Housing Question

Factual Questions
1

Let’s say one walks past a boarded-up brownstone on her way to the subway each morning.

How can she find out if that brownstone is condemned, for sale, foreclosed, abandoned, etc.? Let’s say she wants to inquire about purchasing said brownstone, but has no idea who to call, what government office to visit, etc.

How can one find out the current owner of a building?
Is it ok to contact the owner regarding the status of the building?
If the city owns it, do they routinely sell boarded up houses?
Do they give out grants for renovating old properties?
Has anyone here been through such a program?

Sorry if these questions are dumb, but I’ve never owned any property.

Thanks for your help!

2

Even Manhattan must have an equivalent to the County Tax Assesor’s Office. They maintain records of all land parcels. They will answer most of your questions, and yes, it’s OK to contact the owner about buying it.

3

I see we share the same home town. The city has an excellent web site that should help you out.

I know there are periodic auctions of city property held downtown near City Hall.

As for finding out the exact status of a property, I know it’s pretty easy to do because I did it once; I just forgot the exact agency I went to. Any friendly real estate agent should know if the NYC web site doesn’t have it – every day there are dozens of real estate drones that spend their lives down there transferring and registering deeds and such.

4

Around here some of the counties maintain websites that contain this type of info for properties- sales history, ownership, taxes, etc. The agency that maintains it is the county property appraiser’s office.

To see if your area has a website like this, do a web search with the name of the county (or city) paired with “property appraiser” or “tax collector” or the like. If such a site exists, it should be fairly easy to find.

You might also try a URL in this format: http://countyname.xx.us where xx is your two-letter state abbreviation. This is an addressing convention used around here.

If there’s no website, there’s probably an office where you can look through the files manually.

5

You guys are so good to me. In that regard, don’t you want to do the leg work for me? Heh heh just kidding.

I’m sure more questions will pop up as I pursue the matter - stay tuned.

6

I do this often for another reason. Visit City Hall building department. Give them the address & in a moment, youll have the info on who owns it.