Where do you go to see what houses sold for?

[gretchenindisguise]

Tamb's post prompted me to check out real estate listings in our old town. We're still hemming and hawing if we should re-list our house or conitnue to rent.

I noticed our neighbors house is listed, so now my curiousity is all picqued and I'll be obsessively checking to see if they're able to sell.

I wanted to check to see if others in our neighborhood have sold. I looked on trulia and it only showed 2 foreclosures. My mom looked on zillow and found some, but it's showing none sold in the entire zipcode since 12/4/12. I guess that's possible, but seems unlikely to me.

So where to do you go for that information? Or is that something only realtors have access to?

[Deleted]

Can you try ziprealty? Do they have that where you are?

[lemondrop]

I *think* that's all public record after the sale has closed. I think county websites have that info somewhere.

[tdk2]

They ones that have recently sold are taking a long time to show up on sites for what they went for. (at least that's what we've seen) Sometimes it's b/c it's a pending short sale, waiting on bank approval. Others are homepath properties for which the sale has fallen through a few times, a variety of reasons.

Generally, we browse realtor.com (iphone app easier than their website, i think), zillow, trulia, and I'll try to think of what others. You can see some of the HUD homes before they actually get listed as they're getting near releasing them if you look on homepath.com

[luckyval]

Feb 5, 2013 15:51:58 GMT -5 lemondrop said:

I *think* that's all public record after the sale has closed. I think county websites have that info somewhere.

They do, but it can be a pita to search general areas. In my area, at least, you have to go address by address

truila and zillow are two that I've looked at before

eta: I will totally scope out people's home value/purchase price from time to time on the county's tax site. I'm nosy like that

[RBL]

Feb 5, 2013 15:51:58 GMT -5 lemondrop said:

I *think* that's all public record after the sale has closed. I think county websites have that info somewhere.

This.

i go to the county website and look it up.  It's a public record.

[ralphlauren]

zillow
trulia

[gretchenindisguise]

Ok, so help me out. If it's public record - where do I go to look for it to see if it's easily accesible for that county? Just the county's website? County tax assessor?

[luckyval]

Go to the county govt. website and the Department of Revenue's page. There, you should be able to access a link to Real Estate Records

[daisybuchannan]

Ive used zillow before. The assessments have been way off though.

[lemondrop]

Feb 5, 2013 15:53:56 GMT -5 luckyval said:

Feb 5, 2013 15:51:58 GMT -5 lemondrop said:

I *think* that's all public record after the sale has closed. I think county websites have that info somewhere.

They do, but it can be a pita to search general areas. In my area, at least, you have to go address by address

truila and zillow are two that I've looked at before

eta: I will totally scope out people's home value/purchase price from time to time on the county's tax site. I'm nosy like that

DH looks at this stuff all the time on the County's site. He's nosy like that!

[gretchenindisguise]

Ok, I think I found the spot. Not electronic. I can find appraisal information, but that's it.

btw - how do you get your house re-appraised by county officials? There is a dramatic difference between our appraisal and our neighbor's appraisal - and aside from a few things (+/-'s in each house) they are literally the exact same house.

[tdk2]

how quickly do you see them show up on county sites? Ours doesn't seem to be great for it.

[jssymom14]

We always check the county assessors office to see if crazy neighbor has paid his back taxes. His house is going up for possible demolition next week by the city! Yeah

[sjh722]

If your state requires a sales disclosure (not a seller's disclosure of the condition of the house), that's usually online and has the sales price, date, seller, buyer. If you google your state + sales disclosure you might get a search site to pop up.

The county assessor might only have the tax assessed value, which can be different depending on where you live.

[manders]

I work in assessing. The assessor's office is mandated to have these sales for public view. At least in NJ. I know my office makes it pretty easy to look at. Only problem is that in a lot of cities/townships the office hours are limited.

[moolarkey]

In Ohio you would get that information at the county auditor's office for the county where the property is located. I believe all counties are now online and are searchable owners' name or address and some other identifiers like parcel number.

[Bonita]

Feb 5, 2013 16:10:12 GMT -5 gretchenindisguise said:

Ok, I think I found the spot. Not electronic. I can find appraisal information, but that's it.

btw - how do you get your house re-appraised by county officials? There is a dramatic difference between our appraisal and our neighbor's appraisal - and aside from a few things (+/-'s in each house) they are literally the exact same house.

We filed an Property Assessment Appeal - the way to request one is actually through our State's Assessments & Taxation site and not the county for some reason.

You may just want to google your county or state and "Assessment Appeal" or "Assessment Appeal Process" and see what comes up.

It was pretty easy to do, and they reduced our assessment wayyyyy down thankfully   Keep in mind that if you go through with the appeal the value can go UP as well...we were confident ours would go down, so we went for it!