Created by the Iowa County Recorders Association in 2004, Iowa Land Records was designed to centralize and digitize records throughout the state.

Webster County Recorder Lindsay Laufersweiler has served on the Iowa Land Records governing board since 2017, and recently made a presentation about the initiative to the Webster County Board of Supervisors, focusing specifically on the status and future of digital land records in Iowa.

According to Laufersweiler, the success of Iowa Land Records relies on relationships between county recorders and multiple service providers who utilize the digital records often, including law firms, utilities, governmental organizations, surveyors, banks and credit unions, abstract companies, and more. These service providers electronically submit documents to Iowa Land Records and they are then reviewed by the county recorder’s office and are either approved or declined for submission. Once approved, they are recorded and indexed by the county and then are publicly available on Iowa Land Records. More than four million searches are done each year on the website.

“It’s fast and convenient and cost effective,” said Laufersweiler. “Registered users can submit documents for recording from the comfort of their own home or office. There is no waiting for the mail, trips to the courthouse, etc. If a document has to be rejected for any reason, it is usually a quick back and forth process. Time is money. A $3 surcharge is all it costs to electronically record a document, in addition to recording fees.”

Iowa Land Records recently released a survey to service providers throughout Iowa focusing on prioritizing updates including recording fees, search application, and electronic submission applications.

“The survey was completed by attorneys, abstractors, surveyors, engineers, lenders, bankers, realtors, and other stakeholders,” said Laufersweiler. “Each of us cannot do our jobs without the other. These are the people using the system and their feedback matters. This helps capture users’ needs as well as helps to identify improvements and enhancements that may need to be done in the future.”

A major focus of the survey response, said Laufersweiler, during her presentation to the Webster County Board of Supervisors, was considering a future fee increase for Iowa Land Records submissions.

“Recording fees have not been raised since 1985 in the State of Iowa,” said Laufersweiler. “This is the cost associated with the recording of a document. The cost of a stamp has tripled during that time, just to put it into perspective.”

Seventy-nine percent of service provider respondents said they would support an increased recording fee and 83 percent said they believe an increase in the recording fee would be a good investment.

“Iowa Land Records are affected by the state of the economy and high inflation because it directly impacts the real estate market, which then affects the number of documents recorded,” she said. “Our operating costs and other expenses don’t go away, causing tight budgets. This too affects completion of tasks that require resources.”

The survey and annual report also focused on technological advancements for more efficient and secure recording processes, expanding online records to include historical property records dating back to 1980, and digitizing and indexing historical surveys, corner certificates, and other property drawings.

Laufersweiler said the Iowa Land Records board is also prioritizing the creation of a property alert system to notify citizens when documents for their properties have been recorded as property fraud is increasing nationwide.

“I’m excited for the future as we work towards our modernization initiative,” said Laufersweiler.

The Iowa Land Records annual report is available online at IowaLandRecords.org.