How to check title before buying at a Lancaster County, PA sheriff sale

Before bidding at the Lancaster County sheriff sale, search the Lancaster County Recorder of Deeds for mortgages, liens and lis pendens on the property: the sale list says what the Lancaster County Sheriff's Office, Real Estate Unit is selling, not what is recorded against it. A HeritageDeed report does this for one address in Lancaster County: $49, usually within minutes, with the source of every finding.

Search a Lancaster County property, $49

Step by step in Lancaster County

1
Find the property on the list
The Lancaster County Sheriff's Office, Real Estate Unit publishes the sheriff's sales of real estate listing with each property's sale date and judgment.
2
Search what is recorded
Search the Lancaster County Recorder of Deeds for mortgages, liens and lis pendens against the property and its owner.
3
Know what survives the sale
Check which liens the sale clears and which stay with the property.
4
Or order the report
A HeritageDeed report runs these searches for one Lancaster County address and lists every finding with its source, $49, usually within minutes.

What Lancaster County records show

Deeds, mortgages and satisfactions are recorded with the Lancaster County Recorder of Deeds, whose records are certified from May 10, 1729.

In the Recorder's records a deed carries the parcel number; a mortgage usually names only the municipality and the street address.

Older satisfaction pieces cite the book and page of the mortgage they satisfy; those recorded since about 2001 carry no such reference.

Federal and state tax liens and municipal liens are filed with the Prothonotary, not the Recorder of Deeds.

Lancaster County properties on the list now

85 properties with a street address are on the sheriff's sales of real estate listing for upcoming sales, the next on Nov 25, 2026. Each has its own page with the sale facts and a title check:

905 Prospect Street, Lancaster, PA 17603Nov 25, 2026
233 East High Street, Elizabethtown, PA 17022Nov 25, 2026
325 North Second Street, Columbia, PA 17512Nov 25, 2026
1541 Hiemenz Rd, Lancaster, PA 17601Nov 25, 2026
258 W Main St, Reinholds, PA 17569Nov 25, 2026
527 W Chestnut St, Lancaster, PA 17603Nov 25, 2026
106 Little Hill, Lancaster, PA 17602Nov 25, 2026
849 Hilton Drive, Lancaster, PA 17603Nov 25, 2026

The whole list: Lancaster County sheriff's sales of real estate listing.

A real Lancaster County report

We ran this search on the Lancaster County Courthouse (50 N Duke St, Lancaster, PA 17602): 0 deeds, 0 open mortgages, 0 recorded liens. See the Lancaster County sample report.

What the report checks in Lancaster County

Owner of record, situs address, municipality and assessed value from the county's tax parcel records
Deeds, mortgages, satisfactions and assignments recorded with the Recorder of Deeds, tied to the property by parcel number or street address

Not covered here

Judgments and the tax and municipal liens filed with the Prothonotary are not searched.
Where a satisfaction cannot be tied to its mortgage by a reference, the report says when a pairing is not certain.
Loan amounts are not shown, and delinquent property taxes are not searched.

Questions

Are judgments recorded with the Lancaster County Recorder of Deeds in Lancaster County?

Judgments and the tax and municipal liens filed with the Prothonotary are not searched.

What does a HeritageDeed search in Lancaster County not cover?

Judgments and the tax and municipal liens filed with the Prothonotary are not searched.

Is this title insurance?

No. It is a search of the public record for one Lancaster County property. A lender closing a loan will still require a title insurance commitment from a licensed insurer.

More about Lancaster County property records

Check the title of a Lancaster County property

AI title search, $49 per report. Usually ready in about a minute. Full refund if we can't deliver.

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