Iowa Counties Access Land Records Online

The Iowa Land Records (CLRIS), a county land records information system operated by the Iowa
County Recorders Association, announced the successful integration of an electronic document recording system with the state-wide portal that will enable submission of electronic real estate documents in all Iowa counties.

With this implementation, Iowa County Recorders and their customers will realize savings in time and costs – what used to take days or weeks with paper is now done in seconds.

Now all of Iowa’s counties can electronically receive lien releases and assignments from national, regional and local submitters. With Ingeo’s Electronic Document Recording System, Iowa’s County Recorders have access to a majority of the national submitters including six of the top ten and most of the top 30 lending institutions in the U.S. This is in addition to regional submitters in counties where Ingeo has already enabled electronic recording.

“We’re looking forward to phase two of the project,” Karl Klessig, Ingeo's CEO. said. “This will expand the capabilities to allow counties to receive mortgage closing documents electronically.”

Joyce Jensen, President of the Iowa County Recorders Association, and Chair of the committee that oversees the Iowa Land Records system, explained that this one system provides total integration with all 99 of Iowa’s counties.

“As anyone in the real estate industry knows, county recording systems and practices may vary significantly. Developing the Iowa Land Records Portal and electronic submission service enabled significant progress in the adoption of standards that allow all the counties to work together,” she said. “Now, every county in Iowa will be able to receive, validate and
record electronic real estate documents without ever touching a piece of paper. Iowa County Recorders own the software and equipment used to operate the system, and that made it possible for all the Recorders and their local
service providers to make this happen.”

The portal integrates with the local county land records management systems to enable the recording of documents submitted electronically by organizations such as Ingeo. Phil Dunshee, Project Manager and Administrator for the Iowa Land Records system, and Jared Baker, Project Manager for ABC Virtual Communications, which hosts and operates the portal, agree that the statewide portal model makes sense for the future of electronic recording. “With a statewide portal, submitters have a single entry point to electronically submit documents in every county within the state,” said Dunshee.

The Iowa Land Records system provides the bridge between county systems and document submitters including Ingeo and their customers. The Iowa Land Records system and the integration tools used to connect with Ingeo are based on standards being developed by the Property Records Industry Association (PRIA) and the Mortgage Industry Standards Maintenance Organization (MISMO).