How to Search Public Records on Real Estate
Have you ever asked yourself, “I wonder how much the owner, who is selling this property, originally paid for it? This would be great information to know, so that I could make a fair offer on the property.”
Today’s blog is going to demonstrate a free tool provided by the state government that allows interested parties to search public real estate records. (I will use Bradley County, Tennessee for this demonstration. However, I am sure with a Google search you can locate one for your county/state.)
Anytime I evaluate a property, I lookup the price the current owner paid. I compare this price to what I believe is the intrinsic value of the property. Ex. If I feel the property is worth $100,000 and the current owner paid $125,000 six months ago, I know I am probably wasting my time pursuing this deal. However, if the current owner paid $75,000, I know there is some room for negotiation and the deal is worth pursuing.
This website also provides the following information:
- Current property owner
- Tax appraisal of the property
- Zoning information
- Subdivision and Parcel ID information
- Information about the building. Date built, square footage
- Lot Size
- Property transaction dates for the last 30 to 40 years
The State of Tennessee’s “Real Estate Assessment Data” application allows users to search for property information by location, owner, subdivision, parcel id, sale date, etc. To get to this website, simply click the following link www.assessment.state.tn.us and select the county you are interested in searching. Note: This search engine is not as user-friendly as Google and sometimes you have to be creative to find the property you are trying to locate. For example, if I want to look up the property down the road at 123 Main Street owned by Bob Smith, I type in “123 Main Street.” The program will say “No results”. However, if I type in “Main”, I will get 25 results and can find 123 Main Street from the list of 25. Keep this in mind when looking for a particular property. Be creative in how you look for a property. Search by owner last name, part of the street address, subdivision, etc.
As cumbersome as this site is, the information gained from it is invaluable to the real estate investor. Play around with it and I think you will quickly get hang of using it. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.
Tags: property records, real estate, records, search public records, search records