The Complete Homeowner Fraud Protection Checklist for 2026

Why Every Homeowner Needs This Checklist

Real estate fraud can affect homeowners, renters, buyers, and investors. This checklist provides practical precautions, not a risk score or a guarantee against loss.

Part 1: Do This Now (Free, Takes 20 Minutes)

✅ Step 1: Check your deed at your county recorder

Use your county's official recorder and assessor websites. Investigate unfamiliar documents or names; trusts, entities, representatives, and indexing differences can explain mismatches. An exact name match does not authenticate a transaction.

✅ Step 2: Run a free Property Visibility Check on your property

Property Visibility Check offers an available public-record snapshot and a guided self-check. Coverage and freshness vary. It does not calculate equity, determine occupancy, authenticate ownership, or provide a complete title or lien search.

✅ Step 3: Verify your title insurance coverage

Find your owner's title insurance policy from when you purchased the home. Confirm it's an owner's policy (not just a lender's policy). Check whether it includes "post-policy forgery" coverage. If you can't find the policy, contact your title company and request a copy.

✅ Step 4: Secure your mail and watch for missing statements

If you stop receiving property tax bills, HOA statements, or mortgage statements, investigate immediately. Fraudsters redirect mail as part of deed fraud schemes to delay discovery. Set up USPS Informed Delivery to receive daily email previews of incoming mail.

Part 2: Set Up Ongoing Protection

✅ Step 5: Enroll in your county recorder's free document-alert program

Ask your county whether it offers free recording alerts. Follow its instructions for names, name variants, or property identifiers. Keep your contact details current and review any matched document. Alerts do not promise immediate delivery or complete detection and do not stop recordings.

✅ Step 6: Add a trusted second pair of eyes

Where your county program allows it, add a trusted family member, your attorney, or a property manager as a secondary notification recipient. This ensures alerts reach someone even if your own inbox is compromised.

✅ Step 7: Use the Verify Before You Wire™ tool for any transaction

An AI-assisted message review may suggest warning signs to investigate, but can miss fraud and flag legitimate messages. Do not submit unnecessary sensitive information. Independently verify the recipient and instructions before paying, whatever a scan says.

Part 3: If You're Buying a Home

✅ Step 8: Always verify wire instructions by phone

Call your title company or escrow officer at a trusted, independently obtained number, or verify in person. Do not use contact details in an unverified payment request.

✅ Step 9: Search the HFD Registry before you close

The HFD Registry contains submitted reports, not a complete or official fraud history. A match requires independent investigation; no match does not prove safety. It does not replace a title search.