Researching Public Records Before Buying Real Estate: Important Details You May Want To Discover
Many people buy a home every year, never suspecting that something is different or out of the ordinary about their homes. Oddly enough, they make some of these discoveries after they begin researching the history of their houses. If you have the time, you may want to research a property being sold by a real estate agency because the agency only has the minimal amount of information that they can gather from the current owner and tax records. There are some important details that would be worth knowing before you place a bid on the property because they might make the property more interesting or more valuable to you personally.
The Building Plans Registered at the County Seat Show a Bunker
Houses built after the Second World War often have, or had, air raid bunkers and fallout shelters in the building plans. Many of these shelters were actually constructed and remain on their respective properties. You may have to overturn a lot of soil to find one since several of them were buried years later. If you discover that the property may have or still has an underground bunker, the property may be more valuable than the asking price. In that case, it may be worth the investment just to see if the bunker still exists and if there is anything of value in it.
There Are Interesting Spaces or Cubby Holes in the House
Although this detail may throw some people off about a property, others might find it fascinating. With some homes perched along the famed Underground Railroad, it can mean the possibility of declaring the property a historical landmark, which would entitle the owners to government funds for the property's upkeep and restoration. Information about these passageways may be in the building plans filed with the city and/or county, but often the details may be uncovered through diaries or other logs tied to the property and previous owners.
The House or Building Was Involved in a Historic Crime
Sometimes the details about a property's past are left out. It is not as though everyone would want to live in a place that is tied to a historic crime, although there are certainly people who like the idea of living in a house where a violent crime took place. If you want to buy a property with a criminal history, you can peruse old newspapers on microfiche film at your local library to see just what crimes may have been committed on that particular property. Who knows? Maybe the property was once owned by Al Capone or another notorious figure.
