You take the address and plug it into the local county appraiser website.

When searching a property in my County tax assessors website the sold amount is $0 and the grantor field is blank.

Even off market stuff is getting a large premium over what the actual numbers warrant.  

I live in Southern California Los Angeles area, have a W-2 job in Irvine and no expenses or debts, with an excellent credit score. 

Another plus of the boot is the visual and social pressure, especially in a large complex.

FEMA's floodsmart.gov website used to let you look up an address and it would tell you the risk factor.

I'm sure we've all seen them in our towns, large retail strip centers, the facades look old and dated, the center is 50% occupied at best.  

Then I just started looking up properties on auction websites that were in my hometown after I saw my old neighbors house had been sold for about 1/2 of the value of the land...This is when I realized that there were potential deals that I would have a better insight on because I was familiar with most of my hometown and where people want to live and do not want to live.

@Andres Jaramillo Check out the recent topic here on BP discussing the same question, albeit in more general terms:https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/519/topics/485592-best-way-to-invest-a-large-lump-sum-of-money-100-300k

@Patti Robertson, that was an excellent post.