Monday, January 26, 2015

My Favorite Websites To Research Real Estate Related Values

Our team uses a number of websites to pull information that we use to construct offers. Here are the top five websites we use:

RedFin

RedFin is by far my favorite website to use to research property values. You can easily find everything from comparable sales,  current listings and filter down to the specific types of properties. The best way to use the website is to actually log in so that you can see neighborhood information and comparables sold. Many times, RedFin will also give you value estimate ranges from Zillow and Eppraisal.com.

RedFin Example




Zillow

Zillow is my second favorite website to pull information about properties. It's easier to use than the MLS although the information isn't always as extensive. While I typically find their property value estimates useless, the rent estimates are usually pretty good. Zillow is also good for learning more about pre-foreclosure properties and oftentimes has more information on the property's history than RedFin. That being said, I typically use RedFin and Zillow together.

Zillow Example


Trulia

Zillow's purchase of Trulia was finalized in December 2014. To my understanding they still independently operate and do not share much data between one another. I don't use Trulia nearly as much as I used to but it's still a good source of information on a property.

Trulia


Rentometer

Rentometer is an excellent tool for finding current market rents for properties. Just input the property address and the number of bedrooms and voila! Instant market rent information. One of my favorite things about rentometer is that you can narrow in and not only see historic rents but also current listings as well. I also like to see what potential rents might look like if we increase or decrease the number of bedrooms in a property.

Rentometer Rent Estimate Example


Tax Assessor's Website

The tax assessor's website has a wealth of information including current owners, what they paid for the property and the tax assessor's value estimate. You can also call the county tax assessor's office to find out if there any back taxes on the property. This can be especially useful on vacant/abandoned properties where taxes might not have been paid for years. To find your county tax assessor's site, simply search for your "[County] tax assessor" replacing [COUNTY" with your county's name.

Fulton County Tax Assessor's Website


Tell me in the comments below...

What websites or services do you use to research property values?  

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