Your County Assessor Can Make or Break a Deal

[Jake Andronico]

Your Assessor website can provide you key information about a specific property that can either make or break a deal.  

How user friendly these sites are will vary greatly from county to county, but getting used to how to use them is huge.

We see something like this all of the time: "2 Homes on 1 lot!" or "Increased square footage!" in listing descriptions. 

After doing some quick research on the assessor, we sometimes find it's actually not permitted and the assessor shows that it's only one home on the lot, or the home is significantly smaller than what the listing says...

It is absolutely crucial to have as accurate of info as possible when purchasing a property.  

Similarly, this can be a powerful research tool when looking at specific properties, or researching specific owners. 

I was recently told by a listing agent at an attractively priced new development in Reno, NV that he personally owned three properties in this development as rentals, and was renting these properties out for $2,800 and $2,900. 

We were able to confirm this by looking his name up in the Assessor and seeing exactly which properties he had purchased, when he bought them, what he paid, and what he was able to rent them out for per Zillow. 

For some of you, this isn't news. But, I wanted to post this for those who may not know. 

Curious to hear others stories about how they use their local assessor website.