Dig DEEP into PUBLIC RECORDS
Posted by Belle
Updated: March 7th, 2010
BEWARE of Those Around You!
We’re your typical American small family: one child, one car, and very little savings. So when the opportunity came around to buy a new home we were floored with excitement!
Having just moved from Arizona, we knew we wanted to rent for a while and check out the neighborhoods one by one. We followed Orlando’s guidebooks and strolled through up-and-coming neighborhoods and talked to locals to get the vibe.
Search Public Records Securely
When it came to picking a neighborhood, my concerns naturally had to do with access to schools, life and culture, and the kind of people surrounding us. I also wanted to know if there were any sex offenders living nearby. While you can’t just go *ask* your neighbors about these things, I was able to find all kinds of good, useful in public records web sites.
I’ve tried a bunch of sites, and the one I recommend far and away is to me the most comprehensive. To find out which one it is, read my SCAM Alert! If staying safe is important, this recommendation is worth every penny, and it lets you go much deeper than I had expected!
How Deep?
For instance, I found out I could research home-owners by typing in an address. So here I am, a potential home-buyer, and there I went, searching neighborhoods near and far. I took a bunch of screen shots (see below) of public records data such as:
- Home purchase date
- Home purchase price
- Estimated home value
- Neighbors, including all of the above data for each one
So, when my husband and I found a potential house, I gathered as much info as possible. I didn’t want to be dreaming about a place whose neighbors were convicted sex offenders or had criminal records longer than a laundry list!
As it turns out, the house we liked had neighbor with several charges for “illegal drug possession”–we even wondered if he’d been growing stuff right there in his house which looked looked perfectly nice from the outside! In any case, there were a few other things besides this that ultimately convinced us to hold off and wait for the perfect home. Thank goodness for public records!
Hey, I’m sorry if you wanted to hear all about our dream home! But this story does have a happy ending. We’re safe and sound and we know our future house is… worth the wait, and the research. So Be Safe, Be Smart, Be in Control!
READ THIS: Public Records ONLINE SCAM Alert!
~ Belle
I am having trouble w/public record search. govsearchrecords.com was a bust. what next?
Of course, I see that you have an affiliate relationship with Net Detective, so anything you say good about them has to be taken in the context that you only stand to benefit by saying good things about them. It’d be better if you were like Consumer Reports that doesn’t profit from the companies it rates.
This being said, I still would like to find a public records search website that actually allows me to sign up for a trial subscription for free without me needing to give my credit card number or other personal information other than an e-mail address. If after the trial I like it, I’d gladly fork over the money to continue, but every public records search website I’ve been to so far wants me to give them money first.
There are plenty of companies that allow people to sign up for services free without revealing credit card or other personal information. Some never charge (e.g., http://www.acrobat.com, http://www.youtube.com, http://www.flickr.com, etc.).
Is there a public search website that allows people to do real searches without giving up personal information or credit card numbers?
Hi Steve,
I am being totally honest. I have tried all of the public records search engines–intellius, us peoplesearch, peoplefinders, net detective, peoplesearchnow, public-records-now, govesearchrecords, and a lot more not worth mentioning. What I can say is the best clearly rise to the surface, and it is my wish to save you time, money and effort by showing you what works for ME. So, in the end it’s just advice–feel free to take it or leave it.
About the free trial, hey! wouldn’t we all like a free trial?? Maybe some of these companies will give us something like that some day soon. But from what I understand, it takes a good heap of technology–servers, storage, feeds–as well as manpower–programmers, maintenance, and database architects–to provide the kind of service I would call Great.
I do recall that Net Detective provides a FREE “teaser” search where you can enter a name and actually tap into their database. That way you can see if the names exist BEFORE YOU PAY. If anyone is interested I can try to dig up that url for you. Maybe I’ll even create a new article on that.
~ Belle
GovRegistry.us is a site that is a scam. I just paid for the premium service and when I did a search, the person I was looking for came up but to get any info they want you to pay more money.
Jeff,
Yeah I have stayed away from those guys. Thanks for signaling a warning. Everyone needs to hear it.
~ Belle
I PAID FOR A WEBSITE FOR PUBLIC RECORDS WEBSITE BUT I WAS NEVER GIVEN THE WEBSITE SO I CANNO ACCESS IT. WHAT DO I DO?
THANKYOU
Zelma,
What site did you pay for? I’d like to know! If an organization is stealing from innocent consumers, I would feel obligated to blow the whistle. I look forward to your response.
~ Belle