by Nicholas Hamner
Investment Advisor Representative
[email protected]
I live in a decent neighborhood, but you wouldn’t know it by the stores surrounding it. To get to my neighborhood you have to drive past a strip club, a pawn shop, a scrap gold/payday loan place, and two “independent pharmacies”. Undoubtedly the worst business in the area, however, is the produce market that is full of knockoffs and fakes of the latest fads. Remember those metal fold-out Razer scooters all the kids had to have 15 years ago? They had the Fazer scooters ready to go at Christmas. When COVID had everyone looking for then-hard-to-find N95 masks, they had ample supply of I-95 masks… that looked awfully similar to paper towels with rubber bands on them. A year ago, you could get all manner of MAAG hats, flags, torches, armbands, and t-shirts there. Currently, they’re selling knockoff Labubu dolls which may in fact be the worst thing they’ve ever sold. And that’s saying something.
Even if you don’t have a produce shop in your area, we are all surrounded by fraud—knockoff retailers, mislabeled food in the supermarkets, politicians on TV—and if the fear-mongering commercials on TV are accurate, even in our homes. Ever heard of title fraud? Or deed fraud? If you haven’t, rest assured a commercial will come along soon enough to terrify you about it.
What is title fraud or deed fraud? It’s a form of identity theft where someone forges documents and either takes out mortgages on properties you own OR outright steals your home out from under you. To hear the commercials, this is a rampant crime that can happen to anyone. In truth, it’s much more limited and nuanced than that. This is a crime of opportunity, and thankfully the opportunities are limited.
What actually happens in title fraud is first, a criminal identifies a property or properties that are neglected. A poorly visited vacation home, a house with overgrown shrubs and weeds, or a house with structural issues indicative of neglect or abandonment are prime examples of what they look for. They then look up the rightful owners using publicly available databases. Owner information identified, the criminal forges documents to suggest that they are the owner of the property. From there, they either take out numerous loans and mortgages on the property with different banks or they transfer title to the property and then sell it or lease it to multiple parties. The end goal is financial gain for the scammers off of properties they do not legally own.
How can you protect yourself?
- Maintain your properties. Primarily, these criminals are targeting properties that look neglected or poorly managed. Don’t make your properties look like that. Inherit land from a distant relative in a state you don’t visit? Start visiting it, or sell it. Have a rental property? Keep an eye on it. The best way to not be a target is to not make yourself a target.
- Monitor your properties. Nearly every state and county has a property records system online that allows you to see all transactions on the property. Get familiar with how they work and keep tabs on your properties!
- Bucks County – https://www.buckscountyboa.org/search/commonsearch.aspx?mode=address
- Chester County – https://www.chesco.org/431/Records-Search
- Delaware County – http://delcorealestate.co.delaware.pa.us/pt/search/commonsearch.aspx?mode=address
- Montgomery County – https://propertyrecords.montcopa.org/pt/search/commonsearch.aspx?mode=address
- Philadelphia – https://property.phila.gov/
Unfortunately, New Jersey’s property records searches are more complicated, but you can still monitor them for transactions:
- Atlantic County – https://atlantic.newvisionsystems.com/or_web1/
- Cape May County – https://clerk.capemaycountynj.gov/publicsearch/
- Monmouth County – https://oprs.co.monmouth.nj.us/oprs/clerk/clerkhome.aspx?op=basic
- Ocean County – https://sng.co.ocean.nj.us/publicsearch/
- Report suspicious behavior. If you suspect any illegal activity is happening with your property records:
- Report the activity to the county’s Recorder of Deeds office. If you live in Bucks but have a vacation home in Cape May, you’ll want to report it to the Cape May County Recorder of Deeds.
- Contact the local police department for the property and file a report.
- Contact the state’s attorney general and file an identity theft report. Pennsylvania’s is here: https://www.attorneygeneral.gov/submit-a-complaint/.
- Contact the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint department here: https://www.ic3.gov/
- Contact a local real estate attorney and at least have them ready should the first four measures not be enough. You may have to fight to reverse the criminal transactions.
One thing you might be encouraged to do is purchase one of the heavily advertised title theft prevention services like Home Title Lock. They’ll charge you around $20 a month per property to monitor your title and alert you to any changes. That would help 1) if the fraudster was attempting to steal your home outright and 2) you can’t be bothered to monitor your home’s title on your own. It won’t help if someone forges documents to take out multiple mortgages.
Here’s the kicker with all of this. You might have to do all the legal legwork, but you are not responsible for any damages should someone commit fraud using your property. On any property transfers, the county clerks and officials have the responsibility to verify the information is correct. On mortgages and loans, the responsibility is on the banks to verify the information is correct. These services and alerts are being promoted by officials as an attempt to offload that liability. I’m not writing about this to be alarmist. For a well-maintained, managed property the chances of this occurring are slim. Most of the hype is being generated by companies trying to offload liability or sell their (arguably needless) monitoring services. But… in the event this does happen to you, keep this article stored away and ready to reference should the worst happen.