgage: filed when the loan is sold to a new lender or investor. A chain of assignments shows every entity that has held the loan.
- Satisfaction of Mortgage, sometimes called a Release of Lien: filed after the loan is paid in full. It confirms the property is no longer encumbered by that mortgage.
- Modification agreement: filed when borrower and lender change the original terms, such as the rate or repayment period.
- Subordination agreement: filed when lienholders agree to reorder the priority of their claims.
If no satisfaction has been recorded, the lien is presumed to still be active against the property, even if it was actually paid off years ago. A borrower who paid off a loan and cannot find a recorded satisfaction should contact the lender and ask them to file one.
Foreclosure and Default Filings
When a borrower falls behind, additional documents may appear in the record. Which ones depend on whether the state uses judicial or nonjudicial foreclosure.
- Lis pendens: Latin for “suit pending,” recorded in the chain of title to alert buyers and lenders that litigation affecting the property is underway. It usually appears at the start of a judicial foreclosure.
- Notice of Default: in nonjudicial foreclosure states, recorded to provide public notice that the borrower has fallen behind. It typically includes the property address and legal description.
- Notice of Sale: recorded and published if the default is not cured, announcing the date and location of the foreclosure auction.
Any of these on a property you are considering buying is a serious warning sign. Talk to a real estate attorney before going further.
When to Hire a Title Search Company
Casual curiosity is one thing; a real estate transaction is another. A professional title search company or licensed abstractor will examine the full chain of title going back decades and identify every lien, easement, judgment, and ownership transfer on the property. The result is a title report or title commitment listing all active encumbrances.
Fees for residential properties generally run from about $75 to $400, depending on complexity and local market rates. Properties with frequent ownership changes, boundary disputes, or old unresolved liens cost more to research.
A title search and title insurance are separate products. The search is the research. Title insurance is a policy that pays out if the search missed something. Lenders almost always require a lender’s title policy as a condition of the mortgage. An owner’s policy is optional and widely recommended. Professional title companies also typically carry errors and omissions insurance of their own, which offers another layer of protection if a recorded lien slips through.