I know you might have a hard time believing this, but government record-keeping is often not the most, shall we say, technologically advanced process. Some of its data is nearly impossible to look up and manipulate.
But let’s face it. County records for your investing area can hold a treasure trove of information for real estate investors. Spending a day in the county records can provide you with a whole list of motivated sellers. Or maybe a large amount of cash buyers.
Who wants to spend a day at the county records office? Not me. Not unless I have to. Wouldn’t it be much better to search those records online from the comfort of your home?
Now you can. Not just records for one county. Records for every county in the U.S. If a county has a record online, you can find it from just one website.
One Stop Shopping
The website is called Netronline. The folks at this website have made finding records on properties very easy – well at least as easy as each individual county has made it.
You see, every county in the U.S. is different in how they make real estate records available to the public. They range from not having any records online at all (in which case grab a lunch – you might be at the county recorder’s office for a while) to having a very advanced service that can let you search and view all county records online.
Netronline can’t control how a county organizes its records. What they control is how to find those records. When you head over to the Netronline website, they have several options that can really help your investing:
Become a Tree Hugger and Increase Your Property Value
The first data you can pull is ‘Environmental Data.’ Clicking on this tab will allow you to search a whole lot of government databases to determine if there are any environmental issues within at least a mile radius of your subject property. Just type in the address and an interactive map will show up listing all environmental concerns within 1 mile of your property.
Some examples of the environmental information you can use are:
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Flood zones that will dramatically impact insurance rates on the property
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Superfund sites – who wants to live near that?
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Closed and open landfills
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Wastewater discharge sites
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Power generator sites
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And other nasty areas that will turn off prospective home buyers
Once you see the map, you can also create a free PDF report about your property. You can use this report to reassure buyers that their property is free of environmental hazards (or disclose to them that there might be a problem).
On the buying side, you can use these reports to negotiate the price down of a potential property that you want to purchase. If the property itself has an environmental problem that you can solve, it might mean HUGE profits for you.
Accessing Public Records in Your Underwear
Whatever apparel you decide to wear while working on your computer, Netronline provides access to all the online records of every state and every county in the U. S. of A.
Just click on a state on the map. Another page will come up with a list of counties for that state. Click on a county and it will provide links to all your county information. Typically the county information includes links to the following useful websites for investors:
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County Appraisers – You can find all kinds of property values, tax records, determine if a property is behind on their taxes, and general information about the property.
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Register of Deeds – Find all the documents about a property. Who sold it? To Whom? When? Did they assign it? That could be a wholesaler selling to a cash buyer. Maybe that cash buyer wants to buy properties from you as well?
These records can be particularly helpful when you are virtually wholesaling out of your own area. The chances you will want to go to a courthouse in Kansas when you live in Connecticut are pretty slim. With Netronline, you will be able to find all the records you need all in one place.
How Does Netronline Make Money?
Netronline also makes further reports and lists available for a fee. Among many products they offer include:
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Foreclosure listings in your area
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People search to locate owners of abandoned properties
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Title searches
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Specific title and document reports
All of this information can be invaluable in finding and closing great deals with motivated sellers. A bunch of this is also only available if you pay a title agent to find it for you. Now you can just order it online.
Public and governmental records have historically been an obstacle for many investors. People just didn’t want to invest the time or want to deal with the bureaucracy. But they had to in order to find the lists of motivated sellers.
Now, Netronline is knocking down that obstacle. Take advantage of it before the crowds come rushing in!
Whatcha Gotta Say?
Have you used Netronline and love it? Tell us about it below.
Search Public Records – They are a treasure trove of information to find deals.
Network at the County Offices – If you do go down to the office, talk to the people there. If they know what you are looking for, they can lead you to new sources of leads. You can also meet people there, like divorce and probate lawyers, who will feed you even more leads.
Perform Your Due Diligence – Environmental data is one part of due diligence. Find out everything about a property you can before you buy it.
JP Moses
is a real estate investor in Memphis, TN, with experience ranging from land lording to note buying, rehabbing, and wholesaling. However, wholesaling is the area that he enjoys most and where he bring the most experience and expertise to his students.