DFW Real Estate - Searching
Doing a DFW real estate search means doing some homework yourself. You can find out a wealth of information about any DFW home for sale. A search can turn up valuable information that you can use when looking for a DFW area home. You shouldn’t even consider writing an offer for a home without digging into the history of the home by conducting a variety of searches. The MLS can be you main search tool as the MLS usually will usually give you access to the public tax records. Property Searches Show Public Records
What types of information can you find from a search? Maybe you would like to know how many times the home has been withdrawn from the market and relisted appearing to be a new listing? You can also find out how long the seller has owned the home, approximately how much they owe on their mortgage, whether or not improvements have been made to the home without a proper permit and whether the home is in foreclosure, among many other important facts. Property Search in Public RecordsEvery US city has a place where anyone in the general public can go to search for information on any home. Property records are maintained and housed at either the county courthouse, city hall, county recorder, or some other city or county department. Many of these public offices are staffed by knowledgeable people that are able to help you find property deeds and any other recorded document that affects the property. Once you find the owner of the home, if you don't have an address or the person has moved, you can order different types of reports online to find that missing person. Many or these companies charge a nominal fee. Property Search on the InternetMany cities and counties maintain their records online. Search for property tax records, where you can find out: · Name of the owner · Tax ID number or parcel number · Amount of present taxes and whether the taxes are paid.Dozens of other Web sites offer consumer information for free. Many Web sites let you search for property by area, and some even give data on unlisted homes not for sale. Title Company Property SearchCall a local title company and ask for their customer service department. Some of the better title companies will give you a free property profile. Ask for copies of property deeds and mortgages. Some of these title companies will also do a name search for the seller's name to find out if there are judgments or liens against the seller. Property Data Real Estate Agents Can FindIf you are working with a DFW Realtor, you can ask you them to find out as much information about a property as they can. Most Realtors are members to different services that provide property search data in different types of formats. · MLS Information. It's not enough just to get a customer's copy of an mls listing. Ask your Realtor to search the homes history in the MLS by looking up the address without time parameters such as active, pending, sold or date range. You can find out if the property has been withdrawn from the market and relisted once, or even several times, or if it has recently sold and is now being flipped. Your agent can also find out exactly how long the property has been on the market for sale because the Days on Market (DOM) can affect the selling price of the home. · Tax Assessor's Data. Many Realtors subscribe to a tax record search program that discloses the full and complete records on file at the assessor's office. This information can include the age of the home, square footage, number of rooms, among other data. If you notice that the tax assessor records show a different size or square footage of a home than what is noted in the listing this could be a red flag that the property has improvements, such as an addition or porch, for which a permit was not obtained. Buyers can check with their city planning department to find out if a permit was in fact obtained.All of these comprehensive online tools make homework much easier for a home buyer or any buyer that is interested in purchasing any home including a or even a home from one of those companies. You have aces to the tools. Use them!:)
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