Question for your RE agents out there -
Is it legal for me, as a wholesaler, to ask an RE agent to run a list of out of town property owners for me on the arrangement that the RE agent will receive a fee (essentially a birddog fee) at closing should I buy a property off of that list?
I plan to do a direct mail campaign and want to do this, but want to make sure it is legal.
Thanks for your responses in advance.
Why would you need a RE agent to do this for you?
Just pull up your county’s GIS website and pull them yourself.
Raj
Roger,
what does GIS stand for ?
Geographic Information Systems
This is your county’s tax site. If it isn’t online, you’ll have to go to your local register of deeds/county clerk of court and pull the records.
Wherever the county mails out the tax bill is the most likely place to find the owner of the property.
Raj
Sorry to bother you again, Rojer. Can you give more insights?
at the county office, will they have search options ? it would be hard to come up with people out of state without APN , address. I guess it only works if i find a vacant property and i want to find more details right ? So how do I find a vacant property by just sitting at home with a computer ?
I don’t know the answer to Vidaloca’s query…I’ll ask our Broker when I’m afforded the opportunity.
However, there are several programs (in my region) that would allow a person w/the proper knowledge to pull out of state owners in any given area quite easily. These programs are available to real estate professionals such as Appraisers as well as Agents.
One such program is Metroscan…another is NiteOwl (I believe).
-Infowell
You can also accomplish this if you have access to the Title company’s property database.
lovetoknow,
The easiest way to perform a search for out-of-town (the post didn’t refer to vacant necessarily) owners is to pull up your county’s website, and do a search in your farm area (pick a subdivision, street, etc). It would pull a list of all addresses on in that area. The addresses that are different than the property address are not primary residences.
This is just a general guideline. You’ll have to review your county’s website/office to determine what you can, and can’t, do.
Raj
Thanks for the responses. In Maryland, the information IS online - however there is no way to truncate a search by subdivision or geographic area that I know of. I would literally have to go street by street - I have tried it before and it is very time consuming. I’d rather pay someone to do it for me. I want to do a blanket mailing to several counties that I know very well so again, that is alot of information which equals alot of time that I don’t have.
That’s why I thought of using a RE agent to do this because I know they have access to tax record and can also put parameters in to narrow down the search.
Title companies were mentioned; is there a fee they expect for this or will they do it for free provided you use them for closing?
“I’d rather pay someone to do it for me.”
SMART!
I’d recommend starting with an Appraiser…and that’s coming from an RE Agent.
Appraiser’s are data dorks (I should know…I’m also an Appraiser), and they’d more quickly understand & would tend to have more readily access to the kind of information you’re seeking.
-Infowell
Infowell,
What would be the best approach in asking an appraiser to do this and what would you expect as a decent fee? A flat fee up front, or say $1K per property closed?
Vida
Vidaloca-
Definately a flat fee & considerably less than $1k.
Appraisers make anywhere from $300-$450 per assignment depending on the area of the country they’re in, who their client is, and the degree of difficulty of the property being appraised…I’ve made as much as $800 for an assignment.
Those are multi-page appraisals & analyses, and you’re after nothing more than raw data. I’d call several (min. 3), and tell them what you want; Property Profile Characteristics of properties within say, a given zip code, or map page…of all properties owned by out of state owners.
Appraisers also get anywhere from $75-$90 for re-inspection fees (known in the industry as a 442). I’d probably offer something in that range (maybe slightly less) as they don’t even have to leave their office…they can simply fax you the information. Or ask them what they think an appropriate fee is.
‘Let your fingers do the walking,’ if one won’t do it for whatever reason…another will…it’s easy money for them.
Best of luck,
-infowell
Infowell,
Thanks so much for the information - I appreciate it. Will let you know how it turns out for me.
Vidaloca
You are able to obtain tax data on your own, and online; deed book/page and a bucket load of other data. However, that depends on whether or not the county you are wanting to search, has GIS-Geographical Informational System. (All appraisers are very framiliar with these systems).
First you will need to google: “The” county, gis. Or “The” county, government. For instance: Mecklenburg Co. gis
From there you will have to search that site for the GIS.
Once you find it, you can search for a property a number of ways: PID, Street Address, Owner, etc are a few. It takes some time to navigate the system (and they are not all the same). But once you get the basics the rest comes more easily. There are many options and lots of very helpful information along with the tax card.
Hope that helps. If you need help, IM or email me.
Lisa
The problem w/searching Assessor’s sites is; they’re EXTREMELY limited as to their search abilities.
Typically, all you can search is; address or Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN).
I’ve yet to run across a county that allows you to enter; “out of state owners” as a search function. Several data sources utilized by Appraisers, however, allow a multitude of search parameters…the one I use even has a function to search for “out of state owners.”
-Infowell