Title professionals always say consumers “don’t know what we do.” Well, how about consumers skip that step and start doing “what we do?” PropertyInfo Corp.’s latest consumer-facing technology gives homeowners a little taste of a title search while helping to prevent fraud.
PropertyInfo Corp.’s FraudSleuth empowers property owners to do simple name searches in a county database to find liens that may be placed against their property. The Doña Ana County Clerk’s Office in New Mexico was the most recent county — and first west of the Mississippi river — to install the software on its website. The software is meant to protect residents against fraudulent liens.
“With the increase in fraud nationwide, I believe more and more counties will soon offer software of this nature,” said Lynn Ellins, county clerk of Doña Ana County. “We’re pleased to be the first among all western states to offer it to the residents of Doña Ana County.”
Ellins noted that a mechanic’s lien can be placed on any real property in the state of New Mexico without notification to the property owner, which then adversely affects the owner’s ability to refinance or sell the property. Users can conduct simple searches in FraudSleuth to review all activity under their name, and if suspicious activity is found, they can contact the county to request an additional investigation.
“We were able to procure the FraudSleuth software at no cost, as part of our comprehensive PropertyInfo’s eRecording system, CountyFusion, and we implemented it on our website, immediately offering a new service to our constituents,” she said. “We plan to enhance the system later this year to allow property owners to register their email addresses with the county, so that if any document is filed in the Clerk’s Office with the name of a registered user on it, the affected person will receive immediate notification.”
Access to the software and a tutorial for its use is available on the Doña Ana County Clerk’s Office web page at http://donaanacounty.org/clerk/docs.
PropertyInfo Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Stewart Title Co.