How to Find Your Dream Home with Property Lookup

Whether or not people may be looking for another simple place to live or they are searching cautiously and diligently for the perfect dream home, it's always wise to be able to know exactly what you may be getting. Real estate agents will be working hard on getting you the best deal and doing their best to make everyone's lists of wishes marry the list of realities about the property. However, when you are hearing words like "encumbrances" or "bank-owned" and your confidence in your home-buying decision may falter a bit. Not to worry!

By using property lookup tools in order to find important details about property information, home buying can become much less stressful for everyone. Use these resources that are available to help find the perfect dream home and even possibly save some extra money along the way just by doing a little research!

Five Steps to Using Property Lookup in Finding a Dream Home  

1. Use the Best Online Tools
2. Do a Public Records Search
3. Perform a Title Search
4. Check Property Tax Records
5. Ask a Real Estate Agent

The Steps Explained

The first step in finding a dream home is trying to find some real estate listings or homes for sale online. The Internet has multiple tools for real estate lookup, but which are the leading ones that will get you the most useful information? There are several sites that stand out for several reasons, even though each site definitely has its pros and cons.

Redfin, one of the leading sources for listings, works directly with MLS (Multiple Listing Service), one of the top real estate agent listing tools, so Redfin homes are always up to date. Realtor.com, while not as shiny or advanced as other sites, is run by the Realtor experts; the National Association of Realtors. Zillow.com uses a different tactic called Zestimates. It essentially relies on past home sales and public records to put together an educated estimate of a home and uses multiple sources to pull its information from; not just MLS. It's basically doing some research for you by getting information from public records, agents, MLS, etc.

Public records are an accurate and resourceful way to find out the property information and people have multiple ways to get it! They are available to anyone at the county courthouse or a city hall, or you may look up the information at a local library.

Performing a title search can certainly help uncover a wealth of information about a property. Along with providing a copy of a deed, some companies can also find out if there were previous liens on the property.

Local counties will do a little more in the search efforts for property information by providing what's known as a tax record. Most counties provide this service online of course in the form of a database search, but the tax record should provide a lot of information about the land, including the parcel number (assigned to that specific plot of land) and tax ID. It should also show who the previous owners were and how much tax is owed (if any).

Finally, while all of these resources are great tools for either finding a gem or avoiding regrets on the housing market, don't forget to use the greatest asset available to you; your real estate agent. He or she has seen many different neighborhoods, homes, and buying and selling situations. Don't be afraid to ask questions, or ask for knowledge or tips because it's there for the taking!