Check your County's Property Appraisar's website. Free and it should show lots of the info you are looking for.

ML

What do you want to know. That used to be my line of work. What state too? And what are you hoping to learn from the research?

This post was edited by marti8a on Tue, Jul 16, 13 at 15:56

Which state? I am in Maryland and it is all free. Here is what I do when I see a house I am very interested in:

1) MD State Dept of Assessment. This shows the owners for several decades, Deed References, Tax Map.
2) Then I look up the deeds/mortgages and go back as far as possible.
3) Also search for the plats because lots of the times the tax maps are wrong
4) Judiciary case search for the owner's names. This will show if there are any foreclosures pending, and if so the mortgage balances.

Marti8a

I'm wanting to know anything I possibly can. Previous sales prices and taxes for sure and simply anything I might be able to find out about a particular address, permits issued, maybe if there had been litigation going on (HOA or maybe development plans). So you actually did research on property or all sorts of research in general?

The state we're in currently is NC

Oh, gosh, there's tons and tons of stuff to be found out about NC land and property.

Some of the most recent changes like ownership, mortgages and taxes may be online. But the rest is molding away down in the clerks' offices just waiting for somebody to come by and look it up.

In some states the documents are held by the county clerk's office, in others they are held by the city or town clerk's office. But unless Gen. Sherman burnt it, it's available - for free - during business hours. Just find out where by calling around and go and ask for help from the staff at the desks. They are used to helping people and will no doubt be useful to you. The really old stuff (pre Civil-War) may have been transferred to archives, but it's still available to anyone.

Take a lot of coins (for the copier) and if you're really going far back take a smock or wear an old shirt because the old deed books going back more than 100 years are probably infested with red leather rot, which gets everywhere.

And then once you have the names, try a trial subscription on Ancestry.com to do more research about the people. Your local historians may have info as well.

There are several good books on "deed chaining" as owner to owner title following is called. You public library is a source for them, as well as probably holding books about local history and land practices. I live in NY and am lucky to be able to go the NYS Archives. There I have been able to see the actual documents concerning my land going back to the 17th century. Now that's an old deed.

Just remember that the party of the first part is selling (or giving or otherwise transferring) to the party of the second part.

The grantor is the seller and the grantee is the buyer. These two groups are indexed separately so often you can work backward through any confusing holes in the buyer from seller chain.

But for mortgages, the suffixes are reversed: the person who owns the property is the mortgagor and the guy putting up the cash is the morgagee. Exactly the opposite of how we think of it when buying a house, hoping we can "get" a mortgage from the bank, when in reality we are actually giving them the claim (the mortgage) on the property in return for enough $$ to give to the seller.

If you can keep all that straight, you're good to go.

Researching a property is utterly fascinating and is never really done as there is always more stuff to learn about it and the people who have lived on place before you.

I chained my deed back to the 1600s within a couple of months of owning this farm, but it's a rare month that goes by when I don't add even more data to my farm's history - and I've lived here for a quarter of a century.

It doesn't matter if you live in 21st story condo or trailer court or a row house, or a McMansion, somebody (lots of somebodies, actually) owned the property before you and there's a story to learn about each one.

Have fun! If you have specific questions about wording on a deed, please ask.

(Recent permits on work will be available in the offices of the municipality -or county- that required them. Because of privacy laws, there is mixed availablity of these, but you can always ask if a Freedom of Information Request is needed. But for deeds and the like, those are public records in most places and are always available for anyone to look at.)

HTH,

L.

Individual locales will all have different set ups and available data. Start with:

--County appraisal district website (tax rolls, deed history, past owners, square footage, improvements); will usually show the Tax ID #, legal description, including subdivision or parcel -- helpful for further searches

--City tax rolls (current and past property tax info);

--City permit applications for past work done on property

--County property records (called things like "Deed Records," "Official Public Records," online property search) (look for deeds into your property, liens, easements, covenants running with the land)

You will often not find the sales price listed on deeds (in Texas they are not) so you may not be able to find this out; if you trust Zillow they sometimes have past listing prices

This post was edited by Violet.West on Tue, Jul 16, 13 at 18:34

Yes, I was an abstractor in a title company and then landman for a gas drilling company.

This is a blog post I wrote for someone else, but it may help you get started.

I only worked in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma, so I'm not sure how things are done in the northern states, but your county clerk can point you in the right direction.

For previous sales prices, your realtor would have that. That's not usually public record, but you can check Deed of Trust records to find out the mortgage amount of the current owner. You won't know how much they put down though, so I don't know that it's a big help.

Building permits are issued through the city planning and zoning department. You can find that out with a phone call usually.

Here are the things I want to know before purchasing a property. I don't do a full title check because the title company will do that anyway before issuing title insurance.

1. I'd want to know if the current owner got the house through a divorce or inheritance. If either, I'd want to know if there is a divorce or probate filed so it won't slow down the closing. You can usually tell that by looking at the warranty deed of the current owner and the previous owner. If they don't match, there is a gap that needs to be filled.
(Divorces are filed at the district clerk here and probate at county clerk)

2. I'd want to look at the warranty deed where the current owner bought the property to see if it mentioned any easements, minerals, or restrictions.
a. Easements because I want to know if the electric company or cable company expect to drive their truck through my backyard on a regular basis.
b. Minerals (if buying acreage) to know if a drilling rig is going to be pounding rock in my back yard one day.
c. Restrictions to know if I (or my new neighbors) can have a junk yard or goats in the back yard.

3. I'd want to know if there are any judgments or liens against the property which would slow down closing. The title search will show this, but if I need to close in a month, that could be a problem. A problem that could be solved now by the current owner, or a reason for me to continue looking at other houses. This is where you would find HOA liens too.
(located at district clerk's office here)

4. I'd want to know what entities are taxing the property. Not only to know what the taxes are but to find which city is going to make me jump through hoops to build a garage or a fence.
(That will probably be on the county appraisal district website)

5. I'd also want to know the registered square footage of the house to see if it matches the mls listing. That might tell me if the house has been added onto so I could direct an inspector to check the quality of the work.

6. I'd want to know the utility bills for the last year so I could see if they are high for the square footage of the house, and the number of people who live there.

7. I'd want to know how many houses in the neighborhood are or have been for sale in the last year. If many, I'd wonder why.
(Your realtor or Zillow for that)

8. If there are undeveloped areas around the property, check at the county clerk's office for recent plats. You can also ask the zoning and planning department if there are any permits for surrounding property or any rezoning. And you can check the appraisal district website for the current zoning.

Another thing I check out has nothing to do with title search. I want to check out the neighbors/neighborhood. Find out if there are any registered sex offenders, crime statistics, or feuding neighbors. The latter requires knowing an insider. ;)

p.s. I agree with much of the 2 above posts. However, I don't think you need to look past the current and previous owner. Property has title insurance (and in the past it was an abstract) for chain of title every time the property is sold and their chain is examined by a real estate attorney at every closing. So unless you just want to know the minerals (which title companies don't do) or are curious about former owners, it's not worth your time.

Instead of taking money for copiers at the county offices, I just take my camera. It's faster and cheaper.

This post was edited by marti8a on Tue, Jul 16, 13 at 20:00

Thank you all for your many suggestions of type of info available and where to look. Would any of you be willing to speculate what might be going on in the following situation:
A major developer bought a parcel of land for a major development (several hundred single family homes, some multi family units and rec facilities.) A gravel road to the parcel had a couple homes on it The developer is currently putting in the roads for the development and has paved the gravel road. This road will be the entrance to the development. The developer has recently bought (for about 150,000) and torn down one of the existing houses. The other existing house has been on the market for over a year (listed for 160,000 for a year reduced to 130,000 a few months ago). In speaking to the listing agent he said the developer had made a verbal offer in the past but never followed through on a written offer. I do not understand given they bought and tore down the house across the street for close to the original listing price of this house why they aren't buying this house. Any ideas why the developer is not buying this house or of a way to find out?

Was the torn down house in the path of one of the roads?

You can take a look at the plat and see where the roads are and the lot locations. It could be that the torn down house was just in the wrong place to make the plat work, and the other one not.

This post was edited by marti8a on Wed, Jul 17, 13 at 12:57

No the torn down house was not in the way of a road and in fact the listing agent suggested that the lot ultimately may only be able to be used as green space by the developer. Which further confuses me since to me it suggests the purchase was for cosmetic reasons for the entrance of the development. The house left on the other side of the street is basically the same as the one torn down a brick ranch built in the 60's

so, the house that wasn't torn down was present before the plat was filed? (Confused). And this is the house you're interested in buying? (Doubtful)

There are so many reasons he could have bought one and not the other.

Might be land rich and cash poor. Just can't afford it until he starts selling lots.

Maybe he did not know they would make him only use that lot for green space, or he is waiting for that to be confirmed?

Maybe the "verbal offer" wasn't enough, and he didn't feel like paying more for a tear down?

yes the house that is left was there before the plat was filed. The house was built in 1961. The developer is a major player who has done several big developments in many states think Del Webb type. They are doing sound berms on one edge of the development that probably in themselves are several hundred of thousands of dollars so I just can't see that buying this existing house would be a major deal to them. I'm wondering if there is some type of title problem and if there is why a realtor is willing to list it.

Back to the original topic, a foreclosure came up yesterday, that peaked my interest. After the usual research I google her name, and found her Facebook page. Found out she is elderly, had a stroke, and is in a nursing home.

Started feeling a little guilty.

But Facebook then led me to her kids, and I realized that all the houses around that house are owned by her kids.

Oooh. That might be a sticky situation. I think I would want to talk to at least one of them to find out if there would be any resentment towards the buyer that buy's their parents at a bargain basement price.

You are a smart cookie for taking the time to do the research and recognizing what you are getting yourself into here.

I'm not sure I'd go as far as contacting the children, however. There are many people, even on this forum, who are absolutely naive when it comes to realizing how much information is publicly available out there about their lives. The kids may resent their perceived "privacy" by having you even approach them on the matter.

Good idea but its one of those "no good deed goes unpunished" situations.

If it were me, I'd think twice before buying mom's house in foreclosure with so many of the adult kids living all around me. As an investment property for renting/flipping, sure. But as my primary residence....not so much.

Hey Tony,

Yes, this would be and investment/flipping property, but we don't flip real fast. We usually work on them on the weekends and sell them after at least a year. The kids could throw in some wrenches as it looks like there is a shared driveway and they could probably try to appeal any permits for additions etc.

Of course I am just speculating about the worst possibilities. It could be the opposite, and they might appreciate someone saving/renovating the house. Never know...

I could approach them just as neighbors and not tell them I know they were her kids. Just ask if they know anything about the history of the house.

But about the investment. If both you and I have reservations about buying "Mom's" house surrounded by her kids, wouldn't that make it harder to sell in the future?

Cracks me up a little too; Comments on MLS originally read:
FANNIE MAE foreclosure SOLD IN AS IS CONDITION. Ranch Home on 2.42 acres needs some TLC offers 2 bedrooms, 1 bath. Seller will not sell less than the appraised value of $58,000.00

On 6/3 price was dropped to $45K; and comments were changed to:
FANNIE MAE foreclosure SOLD IN AS IS CONDITION. Ranch Home on 2.42 acres needs some TLC offers 2 bedrooms, 1 bath. Seller will not sell less than the appraised value of $45,000.00.

Yesterday the price was reduced to $35K and today the comments were changed to:
FANNIE MAE foreclosure SOLD IN AS IS CONDITION. Ranch Home on 2.42 acres needs some TLC offers 2 bedrooms, 1 bath. Seller will not sell less than the appraised value of $35,000.00.