I read in several forums there is a way to compile property sales from the county courthouse. Is there a way I can do this online (if yes, then how?), or do I have to physically go to the courthouse?
If online:
What is the document title I am specifically looking for if conducting a search for example?
If physically:
Where in the courthouse? Who do I ask for? What do I ask for? How do I ask for? How many at a time can I look at?
I want to start getting to know the market, and until I can find a good connect with a realtor that can provide MLS access, I guess this is the ideal method for now.
Property sales… Why are you looking for property that just got sold? You can get property sale info at the courthouse but I don’t know why you want it.
You may also be talking about probate court which is where you go to find out who’s realtive just died and who is in charge of the estate (where the house will often be sold)
Or divorce court where you get records of divorces in the works (many of which HAVE to sell the property right away to split equity).
Or you are talking about getting a list from the tax mans office of property that he is going to sell at auction.
Get my point? There are MANY options available at the courthouse. You have to just go there and talk to different offices. Different courthouses in different locations consider different things “pubic” information. Go and find out.
And you won’t likely be able to get any of that info online but it is possible. It all depends on the town and what they decide to publish online, which is usually primarily GIS info which tells tax values, etc.
Going to the courthouse for comps is not really a good way to try to get the info your looking for. If you don’t have a good buyers agent connect here is what you can do.
You can call an agent or an appraiser and pay them a small fee for comps. Pay them $10 to $20 a property.
You can sign up for a comping service like haines or realquest which depending on what area of the country you live, these services will also give you great access to comps.
The last thing and what you will eventually want to do is become an Investor agent. Meaning get your license so you have the flexibly of the mls, put in your own offers, and be able you take a cut on your side of the commission so you can get better deals!
Ohh, if it is for comps it also depends on your town. My towns online GIS is awesome. It has a map that you can see every house, click around on all of the houses right around it. See what they sold for, when, and tons of other info.
Some towns have really crappy GIS and you would have to use other methods like mdelanuez said.
Sorry I was not specific… This is reference to working on comps (recently sold properties) to gather numbers and figure out ARV on a target property in the same area.
What is GIS by the way? (I’ll search it on the forum anyways, lol)