A new data tool that uses machine learning to comb through and link public records will make it harder to conceal the true ownership of a property by registering it to a legal entity like an LLC, trust or holding company.
Transparent Owner, a data tool announced Tuesday by property data and analytics provider ATTOM, resolves owner identities across counties and legal entities using “geographic, linguistic, and behavioral signals,” assigning unique owner IDs to each owner, “regardless of how their name appears in different records.”
Todd Teta
“Property ownership has gotten more complex, and public records do not always tell the full story,” ATTOM Chief Product and Technology Officer Todd Teta said, in a statement. “Transparent Owner helps our clients cut through that complexity and see the real picture, whether they are vetting a deal, analyzing portfolios, or building compliance checks.”
The tool is becoming available as the government is poised to launch an initiative to crack down on money laundering in residential real estate.
Starting March 1, 2026 homes that are sold to or transferred to an entity like a limited liability company (LLC) without a mortgage must be reported to the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).
Because there’s no financial institution involved in such deals, they “can be and have been exploited by illicit actors of all varieties,” including fraudsters, organized crime, international drug cartels, human traffickers and corrupt political or business figures, FinCEN said in publishing the new regulations last year.
The Biden administration had scheduled the new reporting requirements to take effect on Dec. 1, a deadline that FinCEN pushed back by 3 months on Tuesday, saying it wanted to provide the real estate industry with more time to comply.
When they take effect next year, the regulations will require closing or settlement agents to report the “unique identifying numbers of entities and individuals” involved in such deals to FinCEN — including taxpayer identification numbers (TINs), social security numbers, or Employer Identification Number (EINs).
Real estate professionals can designate a specific professional to be responsible for reporting, the National Association of Realtors said in a member bulletin.
“FinCEN explained that it expects reports to be filed primarily by settlement agents, title agents, insurance agents, or attorneys,” NAR said. “However real estate agents are not explicitly exempt from reporting under the rule.”
The Bank Secrecy Act requires financial institutions to keep records and file reports that “are highly useful in criminal, tax, or regulatory investigations or proceedings” or in the conduct of “intelligence or counterintelligence activities, including analysis, to protect against international terrorism,” FinCEN said.
The new reporting requirements for non-financed transfers of properties to legal entities and trusts closes a loophole that’s been used for financial crimes, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said last year in joining a coalition of 25 attorney generals in support of the regulations.
The new reporting requirements will give federal, state, and local law enforcement access “to more information about suspicious real estate transactions more efficiently from a single source,” the state attorney generals said, and “aide law enforcement personnel in identifying suspicious real estate transactions on a national basis that may otherwise remain undetected.”
For nearly a decade, FinCEN has used Geographic Targeting Orders (GTOs) to require title insurance companies in certain counties and metro areas in 13 states and Washington, D.C. to identify the actual people behind shell companies used in non-financed residential real estate deals.
FinCEN’s GTOs “have effectively aided law enforcement since 2016 by generating investigative leads, identifying assets, and supporting prosecutions,” and the new regulations will ensure that all states benefit from such data, the attorney generals said.
The GTOs “appear to have additionally had a deterrent effect on money laundering in real estate — an effect that will be magnified by the proposed regulations.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect that FinCEN has postponed reporting requirements of the Anti-Money Laundering Regulations for Residential Real Estate Transfers Rule (RRE Rule) until March 1, 2026.
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