Free county checker

Find your county's free deed alert

Hundreds of county recorders and clerks run a free service that notifies you when a document is recorded in your name — a deed, a lien, a mortgage. It is the same notification the subscription companies sell, except the county charges $0. The catch has never been the service. The catch is that every county names it differently and posts it somewhere different. This checker pulls it together.

How to read your result

“Free alert available”

Your county runs an opt-in alert. Use the official signup button in your result — it goes straight to the county's or the county's platform's page. Signup takes a few minutes and costs nothing. Then enroll every version of your name, not just the one you sign with.

“Mail notice only”

This is California. State law (SB 255) makes your recorder mail you a notice after certain documents are recorded — there is no email alert and nothing to sign up for. It is real, but it is slow, which is why the deed self-check routine matters in California. Read the California guide.

“No alert” or “not yet verified”

Either your county has no free alert (some genuinely don't), or we have not finished verifying it against the county's own source yet. We would rather say “not yet” than guess — a wrong signup link helps nobody. The deed self-check is your working protection in the meantime.

Three things every homeowner gets wrong about these alerts

The name has to match exactly. Alerts fire on the name as recorded. Clerks themselves advise registering every variation — maiden names, middle names and initials, a spouse's name, the name of your trust. Miss a variation, miss the alert. Our name-variation guide walks through it.
One signup covers one county. A second home, a rental, or inherited land in another county means a second enrollment on a different website. Snowbirds routinely need two states' systems.
An alert is a starting bell, not a verdict. Name-based systems also fire for other people who share your name. When one arrives, you have to pull the document and judge it yourself — the county will not do it for you. Here is what to do when an alert fires.

The alert is free. Getting it set up right is the work.

The DeedWatch Setup Kit contains the step-by-step enrollment walkthroughs for the services in this checker, the name-variant worksheet, the multi-property tracking sheet, the deed self-check walkthrough, and the first-72-hours playbook for the day an alert fires. One payment, every property you own.

Get the Setup Kit — $39, one-time