There are a lot of free tools that help you along your way of becoming a real estate expert. Your eagerness to buy an investment property shows that you have drive and motivation as a beginning investor. While some people seem to get lucky with a property, most people need to perform a lot of due diligence before making an informed purchase. One of the practices that can help you when buying property in Florida is a property records search. Counties like Duval have a public Duval county property search feature. A simple search can give you a lot of inside information that used to be limited to real estate agents or brokers. Now you are allowed to get in on the secret.
Duval County Property Search
Property searches are important. These can be thought of as a tool to help you verify all data. When you are interested in a property, accessing this public information can help you. Often times when you deal with a realtor or owner, you have to take his or her word about certain aspects of the property. Things like actual acreage, annual property tax, total home value and past sales history can be verified. Having this information before you make a purchase could change the outcome of the sale. You can immediately notice red flags in the researched information and the listing information that you are presented before sale.
It is very common to do more than one property search. Since most of the data is publicly available, it is likely that you are not the only investor that is doing public searches. The website, http://apps.coj.net, is the resource the you will use to perform a Duval county search. The information is very informative and can tell you things you never knew about a property that interests you. You do not need to rely on anyone else to obtain this information for you. This is a useful tool that you will likely use over and over again as a FL real estate investor.
Additional Property Search Methods
The square footage, number of bedrooms and past property tax information is very helpful to know This public information will educate you before you make your actual turnkey property or private property purchase. One thing that a public search will not reveal to you is lien information. Some new investors do know that creditors, mechanics and contractors can put liens on a property. This can be an unwelcome surprise after a closing is completed. Some new investors that are eager to make a property purchase do not know about these hidden real estate expenses.
A worst case scenario could involve purchasing a property that is full of back liens that must be paid before you can receive the deed to the property. Some turnkey property companies do not own the homes that are offered and liens are common. Working with an expert turnkey property company is one way to avoid a lien. You can do a private search for liens on a property for a fee by contacting the Duval county clerk of courts at this website.