Home Title Lock Review (2026): What It Won't Tell You

By Mo Ayadi, Founder of Title Barrier | Updated February 11, 2026

Home Title Lock is one of the most heavily advertised property monitoring services in the United States, with commercials airing regularly on cable news and syndicated television. If you've seen those ads and want to know whether the service is worth the money, this review covers what the company actually provides, what real customers say, what government agencies have found, and how it compares to alternatives.

Full disclosure: I'm the founder of Title Barrier, a competing property protection service. That gives me a bias, and I want to be upfront about it. I've done my best to make this review accurate and fair. Every claim is sourced so you can verify the information independently, and I'll tell you what Home Title Lock does well alongside its limitations.

What Home Title Lock Actually Does

Home Title Lock monitors county recorder offices for documents filed against your property. When someone records a deed, lien, mortgage, or other document affecting your title, the service sends you an alert.

If potentially fraudulent activity is detected, Home Title Lock provides access to what it calls a "restoration team" that assists with resolving the issue, backed by what the company describes as up to $1 million in covered expenses for restoration services.

That's the core service. It is monitoring with a restoration safety net.

What It Does Not Do

Understanding the limitations is important because the company's advertising can create expectations the service doesn't meet.

Home Title Lock does not prevent fraud. It alerts you after a document has already been recorded with the county. As the FTC stated in an August 2024 consumer alert about title lock services: the service notifies you after a title transfer has already happened, not before.

Home Title Lock does not monitor real estate listing platforms. If someone lists your property for sale on Zillow, Realtor.com, Craigslist, or MLS systems, this service will not detect it. Since many property fraud schemes begin with unauthorized online listings, this is a meaningful gap in coverage.

Home Title Lock does not provide legal representation. The restoration assistance covers guidance and support, but if you need an attorney to file a quiet title action, those legal fees are your responsibility beyond what the restoration benefit covers.

Home Title Lock does not provide insurance. Despite its name, the service is not an insurance product. The FTC specifically warned consumers about this distinction in its August 2024 alert.

Pricing

Home Title Lock offers three payment options. According to the company's website and confirmed by multiple independent reviews, pricing is as follows:

• Monthly plan: $19.95 per month ($239.40 per year)
• Annual plan: $199 per year
• Four-year plan: $796 (locks in the annual rate for four years)

Each subscription covers a single property. If you own multiple homes, rental properties, or vacant land, you need a separate subscription for each. This is a meaningful cost consideration for real estate investors or owners of multiple properties.

Home Title Lock offers a 14-day money-back guarantee. Cancellation requires calling customer service — it cannot be done online.

What Real Customers Say

Rather than creating composite quotes, here's what actual customers have reported on verified third-party platforms.

Better Business Bureau

Home Title Lock has a BBB profile based in Coral Springs, Florida. As of early 2026, the company has an A+ rating but is not BBB accredited. The BBB profile shows 25 complaints over the past three years.

Common themes in BBB complaints include:

Billing and cancellation issues. Multiple customers report being charged after cancellation or difficulty getting refunds. One reviewer in September 2025 reported being charged $179 after canceling with written confirmation. Another customer described the "free title search" offer as misleading because payment information is required before any search is initiated.

Missed alerts. One BBB complaint from 2025 describes a customer whose home was sold, but Home Title Lock never sent an alert about the title transfer. The company responded that legitimate changes may not trigger alerts. A separate complaint described two names being changed on a deed without any notification from the service.

Expectation gaps. Several complaints reflect a disconnect between what customers expected (prevention or a "lock") and what the service provides (monitoring and alerts after the fact).

To be fair, the BBB profile also includes positive feedback. Some customers praise the customer service team for being responsive and the setup process for being straightforward. Several reviewers describe feeling reassured by follow-up calls from staff.

Trustpilot

Home Title Lock has approximately 89 reviews on Trustpilot. Many positive reviews specifically mention positive customer service interactions. Negative reviews mirror the BBB complaints: billing disputes, cancellation difficulties, and confusion about what the service actually covers.

Google Reviews

The company holds approximately 4.1 out of 5 stars on Google Reviews, according to reporting by WHO 13 in Iowa. The Google review profile tends to skew more positive than the BBB complaint history, which is common for services where most satisfied customers don't encounter billing or coverage disputes.

The Honest Summary of Customer Feedback

The pattern across platforms is consistent: customers who have a smooth experience and never need to test the service tend to be satisfied. Problems arise when customers need to cancel, when they expect the service to catch something it doesn't, or when billing processes create confusion. The most serious complaints involve the service failing to alert customers to actual title changes — which is the entire purpose of the product.

Government Investigations and Regulatory Scrutiny

This is where the review gets more serious. Home Title Lock has faced government scrutiny at both the state and federal level.

Texas Attorney General Investigation (January 2023)

In January 2023, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced an investigation of Home Title Lock for potentially violating the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. The investigation focused on whether the company misled consumers with deceptive statements about the prevalence of home title theft and the need for its services.

The Attorney General's Civil Investigative Demand specifically questioned the company's claim that the FBI calls home title theft "one of the fastest growing white-collar cyber-crimes in America." According to ABC News reporting, the FBI has no record of ever making this statement and has disputed that it was ever issued.

The AG's press release noted that Home Title Lock admitted to marketing to "older customers." Attorney General Paxton stated: "I won't tolerate false, misleading, or deceptive advertisements targeted to any Texas consumers—especially Texas seniors."

The current status of this investigation is unclear.

San Francisco and San Diego City Attorney Subpoenas (April 2023)

In April 2023, the city attorneys of San Francisco and San Diego jointly subpoenaed Home Title Lock over what they called "deceptive advertising." The subpoena sought information dating back to 2019 about the company's services, advertising, and documentation supporting its claims.

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu stated: "Home Title Lock is a scam, plain and simple. The company has manufactured a 'home title theft' crisis to stir up fear amongst elderly homeowners and deceive them into buying a service that many local governments provide for free."

San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott added: "Home Title Lock targets and preys upon elderly Californians whose homes are their chief source of financial security."

The city attorneys noted that in California, a fraudulently recorded title is void under state law and therefore cannot result in the loss of a home or its equity.

Home Title Lock told Checkbook.org that it is cooperating with these investigations.

FTC Consumer Alert (August 2024)

In August 2024, the Federal Trade Commission published a consumer alert specifically about "home title lock insurance" services. The FTC warned consumers that the service does not provide real insurance, does not prevent title theft, and that many counties offer free notification services that provide similar alerts. The FTC cautioned that fear-based advertising around title theft often overstates the risk.

What This Means for Consumers

Government investigations do not prove wrongdoing — they indicate that regulators found enough concern to look deeper. However, the consistent focus across Texas, California, and the FTC on misleading advertising and overstatement of risk is significant. It suggests that the gap between what Home Title Lock advertises and what it delivers has drawn serious regulatory attention.

What Home Title Lock Gets Right

A fair review acknowledges what the service does well.

It provides automated convenience. For homeowners who won't check their county recorder's website themselves, the automated monitoring removes that burden. The service runs in the background and alerts you if something changes.

The restoration benefit has value. If fraud does occur, having access to a restoration team with up to $1 million in covered expenses is genuinely useful. The complexity of unwinding title fraud is something most homeowners aren't equipped to handle alone.

Customer service gets generally positive reviews. Across platforms, many customers describe positive interactions with staff — particularly during onboarding and proactive check-in calls.

It raises awareness. Regardless of whether you subscribe, the company's advertising has increased public awareness of title fraud as a real (if statistically rare) crime. Awareness itself has value.

What Home Title Lock Gets Wrong

The advertising overstates the risk. The FBI has disputed being the source of claims Home Title Lock attributes to it in advertising. Multiple government agencies have flagged the marketing as potentially misleading. This matters because fear-based advertising can lead consumers to make purchasing decisions based on inflated risk perceptions.

County-only monitoring misses a significant attack vector. Modern property fraud increasingly begins online — with unauthorized listings on real estate platforms — before any documents are filed with the county. By monitoring only county records, Home Title Lock cannot detect fraud at its earliest stage.

The name implies prevention. "Home Title Lock" suggests the service locks your title, preventing unauthorized changes. It doesn't. It monitors for changes and alerts you after they occur. This naming convention has been cited by regulators as part of the misleading marketing concern.

Single-property pricing adds up. At $199-$239 per property per year, costs escalate quickly for owners of multiple properties. Some competing services cover multiple properties under a single subscription.

Cancellation should be easier. Not allowing online cancellation in 2026 is a friction point that generates complaints. The number of billing-related BBB complaints suggests this is a systemic issue, not isolated incidents.

Free Alternatives You Should Know About

Before paying for any monitoring service, explore what's available at no cost.

County Recorder Property Alert Programs

Many county recorder offices offer free alert services that email you when documents are filed against your property. This provides the same basic function as Home Title Lock's county monitoring — for free.

To find out if your county offers this service, search your county recorder's website for "property alert," "property fraud alert," or "document notification." The FTC specifically recommends checking for these free programs before paying for a monitoring service.

Credit Freezes

Freezing your credit with all three bureaus (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) is free and prevents lenders from approving new credit applications using your identity. This won't stop a deed transfer, but it makes it harder for a criminal to profit from a stolen title by taking out loans.

Regular Manual Reviews

Checking your county recorder's database and searching for your property address on major listing platforms once or twice a year takes minimal time and costs nothing.

Paid Alternatives

If you want more protection than free options provide, the market has expanded significantly since Home Title Lock launched in 2015.

Identity Theft Protection Suites

Services like LifeLock (Norton), Aura, and Identity Guard offer plans that include title monitoring alongside broader identity theft protection, credit monitoring, and other security features. These typically cost $10-$25 per month but bundle title monitoring with other protections and often cover multiple properties under one subscription.

Dedicated Property Protection Services

A newer category of services focuses specifically on property protection but goes beyond county record monitoring to include real estate listing platforms, public records, and other data sources. Some services in this category also take proactive steps — such as recording legal declarations on your property title — that create verification requirements for future transactions, rather than simply alerting you after changes occur.

Title Barrier, the company I founded, falls into this category. I'll describe what we do differently below, but I encourage you to research multiple options and make your own assessment.

Title Insurance Endorsements

In August 2025, the American Land Title Association (ALTA) introduced new endorsements (ALTA 49 and 49.1) specifically designed to cover post-purchase deed forgery. If you have an existing owner's title insurance policy, ask your title company about adding these endorsements. This provides insurance-backed protection with legal fee coverage — something no monitoring service offers.

How Title Barrier Differs

Since you're reading this on our site, I owe you a clear explanation of how our service compares — without rigging the comparison.

What we do similarly to Home Title Lock: We monitor county recorder offices for document filings on your property.

What we do differently:

We monitor real estate listing platforms and MLS systems in addition to county records, which means we can detect unauthorized listings before any documents are filed with the county.

Our Defense Plan records a legal declaration on your property title in the county land records. This declaration formally notifies title companies, lenders, and anyone searching your title that a verification process is required before any transaction is processed. It's a proactive measure — creating a barrier in the public record — rather than only alerting you after changes occur.

Where Home Title Lock may be stronger: Home Title Lock has been operating since 2015 and has significantly more brand recognition. Their restoration benefit of up to $1 million in covered expenses is well-established. They have a longer track record and more customer reviews across platforms.

Where we have limitations: We're a smaller company. We don't have the marketing budget or name recognition of Home Title Lock. Our service is newer, which means less public track record for potential customers to evaluate.

Pricing comparison: Home Title Lock costs $199-$239 per year per property. Title Barrier's monitoring plan starts at $149.99 per year; the Defense Plan that includes the recorded declaration starts at $199.99 per year. Both services require separate subscriptions for additional properties.

I'd rather give you accurate information and let you decide than present a comparison designed to make us look perfect.

Who Might Benefit from Home Title Lock

Despite its limitations, Home Title Lock may be a reasonable choice if you own a single property and want automated county record monitoring without checking yourself, you live in a county that doesn't offer free property alerts, you value the restoration benefit as a safety net, and you don't need monitoring of online real estate platforms.

Who Should Consider Alternatives

You should look at other options if you own multiple properties (the per-property cost adds up quickly), you want monitoring of real estate listing platforms where fraud often begins, you want proactive measures that create barriers to fraud rather than just post-filing alerts, or you've had difficulty canceling subscription services in the past and prefer services with easier cancellation processes.

The Bottom Line

Home Title Lock is a legitimate company that provides a real service: automated monitoring of county recorder offices with restoration assistance if fraud occurs. It is not a scam.

However, the service has meaningful limitations. It monitors only one data source (county records), alerts you only after documents are filed, and has faced serious government scrutiny over advertising that regulators say overstates the risk and misleads consumers about what they're buying.

Whether it's worth $199-$239 per year depends on your specific situation. Many homeowners can get comparable county monitoring for free. If you want broader protection, several alternatives offer more comprehensive coverage.

The most important thing is that you do something. Whether that's signing up for free county alerts, freezing your credit, subscribing to a monitoring service, or all of the above — taking any step is better than ignoring property fraud entirely.

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Sources

1. FTC Consumer Alert: Home Title Lock Insurance? Not a Lock at All (August 2024) — consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2024/08/home-title-lock-insurance-not-lock-all
2. Texas Attorney General: Investigation of Home Title Lock (January 2023) — texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/paxton-announces-investigation-home-title-lock-potentially-misleading-texas-consumers
3. San Francisco City Attorney: Subpoena of Home Title Lock (April 2023) — sfcityattorney.org/2023/04/10/san-francisco-and-san-diego-city-attorneys-subpoena-home-title-lock-over-deceptive-advertising/
4. BBB Business Profile: Home Title Lock — bbb.org/us/fl/coral-springs/profile/threat-and-fraud-assessment/home-title-lock-0633-92030728
5. Trustpilot: Home Title Lock Reviews — trustpilot.com/review/hometitlelock.com
6. WHO 13 Iowa: Are Home Title Monitoring Services Worth It? (November 2025) — who13.com/news/are-home-title-monitoring-services-worth-it-a-look-behind-the-ads/
7. Garfield & Hecht: Title Lock Debunked (December 2025) — garfieldhecht.com/title-lock-debunked/
8. ABC News: Questionable Claims in Home Title Lock Ads (June 2022) — abcnews.go.com/US/prolific-ads-featuring-wing-icons-push-questionable-claims/story?id=85365286
9. Comparitech: Home Title Lock Review — comparitech.com/identity-theft-protection/reviews/home-title-lock-review/
10. ALTA Policy Endorsements for Seller Impersonation Fraud (August 2025) — nationalmortgagenews.com/news/alta-adds-seller-impersonation-coverage-to-its-title-policy
11. Checkbook.org / KOMO News: Home Title Monitoring Services Mislead About a Rare Crime (August 2024) — komonews.com/news/consumer/home-title-monitoring-services-mislead-about-a-rare-crime

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Disclosure: Title Barrier is a property protection service that competes with Home Title Lock. This review reflects our honest assessment, but our perspective is inherently shaped by our position in the market. Every factual claim is sourced so you can verify independently. We believe the best way to earn your trust is to tell you the truth — even when it means acknowledging what competitors do well.