A deed tells you who owns a property, when they bought it, and often what they paid. In New York City, that information is public, and you can pull it up for free with no account and no fee. The tool that holds it is called ACRIS.
This guide covers what ACRIS is, what a deed lookup shows you, and how to run a search.
ACRIS stands for the Automated City Register Information System, the official database run by the New York City Department of Finance. It holds the documents recorded with the City Register, and anyone can search it with no login and no per-search cost. It covers four boroughs, which are Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, with records going back to 1966. Staten Island is the one exception.
The deed is the headline document, but a search usually returns several recorded documents tied to the property. Here are the nyc property records you'll see most often:
| Document | What It Tells You |
|---|---|
| Deed | Current and prior owners, plus the sale price |
| Mortgage | Lender name, original loan amount, and date |
| Tax Lien | Unpaid property taxes recorded against the owner |
| Lis Pendens | A pending lawsuit involving the property, worth a closer look |
If liens are your main concern, our breakdown of how liens attach to real estate pairs well with what you'll find here.
The search is straightforward once you know the path.
Which type to pick depends on what you know. Address is the easiest starting point. The BBL, a property's permanent Borough-Block-Lot number, is the most reliable because it never changes even when an address does. A Party Name search finds every property tied to a person or LLC. If an address search returns messy results, switch to the BBL, found on the property's tax bill or the NYC Property Information Portal.
ACRIS is genuinely useful, but it has a few blind spots. Knowing them up front keeps you from drawing the wrong conclusion.
For research that reaches beyond what's recorded, combine ACRIS with other public records research methods, since no single source covers everything.
For most people, a "NYC deed lookup" is the first step, not the last. ACRIS shows the recorded owner, but not a phone number or current mailing address, and it only covers four boroughs. DealMachine's property owner lookup tool pulls owner details the way ACRIS does, but it works across the country and connects directly to skip tracing so you can find verified owner information. If you're working a whole list and need to reach owners, that combination saves hours. For more on putting ownership data to work, see our look at finding off-market opportunities. Once you have that list ready, the next steps are contacting the owners and closing the deals. You can see how Rob Schimmenti found success in New York here: