County will flag land filings amid concerns about "home title theft"

How it works: The Property Check system lets residents create an account and add properties to "watch."

• When a document tied to that property's legal description enters the recorder's indexing system, the system automatically sends an alert.

Reality check: The tool does not prevent fraud, and by the time you get an alert, it may already be too late.

Yes, but: Haggerty says home title theft attempts are far less common than some advertisements suggest, noting that she's not aware of any in her nearly two decades as Polk's recorder.

• If it does occur, the notifications could help remedy the situation more quickly, since most people do not regularly check updates to their land titles, she said.

The big picture: Many paid plans are essentially monitoring and alert systems that can't stop someone from filing a document, WHO-13 found in a recent consumer story.

By the numbers: Some plans cost around $20 a month but also offer up to $1 million in restoration coverage if fraud occurs.

The bottom line: Residents don't have to pay for Polk's service.