How to Research

[Christian Malesic]

...without leaving your office.

A fellow BP poster sent me this via email:

I thought the response would make for an excellent post. Mind you, some of you may not be able to do some of what you find below, depending on your government's use of the internet.

Our county and local governments have recently come out of the stone ages and gone internet savvy. Thus, I can quickly get the following from their various sites:

From Tax Assessment Office: Current Tax Assessment (and changes to property over last 10 years which points to construction completed with authorized permits), Official Property Sq. Footage, Official Land Sq. Footage, Zoning, Bedrooms, Baths.

From County Records Office: Mortgages, Deeds, Liens, Liens Satisfaction pieces. This helps me understand what they financed and when. I can educated guess the interest rate at the time and calculate, via amortization tables, how much they need to get out from under the mortgage(s). The deed gives me the official surveyor’s description of the land, complete with right of ways, jointly owned driveways, etc.

Posted Tax Tables by the city or municipality: I can determine the actual taxes for city, county, school property taxes instead of using the bogus numbers often posted on the MLS (since I know the assessed value from above).

From MLS or Realtor.com: (my wife is an agent. Obviously, I can not view MLS directly and WOULD NEVER look over her shoulder, but can have HER look it up.), I can get Days on Market, telling me how itchy to unload they are. I also get owner paid vs. tenant paid utilities. The only other (somewhat) reliable piece of information is the current rents. This only matters in the short term as I will inherit these tenants at this rent. I try to keep it close to the same if they are good tenants and good pay. If not, I raise the rents when the lease expires (or evict if they are not paying).

From Online FEMA Flood Maps: I determine if property is in the flood zone and will require flood insurance. If unsure or unable to determine from map, I call my agent who looks up the elevation on the SPECIFIC property.

I do a lot of the above before even seeing the property as I have all the sites bookmarked and can do so quickly. If I continue to like what I see, I schedule an appointment with my agent (my wife). If there are tenants, I must (usually) give 24 hours notice, which I do, but then still go immediately for an outside inspection and common area inspection (with a second inspection the following day). A lot of times, one or more apartments are vacant and we can see them immediately. While we inspect we make note of needed upgrades and repairs, plus how important they are and when they need to be done.

Finally, from experience, we know things like: the good geographical areas (vs. the bad), the current market rents, the regulations of the local governments (municipalities). There are also sites to help the newbie gather some of this info.

Thus, within about 3 hours (with the possible exception of inspecting the actual inside of the tenant apartments when they are occupied), I can start writing a contract.