locating a piece of property from a legal description.

[dmccarty]

My county has GIS and tax information online. I can use the GIS function to look around on a map of the county, see parcels and get owner information about the parcels. Then I can looking up tax records. All of this can be done at home since the information is on the county website.

Before they were on the Internet, I would go to the GIS office and do all of this on their computer. They also would print out parcels on large maps, something like 3'x4' in size, for a reasonable amount of money.

This only gets you who currently owns the land. If I wanted to track down the ownership over the years, I would have to go to the Department of Deeds, and start reading from the current owner to see who they bought the land from, then look that person up, and repeat. It can make for some interesting reading.

Later,
Dan

 

[California]

If I wanted to track down the ownership over the years, I would have to go to the Department of Deeds, and start reading from the current owner to see who they bought the land from, then look that person up, and repeat.

If you are lucky every recorded transfer will reference book/page of the previous transfer (as well as just names) so tracing back isn't quite the puzzle it might sound like.