How do I find out who owns the land/lot next to our home?

[Moochie]

We might buy the lot next to our house so we can move the chickens away from neighbors who will be moving in soon, we don't want them complaining. I have no idea where to start as to find out on how to buy the lot next to us. Would we contact our county's zoning office or something? Any help would be appreciated.
There are no signs on the empty lots next to our house so I'm not able to call a number.

 

[Back2MyRoots]

Your county courthouse will have plat maps with a listing of every owner for every single acre in your county. To find out who owns it, you can check with the revenue commissioner's office/office of land tax.

 

[TurtlePowerTrav]

Your county courthouse will have plat maps with a listing of every owner for every single acre in your county. To find out who owns it, you can check with the revenue commissioner's office/office of land tax.

I love you Signature. Switchfoot is such a great band.

 

[Back2MyRoots]

I love you Signature. Switchfoot is such a great band.

Why thank ya! Love them too! Dare You to Move and Evergreen are my fave songs!

 

[Mattemma]

I look up properties at our county auditors web page.You just type in the name,address,or parcel number. Will give you the lot size,taxes on it,last sale,and addy of who owns it.Love the ease of it.If your county does not have it online then you just go or call the auditors.They want their tax money,so they will have those records current,lol.

 

[MamaRoo]

I ask my neighbor who's lived here her entire life and seems to know every property owner within a 5 mile radius, their personal histories, kids, grandkids, etc.

 

[mandelyn]

You should have a county auditor site. Type in your county name with "auditor" and the page should come up. It will be a .gov listing. A map site called "cagis" will show you the boundaries of it.

We're under contract to buy a house, and I was able to glean a lot of information about it before we even went to see it. I knew where the property lines went, what was around the area, how the house was really situated on the lot.

The lot next door to this property is empty, and our first thought was "buy it!". The house that was there burnt down some years ago, and it's just been sitting. With the house number, we can type that into the auditor site by street name, and get a current name and address to the deed holder.

Oh, and it will also list the tax assessment value. Look in zillow or similar site to see what lots of the same size have sold for in the area. That way you can come up with a fair price to offer.

Be aware there are certain tax write offs for owning property like that, and some owners may not be willing to part with it. Just depends on their situation.

 

[oldrooster]

As some has mentioned it may be on your counties web site (or a site they have a link to where it's under their control but maintained by an outside vendor) or you can go to your county government office (it might be in your county court house or another building, where I live our county offices are in 3 different buildings, and if you accidentally go to the wrong building usually someone can tell you what building and floor you need to go to) but they have addresses and names for the owners, along with the info others mentioned before. but they may not want to sell. next to my mom's house is a very small lot between her neighbor in back and her .18 of an acre. yes, less than a quarter acre and the guy has no intentions of selling it, it is long and skinny and is of no value to him or anybody else really. I tried to buy it from him just in case my mom wanted to sell and someone wanted to buy out the neighbor also and have an uninterrupted track of land he wouldn't sell. I am glad it's in the woods because we never even realized there was another land owner between mom and her neighbor (he never knew either he was shocked when we told him). My dad owned the property before he and my mother married so the family has had it for 40+ years and the neighbor who thought he owned next to mom has been there for 50+ years . The guy pays his $4-5 or so tax bill every year so their is no hope of a tax sell. but what he sees in a land locked piece of land that is so small that you can't use it for anything (I mean he doesn't have enough space to put a sidewalk down the middle of the strip because of set backs in the county zoneing laws we have even if he puts in a 2 inch wide sidewalk!).

 

[Moochie]

Hmm, that's something to think about. We know who owns the lot behind us and he did try to sell to my mom but in my mom's opinion he wanted too much for it. I think it's only .30 of an acre and he wants 10k for it. My mom says she'll buy the one next to us if it's $5k and she can pay it in cash. But if the person doesn't intend on selling it then that's a doozy for us. We need somewhere to move our laying flock since someone bought the house next to us.. Our laying flock [made up of about 30 chickens] is right next to house just about. I'm sure new neighbors wouldn't be accustomed to the morning egg songs. There is a wooden fence but like I said it's really close to their house, I'd have to guess our backyard fence is 7ft away from their house. They haven't moved in yet but there were workers in there last week fixing up the place and they actually had loud music on to avoid the noise from my girls. :/

 

[duckinnut]

Your local town hall assessor's office should have the info you need if not the county assessor's office will most definitely have it. Most towns and counties have property taxes and who pays them. It is usually in giant books in their office that is available to to everyone. Just look up your street and then the parcel. It will tell the owner of record and it's valuation which doesn't always mean what it is worth. Worth less if it is un-buildable.