No deed listed on Mass Registry of Deeds website (Cambridge: real estate, houses)

[Ninotchka P]

Why (how) would have a house have no information at all on the Mass Registry of Deeds website, not even a deed? Is there a way to "hide" that data from public view?

[CaseyB]

Which county are you looking at?

[Parsec]

I've wondered the same thing too. You can hide your name pretty easily behind a land trust, but the deed should still be public and will be titled to the trustee.

[Ninotchka P]

Middlesex South.

There are several houses in my neighborhood like this. No data at all listed.

[Parsec]

I'm assuming you did a property search by street and left the house # blank. Sometimes the street names are not entered correctly. Did you try leaving off the drive or street at the end? For example, for street name just enter "Pine" instead of "Pine St".

If it still doesn't show up, try a records search by person. Do a reverse address search in google to find your neighbor's name, then you can find them on the registry if you search by person and town. If that still doesn't work, then just give up and let it be. If you're a real big creep and can't let it go, then walk over to the registry in Cambridge and look it up in person.

[Ninotchka P]

Search was correct. I was actually just verifying some neighbors' names so don't need to pursue this further.

Was just curious about the lack of deed info, and was wondering if this was a known real estate trick (hiding the data).

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by Ninotchka P

Why (how) would have a house have no information at all on the Mass Registry of Deeds website, not even a deed? Is there a way to "hide" that data from public view?

Deeds are public information. There is no way to hide them. Either you're searching incorrectly or the deed is indexed on the site wrong. The registry websites I believe only go back so far though. So, the third possibility is that your neighbor has owned their house a LONG time and while the deed is on record at the registry it's not available on the website.

[johnrex62]

The property could be deeded under a street address or with a legal description depending on the locality. I knew of one property that was recorded as "The yellow house behind the Texaco Station". I could not understand how that owner ever allowed the house to be forclosed since it only required a coat of paint to invalidate the lien.

[MikePRU]

Originally Posted by johnrex62

The property could be deeded under a street address or with a legal description depending on the locality. I knew of one property that was recorded as "The yellow house behind the Texaco Station". I could not understand how that owner ever allowed the house to be forclosed since it only required a coat of paint to invalidate the lien.

The deeds are also indexed by the names of the grantor and grantee so you can look things up that way as well. That's a pretty funny story though.

[luvmyhoss]

Sometimes the street number you use is incorrect.