The CFPB found that in contract-for-deed transactions, contracts are often unrecorded. That single word carries most of the risk in this instrument.
What recording actually does
County land records are a public ledger of who has what claim on every parcel. When a document is recorded, it becomes notice to the world. Anyone who later searches that parcel — a buyer, a lender, a title company, a judgment creditor — sees it.
That visibility is the entire protection. Recording does not make your contract more valid between you and the seller. It makes your claim enforceable against third parties who had no idea you existed.
What can happen when nothing is recorded
- The seller borrows against the land. A lender searches title, sees a clean parcel owned by the seller, and records a mortgage. That mortgage may now sit ahead of your interest.
- The seller sells it again. In most states, a buyer who purchases in good faith without notice of your claim can take title ahead of you. Your remedy becomes suing a seller who has already spent the money.
- A creditor attaches it. A judgment against the seller can become a lien on property they still hold in their own name.
- The seller dies. The parcel goes into their estate as an asset. You are now explaining your unrecorded agreement to heirs, an executor and possibly a probate judge.
- You cannot prove your position. Everything rests on paper in a drawer, and on the other party's cooperation.
How to check, in about fifteen minutes
You do not need a lawyer or a title company to do this, and you should do it whether you are buying from us or anyone else.
- Get the parcel number. The APN or assessor's parcel number should be on every document you have been given. If a seller cannot produce one, stop there.
- Find the county recorder, clerk or register of deeds for the county the land sits in. Most have an online search. Many counties in Arizona, Florida and Texas have had searchable records online for years.
- Search by parcel number, and by the seller's name as grantor. Name searches often catch documents a parcel search misses.
- Read what comes back. You are looking for the current owner of record, any mortgages or deeds of trust, any liens or judgments, any easements, and your own document if it should have been recorded.
- Call the office if the site is poor. County recording staff answer this question constantly and are generally helpful. Ask: "Is there anything recorded on parcel number X in the name of Y?"
What should be recorded, and when
In a deed-at-closing structure, two documents are recorded at the same time: the deed transferring the land to you, and the deed of trust or mortgage securing what you still owe. Both appear in the public record within days.
In a contract-for-deed structure, the contract itself, or a memorandum of it, can be recorded. Whether it must be varies by state. A seller who will not record a memorandum of your contract should be asked why, and the answer should be in writing.
A note on timing
Recording is not instant everywhere. Some counties post documents within a day; others take weeks to index. If you check a week after closing and find nothing, that is not automatically alarming — ask the title company for the recording receipt, which shows the document number and the date it was submitted.
What is alarming is a seller who cannot produce a recording receipt at all, or who becomes evasive about when it will happen.
The wider fraud this protects against
Checking the record also protects you from a scam that has nothing to do with financing. The California Department of Real Estate has warned about vacant-land fraud in which criminals search public records for unencumbered parcels, impersonate the owner — often targeting elderly or foreign owners — list below market, refuse to meet in person, insist on their own notary, and require funds wired. The FBI's Boston office has warned that quitclaim deed fraud is rising, and the National Association of Realtors has reported that vacant land is the most at-risk property type.
Vacant land is the preferred target precisely because nobody lives on it to notice. Confirming at the county that the person selling you the land is the person who owns it is the cheapest defence available.
General information, not legal advice. Recording rules and their effects vary by state.