What exactly is a "recorded" sale?

The city needs to know who owns real estate in order to collect taxes. Anyone looking to buy real estate needs that same information. "Recording" means that the transaction has been filed with the city. It then becomes a public record. SE then picks up the data from the city and merges it with its listing info.

What kind of sales are you missing? Both SE and ACRIS are showing about 40-50 co-op closing per week lately.

sometimes Property Shark has closings that SE somehow missed

So you're saying that every single sale shows up as recorded? How long after closing does it take to show?

Yes, every sale. Do a wiki on conveyancing and land registration.

Sales usually hit ACRIS, and are then picked up by SE and others, within about a week after closing.

Is a "satisfaction of mortgage" the same as a sale?

No, it goes along with the sale. When you borrow, the lender files a UCC1 to record its interest. (There're lots of other documents that may not be filed.) Then when you sell and pay off the mortgage, the lender files a UCC3 termination. That way, someone doing a title search can tell who owns, who's lent againt it, etc.

what if it is an all-cash deal?

If all-cash, then no mortgage to record. Makes things much simpler.

but still. shows up on the property records

Yes, the sale itself is recorded. That's why I said "no mortgage to record" rather than "nothing to record."

We're mixing a lot of Coop versus Real Estate terminology here, and they aren't totally interchangeable.

Thanks NWT & 30yrs, and please continue here if so inclined. I'd love to have a better understanding of this, co-op and otherwise.

When you say Coop vs RE does that mean different types of properties are recorded differently?

For a condo, house, or land -- i.e. real real estate -- the deed is recorded.

A co-op isn't real estate, but rather shares in a corporation which either owns or leases real estate. For a co-op sale, then, there is no deed to be recorded. Instead, the city records the document which details the NYS Real Estate Transfer Tax and NYC Real Property Transfer Tax paid when the shares changed hands.

Also you don't have mortgages on Coops, you have share loans, which are personal loans, and you records UCC docs (Uniform Commercial Code), like a UCC-1 for initiating a loan (like a mortgage recording) or a UCC-3 for termination of the indebtedness. But the filing requirements are different (for example, UCC docs should be renewed every 5 years) and the way you can repossess the property is (usually) different (a State Supreme Court case for RE/foreclosure vs a non-judicial UCC sale). The priority of liens is very different for these different classes.