What is recording and why is it important in real estate?

Recording is the process of filing a deed or other legal document with the county recorder's office to provide public notice of the transfer or encumbrance. Recording protects the grantee by establishing priority over subsequent claims to the same property. Under recording statutes, an unrecorded deed is valid between the original parties but may lose priority to a later buyer who records first without knowledge of the prior transfer. Recording does not validate a defective deed. The type of recording statute, whether race, notice, or race-notice, determines how priority disputes are resolved.