Learn More About Researching Real Estate

When you start on the road to buying a new house, it's very important that you research that home before signing on the dotted line. Here are the best ways that you can research a home.

Go Through a Real Estate Agent

Real estate agents already know a lot about home ownership and research, and that makes them the perfect people for this. In fact, real estate agents tend to come briefed with information that might not even be in the public records yet. Whether that's specialized information that the sellers provided or just information that the agency collected from other agencies, it might surprise you to learn how much these agents know.

When you talk to your real estate agent, just make sure you ask what you need to know about your home. A lot of the time, that agent will actually be able to get you the information with no additional work on your part. If the agent is missing anything, that agent should tell you about that missing information directly.

Talk to the Sellers or Previous Buyers

Obviously, this isn't perfect. At least at the beginning, the sellers will want to represent the entire home as positively as possible so that you're more likely to fall in love and want to buy it. But even those who are representing the home positively will often reveal a few important details just to make sure it doesn't look like they're being fake. And it helps to be upfront with any obvious issues that are sure to come up during a professional home inspection anyway.

You can get the most transparency from the start if a bank is actually selling the home and you can get in touch with the previous owners. You can use the PeopleFinders address lookup to find the previous owners and residents, and then try to get in touch to ask them about what they really liked and disliked. This no-holds-barred review can help you learn much more about your potential property.

Use Public Records

A great way to get more information not just about the home, but also about the area around the home, is to use public records. These records can help you get tax valuation, neighborhood crime information and other knowledge that can really help you. Though the real estate agent might have some of this information already, public records can help you fill in the gaps (or to help you create this dossier entirely if you aren't using an agent).

If you want to get public records on a home that you're interested in, consider using PeopleFinders. Rather than having to go through a real estate agency or any other similar organization, you can simply perform the public records search on your own.

What Type of Things Do I Need to Know About a Home?

If you're going to use any of these methods of obtaining information, it's good that you know what kind of information you can get from them.

Tax Value

The tax value of a specific home allows you to learn more about how much profit the seller is likely hoping to get from the sale of the house. If the appraised tax value is significantly lower than the current price, for example, that may be a good sign that you'll be able to negotiate the price down further. It gives you an idea of the rock-bottom price for the house that you might be able to actually achieve.

Tax value information also helps you find some insight into how much you'll pay in property taxes. You have to pay property taxes at certain valuations. Though the property might appreciate and depreciate throughout time, it at least gives you a basic starting point. You can also check on homes nearby to see whether the one you're interested in specifically has a much lower or higher tax value.

Neighborhood Crime

The neighborhood in which a property is located can have an enormous impact on how much you enjoy living there. If you hate your neighbors or the neighborhood overflows with crime, it's much more likely that you'll have an awful time in your new home. No one wants that, and that's why you should check for your neighborhood statistics using PeopleFinders.

Crime statistics are a very important and useful way to determine whether you want to live in a specific place. Make sure you don't just look at general crime statistics nearby, but also at specific criminal records for other nearby neighborhoods. You can use the PeopleFinders address lookup to find nearby homeowners and residents, and then try to look up those individuals to see if any of them have a criminal history.

Rate of Sales

How many different owners has this property had? How often does it sell? Does it seem like the property historically sells or rents? These are all very important questions to ask about the home that you might not have thought of before now. This "rate of sale" can help you get additional information about your upcoming purchase.

If you notice any strange trends in this statistic, it's worth looking into. For example, if the home tends to quickly run through owners or residents, that might be a red flag when it comes to the rest of the neighborhood. But if the home only had a few owners throughout its entire existence, you've likely found a great opportunity.

What Search Options Are Important When Researching a Home?

Now that you know what you should look for, it's important to see what kind of searches can really help your research into your potential future home. Use these PeopleFinders tools to get more information.

Address Lookup

This can help give you additional knowledge regarding a neighborhood's background, the past residents, and the actual property records, among other things. You only need to provide the actual street address, and you should be able to look everything up on your own.

Essentially, this gives you the basics regarding the actual location. You should perform an address lookup on every home you consider buying. Even if you don't end up moving into actual negotiations, having this information should be basic knowledge for your house hunting.

Criminal Records Search

Before you move into a new place, you want to make sure you know everything about the old owners, the old residents, the neighbors and others nearby. Criminal records are a hugely important part of that. You don't want to move in and then discover you have a registered sex offender living next door.

Knowing about and understanding the severity of neighbors' criminal records are an important part of living in any place. It takes more time to successfully perform criminal records searches on the potentially large group of people living around you. But as you get closer to genuinely putting in an offer, you should try to put in the time to do it.

People Search

The people search gives you additional options and allows you to verify people's information. It's one of the best ways that you can actually make sure everyone's telling the truth. Especially when it comes to the place where you'll live for at least many years, it's a good idea to verify everyone's identity, no matter who you're talking about.

At the end of the day, if you're looking for the broadest strokes, you're probably looking for the PeopleFinders people search. It can take some time to successfully master and learn how to use properly. But once you do, it's a useful tool for a variety of different situations. When researching a house to buy, learn how to use the people search to make sure that you and your family will be safer in your new home.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can peoplefinders.com help with home research?

If you are attempting to research a home to buy, PeopleFinders can help by sharing as much available public records information as possible about that property.

Can I do home research for free on peoplefinders.com?

By conducting an address search, you can see some basic information for free. However, you will have to pay for the in-depth property records report.

How can I do home research online?

You can look up more information about a home by looking it up using a general web search. Or you can see what's available on certain real estate sites.

How do public records help with home research?

A home's property records are all part of the public record, which means you can access information about property value, tax history, occupancy and ownership history, when it was last sold and for how much, and more.

Where else can I go to conduct home research?

See if you can check out the home in-person to see if you can get a good feel for the house and the property.

How Do I Research a Home Before Buying?