1. Find the County Assessor Webpage (sales records) or go to the Assessor’s office if they do not have their county records online. Some counties have a great auditor/assessor website. Some of the counties even have pictures, maps and prior sales of the properties. Most of the sites do not have a the full history of the property and will only go back a certain number of years. If you need to go back beyond the history that is currently online you will need to actually visit the Assessor’s office. Then you can get one of the office workers to help you out the first time or two that you go in.
2. Lookup the assessor’s website or go into the assessor’s office. You can typically find the “Assessed Value” and it is often a fairly stable percentage of the “Real Market Value.” In fairly stable counties the assessor will typically have an approximate percentage of what the assessed value is vs. the “True Market Value”. In many areas this value is around 75% of the true market value, but I have seen it as little as 10-20% and it will vary from state to state. The county officials should be able to tell you what it is for their state.
3. Go to websites like www.realtor.com, www.Zillow.com, www.domania.com or even local realtor’s WebPages or MLS sites. These websites can be very helpful and give you a great feel for what the local market is doing around the property you are looking at. You can even zoom into the immediate property area and see what other properties in that general area have sold for on some of the sites. This is especially true for www.Zillow.com. Be aware though, I have seen Zillow be way off on some of their numbers.
4. Get references for a good local realtor. A good realtor working in the area you are looking at should have a feel for where prices are at and should be willing to give you some estimates free of charge. You don’t want the new realtor or a realtor that is not based in that area, or at least within a few miles from the area you are looking at. You want a Realtor that is seasoned and knows the area well. Look for a Realtor that is selling a lot of homes or raw land. You don’t want one that just has a lot of listings; you want one that has actually brought buyers to the table. This Realtor will be a VERY good person to have on your team if you will be buying several properties in the area.
Your biggest roadblock to getting going is in your own mind. Get busy looking at some properties and then find a bargain and get moving.
