How to check who owns that property you are looking to rent or buy

Imagine this, you are looking to rent or purchase a house or property.

You have looked over photos, dug deep into all the information about the property you can find, and you have determined this is the one for you.

But then, disaster strikes. You are contacted by an individual claiming to own the property and saying you can pay him to have the place. Believing the individual to be telling the truth, you pay him through Zelle and believe you will now have what you have been wanting.

This was the case for a man in Houston. Instead of receiving the property, the man is informed he had been deceived and had just paid a ton of money to a fraud who doesn’t actually own the place.

Fraud like this can be devastating to people, who may now not only be out thousands of dollars, but out a place to live as well.

One of the first steps people should take before ever agreeing to pay individuals is finding out who actually owns the property in question. Every county in Texas has an appraisal district, but for this case, we are going to show you how to figure out who owns property in Harris County.

1. Go to the Harris County Appraisal District website
2. In the bar located at the top of the website home page, click property search.
3. Make sure you know how to use the search feature. It isn’t always as simple as it looks. Thankfully, the website has a page which gives instructions on how to use the search feature.
4. You can search for the property by address, owner name, business name, or account number.
5. Once you have the property pulled up, there is a section where you can find the name of the owner or owners.

Don’t worry if you don’t live in Harris County. Most counties around the Houston area have a very similar process for checking property ownership.

This step may not completely prevent fraud from happening, but it can drastically reduce the chances of people falling victim to this kind of scam.