Land records are a starting point for assessment, property tax and real estate valuation updates. A significant portion of the duties performed by other county officials is dependent on the work performed by the County Recorder. Instruments which may be recorded include: 

Affidavit
Assignment of mortgage
Bill of sale
Condemnation
Contract
Corner certificate
Deed
Easement
Federal tax lien
Land survey
Lease
Mortgage
Power of attorney
Release of mortgage
State tax lien
Trade name
And many miscellaneous documents

Managing our county’s official public records for property includes a dedication to making certain the records are accessible to the public.
In the past, searching was possible only by visiting the county recorder’s office and searching through large, leather-bound index books, interpreting entries made with typewriters or cursive handwriting (beautiful but often difficult to decipher) to determine which documents needed to be examined. Then documents could be viewed by locating them on microfilm or large books. 

Today, accessibility to the official public land records has changed significantly. You can still visit the recorder’s office where documents relevant to your search based on a wide range of search criteria can be viewed and printed with just the click of a button. 

In addition, the same level of access is available, at no charge, on-line. To search the computer index or scanned images, please go to www.iowalandrecords.org. Our indexing information and images from January 1993 to the present are available at the Iowa Land Records website. If you have not used the website, you will need to create a user name and password for access. Instructions can be found at the portal. Please call the office if you need copies of documents not available on-line.

The Washington County Recorder’s Office cannot provide legal services and cannot prepare legal documents.