Parcel, deed, and tax assessor data — what’s the difference between them, and which type of data do you need? If you are a real estate agent, how can parcel data improve your client experience or increase traffic to your website? If you are a marketer, what value added is deed or tax data to your marketing efforts? It’s worthwhile understanding parcel vs. deed vs. tax data, the different data points they include, and the role they can play in your business strategy.
ATTOM offers all three of these valuable resources. Your needs may be met by one of them, or you may need all three. Here’s a breakdown of what you need to know about these similar but different real estate data types.
What Is Parcel Data?
Parcels, or property boundaries, can be defined as a shape or polygon and displayed on a map. These mapped areas comprise parcel data, and they might also show points of latitude and longitude, streets, or zip codes. Parcel data also includes ownership details, acreage, and the boundaries for the parcels. This type of data is used by real estate professionals, property valuers, lawyers, insurance companies, land use planners, and developers.
These data are available mapped or displayed as text and are accessible, typically through data platform application programming interfaces (API).
Who Uses Parcel Data
It’s not just bickering neighbors who need to know where their property boundaries begin and end. Plenty of business sectors integrate boundary data into their daily analytics and decision-making processes.
Real Estate Agents
Buyers want to know how much land they are buying along with a property, but how about the property’s proximity to electrical infrastructure, or its potential for investment in renewable energy? Supplying this type of data to buyers and investors, which shows potential investment opportunity, allows brokers and agents to go above and beyond the norms for customer service
County Assessors
County assessors use boundary maps to determine land size, which affects home values and property tax amounts. Boundary maps also ensure that the ownership of all land is clearly documented in property ownership records.
Infrastructure and Energy Developers
Parcel data is created using geographic information systems (GIS) and mapping software. These maps are tailor-made for infrastructure and energy developers who need to know where there may be potential hazards and to aid them in their due diligence, obtaining permits, and adhering to legal requirements.
Investors and Developers
Parcel data can be combined with hazard data to locate toxic spills, areas affected by pollution, or impaired drinking water, Hazards like these are often overlooked, but once exposed, they can rapidly devalue property and land. Parcel data is integral to assessing present and future land value for strategic investments.
Utility Companies
Electric, gas and cable companies need boundary data to know where to go to fix outages. Boundary maps help them locate the best places to install new wires, cables, and pipes.
Urban Development
Urban planners combine parcel data with demographic data to assess community needs and plan future projects. Mapped parcel data can be integrated with economic data, crime statistics, and neighborhood data to get a clear overall picture of the characteristics of a geographic area.
ATTOM’s parcel boundary data include:
- Parcel/property boundary map
- Identifiers (ATTOM ID, APN, FIPS)
- Ownership information
- Profile information
- Last sale amount
What Is Deed Data?
Deed data include the information contained within a property deed. Unlike parcel data, deed data is not map-based although the data points can be overlaid on a map. A property deed is a legal document that transfers ownership of real estate and is required for real estate transactions, legal proceedings, and tracking property ownership history.
Deeds are public property records collected by a government official, such as the county recorder, clerk-recorder, registrar of title, or recorder of deeds. They are a public record of property ownership.
The deed will show the following:
- names of the seller (grantor) and buyer (grantee)
- the date of the transfer
- the legal description of the property, including location and boundaries
- the purchase price
- where the deed was officially recorded.
- document number assigned to the deed
Deed data are used for title searches, property assessments, real estate transactions, and historical research. Anyone who needs legal documentation of property transfers needs deed data.
Transaction Histories for Mortgage and Refinance Companies
Loan history or liens can affect a real estate transaction. Deed data show the history of a property and assist mortgage lenders with their lending products. Deed data provide insights into the financial health of property owners.
Better Targeting for Marketers
Marketers can target campaigns using deed data. For example, they can create lists based on last sale information, lender information, historical transactions, and more.
Competitive Analysis for Property Investors
Investors or flippers can use deed information to see who is buying and selling properties in an area. This can reveal the competitors in a market and how successful they are.
Mitigating Property Insurance Risk
Deed data are used for risk modeling analysis performed by insurance companies when creating homeowner insurance policies.
ATTOM’s recorder data include:
- Property identification
- Assessor’s parcel number (APN)
- FIPS code
- Buyer data
- Seller data
- Transfer details (arms-length/non-arms-length, sale/transfer amount, recording date, document number)
- Loan details (mortgage amount, loan term, recording date, lender name, loan type, lender code)
What Is Tax Data?
Tax data are collected by the county tax assessor. Tax data include property identification, addresses, current and past property ownership, legal descriptions, property features, property values, and taxes.
Data for Property Insurance
From the number of bedrooms and bathrooms to the construction material used in a home, assessor data are integral to generating property and casualty insurance policies.
Mortgage
Confirming address, ownership, and understanding beds, baths, and square footage are necessary components of underwriting a mortgage, and this information is often re-verified during the escrow process. Tax data meet the needs of home financing providers.
Marketing
Marketers use assessor property data to create targeted lists of homes and homeowners. Targeted marketing campaigns can be based on tax information such as home size, year built, occupancy status, length of ownership, and property taxes.
Home Valuations
Companies performing valuations and appraisals use tax assessor data to automate these processes, making them faster and more efficient.
eCommerce
Online businesses can use tax data to verify shipping information and confirm addresses.
ATTOM’s tax assessor data include:
- Property Identification (assessor’s parcel number (APN), FIPS code)
- Ownership details
- Legal description of the property (block/lot, subdivision/tract, section-township-range
- Values and taxes (land, improvements, tax amount, assessed and appraised market values)
- Property characteristics (room counts, interior and exterior features, square footage, lot details
As you can see, these three real estate data types have some level of overlap. However, boundary data are required for mapping purposes and deed and tax data are critical for businesses providing legal, mortgage, and titling services.
ATTOM offers these data and more for 158 million U.S. residential and commercial properties in the United States.
Hopefully, this guide has quelled some of the confusion surrounding these property data types. Contact an ATTOM representative today and find out how we can meet your data and analytic needs.
Written by: Jennifer Von Pohlmann