All my nosy neighbors, stand up and holler!

Admit it, you want to know what your neighbor paid for their house. Go ahead and just say it, "I'm a nosy neighbor." Before I was a Realtor, I was a nosy neighbor too. For a few years now I've had access to the MLS and, being as nosy as I am, it's worth the price of my MLS dues just to know what the house down the street sold for.

Before I was a Realtor, I used TNRealEstate.com to satisfy my curiosity. It definitely doesn't have the functionality of the MLS or even the court house records that agents have online access to, BUT! You can do a quick search without even having to register on the site. You don't need any credentials.

Property information is a matter of public record, you just have to know where to find it. If you are REALLY nosy, you can pay a little something-something and get even more information (like original mortgage amounts) but they'll give you most of what you want to know for free. Lot size, sale amounts, tax assessments, square footage (not always accurate), they're all there. If you are REALLY, REALLY nosy, you can even go down to the courthouse and see the actual paperwork.

The information is going to vary a little. What they tell you about real estate in Chattanooga (Hamilton County actually since searches are done by county instead of city) will be different from what they'll tell you about homes in Cleveland.

The search is pretty self explanatory but I'm including a screen shot to give you some interpretation of the results that you'll get. In the screen shot, I cut off the owner's name and the property address, everything else is just as you'd see it in "free" mode.

Where you are seeing the sales prices of $0, those are usually good indications of a non-arms-length transaction (i.e. a title change between friends, family or business associates. People who might sit less than an arms length apart). In this case, I happen to know that one owner transferred title to a co-owner in November 2009 and I believe that a mother gave the house to a son in 1999.

There was a foreclosure in May 2007 and subsequent sale to a new owner in Aug 2007. Whenever you see a sale of one amount and then another sale of a smaller amount pretty soon thereafter, that's probably going to be a foreclosure.

The easiest & cheapest way to access real estate sales & tax records for Chattanooga and the rest of Tennessee is through www.TNRealEstate.com. Now go out there and be nosy!