Methodology
How DeedGraph names the owner.
Every dossier ends in a name, a confidence level, and a stack of citations. This page explains how we get there: which records we start from, how the joins work, and what the AI layer is allowed to add.
Step one
Start at the deed.
Ownership research in NYC starts with ACRIS, the city’s register of deeds and mortgages. The deed names a grantee. For most commercial buildings that grantee is an LLC, and the LLC name on its own tells you nothing. What the filing does carry is structure: party names, signatories, addresses, and the exact document the transfer rode in on. We index all of it, for roughly 859,000 buildings across the five boroughs.
Step two
Cross-referencing what the record says.
From the LLC we cross-reference outward across public filings that were never designed to be read together. When the same human signs in two places, the chain extends.
NY Department of State
Corporate filings name LLC officers and registered agents. When the agent address on a shell matches the office that signed the deed, the chain extends.
HPD registrations
Residential buildings must register a managing agent and officers with the city. Those are real names, filed under penalty, and they recur across portfolios.
NYS tax warrants
State tax warrants name debtors directly. A warrant against an LLC principal ties the entity to the person, and tells you something about the building too.
DOB permits and violations
Permit applications carry applicant and owner names. A facade filing signed by the same engineer across six LLCs is a portfolio talking.
A link either holds on the record or it doesn’t ship. We don’t score a probable match and present it as a fact, which is the standard move in tools that predict a “true owner”. Each link in the chain cites the exact source row it came from, so you can audit the whole path yourself.
Step three
What the AI layer adds.
Public records stop at the state line and say nothing about intent. So once the record chain is built, we read the open web around the subject: trade press, court records, company sites. That layer corroborates the name, attaches context such as a recent refinance or a default notice, and flags anything that contradicts the record. The rule is the same as everywhere else in the product: a claim without a citation doesn’t ship. A reliability pass then re-reads the finished dossier and strips anything that overstates what the sources support.
Data status
How fresh the data is.
DOB permits, HPD violations, and NYS tax warrants refresh daily. DOB violations and FISP refresh on weekdays. HPD registrations, ACRIS, and DOS officer records refresh monthly. PLUTO, DOF assessments, and energy filings follow the city’s slower publication schedules. Building pages show available as-of dates so you can judge the age of the records behind a claim before you act. The full list of feeds lives on the data sources page.
Our promise on ownership
A name, or a clear reason there isn’t one.
When an entity is a deliberate shell, or the chain runs through a Delaware holding company the public record can’t pierce, the dossier says so plainly instead of guessing. You always know which case you’re looking at. The edges of our coverage are documented on the limits page.
Audit it yourself.
Run a dossier on a building you already know. Every claim links to its source row, so you can check our work line by line.