leads and research tools

Can anyone share with me where I can find the following resources online:

Resource for property appraising/comps
Resource for property tax (or is this done locally)
Resource for researching a property, owner.
Resource for listings.

I have found some but they all cost money arent there any free resources?

I have just started as a bird dog, have multiple investors lined up, bought big bucks birddogging and re jobber and have learned some things but need to build up my toolbox on what resources I can rely on as far as the web goes.

Howdy Njbirddog:

Most counties have websites where you can look up the address and find the tax value and owner on their appraisal site. Another site will give you the taxes due and the status of the payments.

Sold comps are not on line unless you have MLS access thru a Realtor or appraiser.

Our local newspaper has MLS search available for current listings. Many Realtors also have websites that allow you to search current listings.

I have found my county listings but you have to pay…it’s though some site called searchsystems.net… I though public records were free?

Also the mls shows properties available for sale and can be used for comps right?

Well can it also be used as a tool to find info out on a property and owner on a house that isnt for sale?

Anotherwards if I drive by a distressed property can I (well my realtor) find out the dirt if any on the porperty?

Also what am I looking for as far as value…is it the tax value or fmv or both?

Howdy Njbirddog:

Call the appraisal district in your county to get the web site if they have one. There are other sites too that have your county for free more than likely. MLS current for sale listings are good for a quick reference but should not be used as a final value. Appraisers use sold comps and you should too. Depending on the area the sold comps may be 10% lower than the asking prices or even 10% higher in some hot areas. MLS does not have info on all the properties. Some are hooked up to the county records as well but it is the county records that keep up with the info. Most are several months behind.

Your Realtor should be able to find the current owner from the tax records and may be able to find if the property was listed recently for sale. I do not know how far back records are kept on file in MLS systems for expired and sold listings.

The tax value is useful but do not count on it to determine the actual fair market value. Use sold comps for this to determine how much you can get for your property once you fix it up.

Hope this helps.

So for a comp the only way is to pay an appraiser or agent right?

Or are you saying at the county clerk office or website I could find out comps, tax info, and owner info.

I guess what I am trying to ask is do I have to rely on an agent or appraiser when researching properties info, values, etc.

Howdy NJbirddog:

The county web sites do not have comps only tax values. The MLS is the only way to set these without doing a lot of leg work and calling several Realtors and trying to find the info manually. As a quick reference you can use current listings as I said earlier somewhere. If you are buying thru an agent they will get the sold comps for you at no extra charge. You can also hire them as your buyers agent and they will get comps as well on each deal they find for you. They will not get paid until they close the sale.

LOL

how about this site? http://www.domania.com/index.jsp

it gives you a list of recently sold homes… basically a way to do comps yourself.

and this for property, tax and owner info:

http://www.searchsystems.net
it costs money but it beats driving 45 munutes to my county clerks office everyday.

Hello, sorry but this is a long one!
Take the title abstractor’s course! You can find one for like $100. Once you’ve done that, you have a very solid understanding of how to search records, what’s kept where and what it means, the requirements, process, who keeps what where, etc…Also, like others have said, there are documents and such online and also a phone call away by simply asking the assesssor at the county (or in New England’s case, the town or city) for some assistance looking up the most recent data. Ask for their recorded property owner name, mailing address, (many do not occupy the address, as you know), property description or type, recent assessment and ratio (some even have appraisal data). Some areas, like Harris county (Houston, TX) have extremely modern, up to date online searches, you can even examine the whole neighborhood from one list. Some areas (like rural upstate NY and elsewhere) are way behind in their uploading and also lack helpful municipal clerks for phone assistance.Try a site called yblost.com, it has the best links!

Try this link.
http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us:/cgi-bin/prc6.cgi?menu=index&ms_user=monm&passwd=data&district=1301&mode=11

It will take you to a seasrch page for the state of NJ. Select the county and municipality, then type in the property address and submit search.
It will display the property in question, along with every property that has those street numbers in their address, i.e. searching for 10 Main St. will display 10 Main St, 101 Main St., etc.

Hope this helps.

Ron Ricciuti
Marlton NJ

Sorry, but I tried the link after I posted, and it turns out the entire url was not included, so I tried reentering here using the insert hyperlink tool button. If it still doesn’t work, you can copy and paste.

http://tax1.co.monmouth.nj.us:/cgi-bin/prc6.cgi?menu=index&ms_user=monm&passwd=data&district=1301&mode=11

Ron Ricciuti
Marlton NJ

Thanks…hey I am 5 minutes from you (hopewell road) and my name is Ron too …small world

My 8-5 is in the local courthouse. We have a department called “Department of Equalization” that works with the tax accessor and probate. They keep a very nice list of comps there. I believe it is free to the public.

Best bet is to go to / call your local courthouse and ask them where/if you can pull up value history, or recent value of homes in a specific area. You may end up getting a “we don’t have that” but keep looking. Go specifically to the probate records and tax accessor office.

Remember, BE POLITE, and act innocent!

Ditech has an online appraisal service that’s free and doesn’t require you to complete any forms. You just plug in the property details. I think it’s off by a by a few thousand, but it’s a good place to start.

http://ditech.com/purchase/appraisal/data.do

Thanks alot…nice tool to add my my arsenal.

That ditech link is cool, but I wonder how they come up with thier numbers. The low end of my home is about 10k more then I paid and about 8k more then the original asking price of 2 years ago…Their high end price is a good 20k over value.

Not sure what to think!

Yes…I just did a few figures on family and friends homes and
it’s way off.