Sneaky, easy real estate research

My wife and I bought our first house in November, 2007 after relocating to Wilmington, North Carolina from northern Virginia. The homes that we looked at in the area were delightfully affordable when compared to those outside of DC where I had recently rented a crappy little three-bedroom apartment for almost $1,900/month.

I put my analytic skills to the test and decided to find the best possible deal I could on a home. I was enlightened to two free research tools with no registration requirement that proved to be absolutely priceless:

1. My county's Register of Deeds website - a county-sponsored site that has information about all of the real estate in the county. It's updated weekly with data related to sales dates and prices, square footage, number of bedrooms, etc. Real estate agents will use this to discern a fair sales price for a home by searching for recent sales in a neighborhood and calculating an average price per square foot.
   
   A simple search might look something like this: "Show me the sales prices of all the homes that sold in the past three months in neighborhood #2145 with at least three bedrooms and at least two bathrooms." This is extremely useful when making an offer on a home, and a good way to keep your Realtor honest.
   
   Most counties in the US have a site similar to my county's. I searched for information on Otsego County, NY -- the county I grew up in. Their site has the same basic data, but a different interface. To find the real estate site for your county, Google is a place to start. Search for the county name, plus the words "GIS," "tax," "assessor," or "deeds." One of these will usually get you where you need to be. If you're not having any luck, try going to the county's website and looking for a sub-site for the office of the county tax assessor, register of deeds, or GIS department (which may be classified with the Planning department).
   
   Keep in mind that with the county sites, you have the potential to get really stalky/creepy with your searches. At least with my county's site, you can search for people by name and, if they're homeowners, you can find their address, the size of their home, and how much they paid for their home. If you've ever wondered who the noisy neighbors are at house 1523 on your street, you can look that up by address and get as much info as you'd like about them.
   
   
   
   
2. Zillow.com - A website that is essentially a single interface and repository for the nation's county real estate websites - It doesn't have the same level of data as most county websites, but it adds some additional features like estimating a home's market value, showing a map with recent sales, and the giving the option to claim a home and add a subjective description.
   
   Zillow is particularly helpful if you're searching for a home in a county whose real estate website is either non-existant or poorly designed . If you want to know how much houses are selling for in a particular neighborhood in the country, simply enter as much of the address into their search bar and let 'er rip!
   
   The site also provides services to connect you with lenders, etc.

It's not that I don't ever trust realtors, but I don't just trust them automatically. If you're working with someone that you don't know or haven't been referred to, there is a serious potential for a conflict of interest between their goals and your own. Agents, whether you're buying or selling, can steer you in a direction that will allow them to hasten the sale either by convincing a seller to accept less or encouraging a buyer to pay more. Though their pay comes from comission and is tied directly to the sales price, a difference of a few thousand dollars in sales price can mean a lot to the party that is buying or selling. Convincing a client to pay or accept an unfair price -- even though it may harm the agent's commission -- can save the agent days or weeks of work (well worth a slight reduction of commission).

Give yourself the tools you'll need to make wise decisions with real estate. Don't just take your agent's word for it that you're getting or paying a fair price for a home. Look up the recent sales for yourself. Just proving to your agent that you're no rookie in real estate research will truly keep him or her bargaining effectively on your behalf.

In the meantime, try and find your county or city's real estate website. They're fun tools to play with! Just don't get too creepy with your analysis...