Sales comparables are vital bits of information for both investors and potential homebuyers to utilize when seeking the value of a piece of real estate. Before companies like Zillow and Trulia, real estate investors and property tax reduction companies had to go to various government offices to obtain public record data. One of the first platforms to do this was Melville, N.Y.-based GeoData Plus.
GeoData was originally founded in 2000 to fill a need for real estate appraisers and property tax reduction companies that needed to obtain sales comparables. Created during a time when companies like Zillow simply did not exist, there was no platform that made this information readily available.
GeoData Plus has evolved into the go-to data source for sales comparables in New York, used by thousands of real estate professionals throughout the state. GeoData’s Web site has expanded its offerings to include pre-foreclosures (known as lis pendens), mortgage transactions, for sale/for rent listings, maps and year-over-year taxes.
The company just rolled out a new commercial package for Nassau County, the Nassau Pro Package, that includes square footage per floor, rent rolls, special building features and improvements. Nassau Pro Package includes access to the 40,000-plus commercial properties. GeoData's services cover all of New York State, and will also be in New Jersey before the end of 2014.
“We provide data and services you simply cannot get anywhere else,” said GeoData President Erik Wind. “One example is our Nassau County zoning map. We are the only organization in the world with such a map—not even Nassau County has one.”
In addition to the company’s robust offerings on Nassau County, GeoData recently released an upgraded property report for Suffolk County that includes details for properties in the town of Brookhaven that had previously been unavailable online. Customers will now be able to see information such as building square footage, year built, rooms and baths, heating system, height, style, outdoor improvements and more for Brookhaven properties, all of which previously had to be obtained by making a visit to the Brookhaven Town Hall.
"For anyone who has ever needed property data such as square footage or room count in the town of Brookhaven, you know how difficult it is," said GeoData Operations Manager Robert Whiddon. "While the staff at the Brookhaven Assessor's office is extremely helpful, going there or contacting them to look up property data is very time consuming."
GeoData's upgraded Suffolk County Property Report also includes property photos, tax maps, sales history, mortgages, and foreclosures.
GeoData also integrates their service with appraisal software such as ACI and WinTotal, allowing appraisers to auto-fill their appraisal software with the site’s data instead of performing data entry, a time-saving task that ensures accuracy.
Also recently rolled out by the company is the addition of telephone numbers for properties in Nassau County, Suffolk County and New York City. GeoData acquired access to a database of U.S. phone numbers, which were matched to the corresponding properties.
“Mortgages are an important piece of information for any real estate professional using our data source," said Wind. “Coupled with our sales, foreclosure and valuation data, mortgages give a more complete picture of a property, allowing our customers to not only accurately determine the value of a property, but also how much a property is leveraged in debt in relation to the value.”
