Knowing Where to Look

Beating up on the inefficiencies of government has become sport these days but I am continually impressed with the amount and quality of free data and information available on city, county, state and federal web-sites. Judging by my clients response, they are no less pleased with what I have been able to find while researching government databases for the purposes of building business plans or just framing the size of opportunity for new markets. Through a combination of web and human interface, I have found most government institutions to be an excellent source of valuable information.

Most recently, I had a prospective client tell me they were looking to expand and had located a property suited to their needs. It was not listed for sale so I suggested they let me do some poking around. In no time, I had gathered the target property's current owner, contact information, when the property last sold and the price paid. I also provided the dollar amount of debt used to acquire the property and from which bank it was borrowed and if there had been any subsequent foreclosure filings made on the property or owner. The client was curious, "where do you find all this information?" It's just good government and knowing where to look for it.