Home Buying 101: Researching A Home’s Public Information

Public information is available for almost every home in and around the Twin Cities Metro Area, and likely most of the country. The basics of who owns the home, the tax basis, and the prior sale information can usually be found on the various county websites. For instance, our office resides in a large office building. The building’s county information looks like this:

It states that the building was purchased for $25,000,000 in June, 2000. The owner is “7700 France Avenue LLC.” It also shows the taxes for 2015 were $961,005.60 and that there were no special assessments. There is also a link to a map view that overlays the lot lines on a satellite view. Note that this is not extremely accurate, certainly not accurate enough to put in a fence. But it gives a pretty good idea of the lot. Here is our office complex:

Here is a link to a page with more resources:
https://searchingtwincities.com/buyer-resources/