@Martin Z. ,
I agree with @Jay Hinrichs that most county assessor's offices now have a GIS portal through which you can search for tax records. Most counties have either obtained or partnered with other entities to obtain periodic updates to their imagery. Of course, this is all dependent upon the county. These sites can usually be found by googling [county name] GIS. Some counties also have external GIS data that you can use through other mapping software if you have access or through arcgis.com which allows free access for basic web mapping applications to the public. Arcgis.com also has a wealth of public data that other users have uploaded as well as imagery, though most of their imagery is obtained en mass from the same sources as Google and Bing.
I assume that you invest where you live, which is Los Angeles County.
Here's your goldmine:
http://egis3.lacounty.gov/slv/?Viewer=GISViewer
Looks like they have stocked imagery for 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 for the entire county along with loads of other data. They've also given you the ability to link to Pictometry imagery, which is a huge plus, but do not provide you with access solely because they have linked to it. Pictometry is valuable in that, along with an overhead view, it also provides oblique imagery from four different angles, allowing you to really assess the property. If you are hurting for some obliques in the future, let me know as I have Pictometry access.
If you are ever looking for historic imagery, hit up USGS's portal:
http://earthexplorer.usgs.gov/
Hope this helps.