搜查(sōu chá) - to search, to search a place or person in Mandarin

搜查 (sōu chá) is the official search: police going through a house, security going through a bag, customs going through a suitcase. Its object is the place or the person being searched, not the thing being looked for. 搜查房子 is correct; 搜查钥匙 is not.

That is the trap. English says "search for my keys" and "search the house" with the same verb, and Mandarin does not. Looking for a lost object is 找. Searching online is 搜 or 搜索. 检查 is the routine inspection with no suspicion attached, the kind a teacher does to homework. 搜查 always implies authority and usually implies suspicion.

Because of that, 搜查 turns up constantly in news reporting and crime drama, and almost never in casual conversation about your own flat. If you hear it aimed at you at an airport, the polite reply is 好的, and the paperwork question is 你们有搜查令吗 (do you have a search warrant).