Guide for probate law firms
How do you find out what property a deceased person owned?
By the U.S. Title Research team. Updated 2026-11-06. General information, not legal advice.
You find a deceased person's real property by searching the land records of every county where they may have owned it: the recorder's grantor and grantee indexes under every name they used, then the assessor's roll and the tax collector's accounts. Each hit is confirmed against the recorded deed, and every lead to another county is followed.
Where is the record of who owns a house kept?
Ownership of real property is recorded locally, in most states by the recorder, register of deeds or county clerk for the county where the land sits. There is no national register of who owns what. Each office keeps its own index, so a person who owned property in three counties appears in three separate record systems.
Three local offices hold the pieces. The recorder holds the deeds, mortgages, liens and releases: the legal record of title. The assessor keeps the parcel roll, which lists each parcel with its current owner of record, parcel number, legal description and the mailing address for the tax bill. The tax collector or treasurer keeps the tax accounts, which show who is billed and whether the taxes are paid. Each answers a different question, and each has its own index and its own spelling of the owner's name.
That is why finding a decedent's property is three searches rather than one. The recorder's index is the record of title. The assessor and tax rolls are built from it but can lag behind it or carry a different version of the name, so a parcel missed in one office is often caught in another.
How do you search the recorder's index by name?
You search the grantee index for every deed that conveyed property to the decedent and the grantor index for every deed by which they conveyed it away, under every name they used. The deeds in, minus the deeds out, are the properties that may have been in their name at death, and each is confirmed by reading the recorded instrument.
The name list is where most misses happen. A thorough search runs every one of these:
- The maiden name and every prior married name.
- The name with and without a middle name or initial, and with the first and middle names reversed.
- Nicknames and formal names, such as Bill and William, and anglicized or original spellings of a family name.
- Suffixes such as Jr. and Sr., which some indexes drop and others file separately.
- Misspellings and transposed letters introduced when the clerk indexed the document.
- The name as a trustee, as in Jane Doe, trustee, and the name as a second grantee where an older index lists only the first.
- Any business or trust name the decedent used to hold property.
Many counties have digitized only part of their index. Older deeds may sit in bound grantor and grantee books, on microfilm or in a separate index that the online search does not reach, so a name search that stops at the county website stops short of the record.
What do assessor and tax records add?
The assessor's roll lists every parcel in the county with its current owner of record, parcel number, legal description and the mailing address for the tax bill, and the tax collector's account shows who has been paying and whether the taxes are current. Together they catch parcels the name index missed and point to addresses in other places.
The assessor finds what the recorder's name index can miss because it is organized by parcel, with the owner as the assessor currently carries it. That includes land the decedent inherited from their own parent and never re-deeded, parcels acquired long ago under an index that was never digitized, and partial or mineral interests that some counties carry on a separate roll.
The tax account adds two things. It shows whether taxes are delinquent and whether a tax sale is pending, which the estate has to know at once. And it shows where the bill was mailed. When the mailing address is a house in another county or another state, that address is the next place to search.
How do you follow the trail to another county?
You follow the trail by reading every recorded document for addresses and references that point elsewhere: the mailing address on a deed or tax bill, a mortgage that describes other collateral, a release recorded in one county for a loan on land in another, or a deed out that recites a new address. Each lead opens a search there.
Other leads come from the decedent's life rather than the record. The counties where they lived, worked, retired or kept a vacation property each get a search. A divorce decree or an earlier estate may have awarded them land that was never re-deeded. A power of attorney, a trust or a mortgage recorded in one county may describe property in another. The probate file of the decedent's own parents or spouse can list property that is still in that earlier name, with the decedent as an heir who never recorded anything.
Every lead has to be run in that county's own index, with the same full list of names, because nothing links the counties together. The trail stops when the leads stop, and the report states exactly which counties it reached.
Why can no search prove that a decedent owned nothing else?
A search can show what was found where it looked; it cannot show that nothing exists anywhere else. Property may be held under a name variant nobody knew, in a county nobody named, in a trust or company name, or under an index entry the clerk misspelled. A complete search states its scope so the reader knows what was covered.
- Every county is a separate system, and a county that was never named was never searched.
- Index errors: a transposed letter or a dropped suffix files the deed where a name search will not find it.
- Recording lag: a document delivered to the recorder can take time to appear in the public index.
- Unrecorded deeds: a deed signed and delivered but never recorded binds the parties to it and appears in no index.
- Entity and trust names that hide the personal name entirely.
- Fractional, mineral and timber interests carried on separate rolls in some counties.
- Older records that were never digitized and are reached only in the books.
This is why a careful report never says the decedent owned nothing else. It says which counties were searched, which indexes and years, which names, and what was found. The inventory an attorney files can then say the same thing honestly.
What do you need before the search starts?
You need the decedent's full legal name and every prior name, the date of death, the places they lived and any county or state where they might have owned property, plus any address, parcel number or old deed the family already has. A name and one county is enough to start; everything else narrows the search.
The family's papers usually hold more than they realize. Old property tax bills, mortgage or loan statements, homeowners association notices and letters from an assessor or county office each name a parcel or a county. A deed found in a drawer gives the legal description and the recording reference, which takes the search straight to the right book and page.
The probate title research package runs this search for $595 per estate, with the first property included and each additional property at $395. The order form asks for the names, the counties and the date of death, and the report comes back in 1 to 3+ days, depending on the county and the complexity of the records, with the deed images attached.
What does the report show once a property is found?
For each property found, the report shows the vesting quoted from the recorded deed, the deed image, the chain of title as far back as the county's records go, and each mortgage, lien, judgment and tax balance of record, verified with the recorder, assessor, tax office and courts. A plain-language summary explains what it means and what to do next.
Vesting is the first line to read, because it decides whether the property is in the estate at all. Our guide on what happens to a house when someone dies without a will explains why a joint tenancy with right of survivorship or a transfer-on-death deed takes a property outside probate while a sole-name deed puts it in.
Finding the property is research; deciding what it means for the estate is law. The report states which counties and indexes were searched and what the record shows. The conclusions about who inherits, whether a probate is needed and what has to be paid belong to a licensed attorney in the state where the property sits, working from the record the report puts in front of them.
When you need the record, not just the explanation: the probate law firm package researches the property, verifies the findings with the county and explains what to do next, in 1 to 3+ days.
Questions people ask
Is there a national database that shows everything a person owned?
No. Real property ownership is recorded locally, county by county in most states, and each office keeps its own index with its own spelling of the owner's name. The only way to confirm what a decedent owned is to search each county's own indexes under every name they used and read the recorded deeds. A search that stops at one county, or at one spelling of the name, has not answered the question.
Can you find property with only a name?
Yes. A full name and at least one county or state to start in is enough. The search runs under every variant of the name, including maiden and prior names, in the recorder's indexes and the assessor and tax rolls, and follows any lead to other counties. More detail, such as a date of death, a last address or an old tax bill, shortens the work and narrows the results to the right person.
What if the property was held in a trust or a company name?
Then the decedent's personal name may not appear on the current deed at all. The search covers the trust or entity name when it is known, and a deed into a trust or company recorded under the decedent's name as grantor is itself a lead. When the entity name is not known, the report says so, because property held that way can sit outside a name search entirely. The assessor's mailing address often connects the two.
How far back does the search go?
The chain of title is traced as far back as the county's records go, and the name search covers the whole period the indexes are available for, not only the years the decedent lived in the county. A deed recorded decades ago can still be the current deed if the property was never conveyed again, which is common with inherited land and with parcels a family has held for generations.
Is anyone contacted during the search?
No one connected to the estate is contacted. Findings are verified directly with the county offices that hold the records, the recorder, assessor, tax office and courts, but no heir, co-owner, lender, tenant or neighbor is told that a search is being made. Every order is confidential, and the report is delivered only to the ordering email address, with the order number rather than the decedent's name in the subject line.
How much does it cost to find out what a deceased person owned?
The probate title research package is $595 per estate, which covers the name search across the counties you give us and the full report on the first property found. Each additional property in the same estate is $395. Turnaround is 1 to 3+ days, depending on the county and the complexity of the records, and questions after delivery are answered free, in writing.