Every day most of us go to this technology for personal use….to find vendors, forgotten phone numbers addresses, old friends.   I’m not advocating that you use random internet data to make decisions on liability issues. However, there are a multitude of official sites that can be accessed on the internet.  

If you cannot find the information via one of our FA proprietary tools you can go directly to government databases to assist you with determining property values, real property taxes, assessments, recording fees, the use and/or classification of property, and in some jurisdictions property ownership.   News articles can be researched if you are handling the development of property that may be controversial to the community.  The easiest way to locate some of these URLs is to “google” your question or the name of the jurisdiction and some other key words of the subject matter you are searching for. If you don’t hit what you need the first time, try rearranging your search words. I have found that doing a little digging has frequently assisted with putting me in a position to ask the right questions and get the answers I need.

I commend the District of Columbia on their technology. You will find answers and forms on the www.dc.gov website.   Take a look and view ROD forms, real property tax payment dates. Happy Googling.