Direct answer
The owner of record is the person or entity that the county's deed and assessor records name as the owner. The owner's mailing address is where the county sends the tax bill for the parcel. The current occupant is whoever lives there today. One parcel can give a different answer to each, and the public records of property ownership don't establish who the occupant is.
Suppose a rental house at 218 Birch Lane was deeded in 2019 to Birch Lane Holdings LLC. The county mails the tax bill to a PO box in another state, and a tenant lives in the house on a 12-month lease. Nothing in that picture is a mistake. Every record on the house is accurate, and each one answers a different question.
Which record you use depends on who you need to reach. An investor who wants to buy the house writes to Birch Lane Holdings LLC at the PO box, because a letter sent to the house may reach the tenant's household and go no further. A roofer with a notice meant for residents, such as the dates a crew will inspect the street after a hailstorm, mails 218 Birch Lane and addresses the piece to Resident. The roofer's estimate is a different matter. In this example the LLC approves and pays for a new roof, so the estimate goes to the LLC at the PO box.
The owner name tells you whom to address. Who can sign for Birch Lane Holdings LLC is a separate question, and it takes a separate lookup to find the person who acts for an LLC or trust.
The three records side by side
| Record | What it is | Where it comes from | Use it to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner of record | The person or entity named as owner in county records | The latest recorded deed and the assessor roll | Name the owner on a letter or an offer |
| Owner's mailing address | The address the county has on file for the tax bill | The assessor's file | Send mail meant for the owner |
| Current occupant | Whoever lives in the property today | The deed and the assessor roll don't establish it. Data providers infer a status from other fields. | Reach the household at the property, addressed by role |
The three change at different times, because each one waits on a different event.
The deed changes only when someone records a new one. Recording puts a document in the public file without testing it. Jefferson County, Texas says its clerks "are recorders and are not qualified examiners" of the public records, and that they don't determine the validity of documents or verify ownership of property. So the latest deed is strong evidence of who was named as owner on the recording date. If the owner dies afterward, or transfers the property in a deed nobody records, the recorded name stays as it was.
The assessor roll follows the deed. California's Board of Equalization explains that a county assessor reviews all recorded deeds for that county to find changes in ownership. The review comes after the recording, so for a time after a sale the roll can still show the seller.
The mailing address follows the county's own procedure. San Bernardino County's assessor takes the address from the Preliminary Change in Ownership Report or the recorded transfer document and uses it "until you sign a request for a change of address." It accepts a change only in writing, from the owner of record or a pre-designated agent. Suppose an owner in that county bought in 2009 and moved in 2018 without filing a change. The tax bill would still go to the 2009 address.
Occupancy can change without a document reaching either office. One tenant moves out and another moves in, and the deed and the tax address stay as they were.
The deed, the assessor roll and the tax mailing address don't establish who lives in a house, so a data provider infers an occupancy status from other data. PropertyRadar's criteria glossary shows how that works. Owner Name is each person or entity extracted as an owner from assessor or recorder documents. Mailing Address is the owner's mailing address per county tax assessor records. Those two fields come from the county. The occupancy fields are computed from them and from postal data.
Owner Occupied is true when the owner claims the property as a primary residence, or when the owner's address is the same as the site address. That makes it a useful way to split a list into owner-occupants and likely rentals. By the same definition, an owner who moves out and leaves the tax bill addressed to the house can still show as owner occupied.
Same Mailing Address compares the tax bill's address with the property address. The glossary describes the case where it misleads: a property with no mail delivery. The owner lives there and collects mail at a PO box, so the house looks absentee unless a primary-residence claim marks it Owner Occupied.
Two more fields come from the Postal Service. Site Vacant means USPS has identified the property as vacant. PropertyRadar's vacancy guide says short-term rentals and homes in vacation areas can carry the flag, and that a property off a mail delivery route isn't identified as vacant at all. Mail Vacant is the same flag applied to the owner's mailing address.
None of these fields names the person living in the house. On Birch Lane, Owner Occupied and Same Mailing Address would both read No. That sorts the house into the likely-rental group and says nothing more about the tenant. Mail to the property goes out by role, and a resident's name is something to ask the owner or the property manager for.
Field coverage varies by county, so check that Owner Name, Mailing Address and the occupancy fields are filled in for your counties before you build a campaign on them.
PropertyRadar's direct mail order asks for the two decisions the Birch Lane example turns on: whose name goes on the piece, and which address it goes to.
For the name, the choices are Primary Contact and Assessed Owner. Assessed Owner uses the county assessor's primary owner, which can be an entity or more than one person. An offer to the titleholder of the Birch Lane house would use it, and the piece would be addressed to Birch Lane Holdings LLC.
For the address, "Send to owner mailing (tax) address" uses the tax-bill address and is the option for reaching the owner. "Send to property address" reaches whoever occupies the property, owner or not. If you choose the property address and the property is non-owner occupied, you also pick the addressee: Occupant, Resident, Tenant or Lessee. The Purchase Summary shows both settings before you pay, along with the properties removed as duplicate, unknown or undeliverable.
An owner mailing should leave out addresses flagged Mail Vacant. The vacancy guide says a piece sent to an address USPS has identified as vacant comes back undelivered, and the postage isn't refunded.
For an offer, take the owner's exact name from the deed. The profile's Transactions tab shows the current owner's recorded transactions and has a Title Search link to the county recorder's website, where the deed can be read. The vesting line says who received title and how they hold it. The signature on that deed belongs to the grantor or the grantor's representative. It doesn't by itself establish who represents the current owner.