Can You Find Parcel Data for Free Online?
It starts with an innocent question: How can I find the owner of a property by address, for free? Or maybe: How do I find free parcel data online? Is there free GIS software that can show me zoning information, property characteristics, or parcel boundaries?
The next you know, you’ve fallen down a parcel search rabbit hole.
You’ve opened twelve different pages on the County Assessor’s website trying to find the property search. You have a separate set of tabs open to look up zoning information for each property. You wasted an hour setting up a free tool only to realize that its database hasn’t been updated since last February.
Oh yeah, and that project you’re actually working on? You haven’t even started.
Free Tools Come at a Cost
Keeping parcel data up to date takes time. Someone has to input ownership changes, re-draw boundaries, update land use codes, and everything else. The information at the County Assessor’s office is free and up-to-date, but it’s not always easily accessible online, and the process for getting it from each county can be cumbersome and time-consuming. If you need to search in multiple counties, that time investment grows exponentially.
There are some free parcel search tools online that claim to have aggregated data sets. The problem is they’re usually scraped, compiled, and then left alone. If you’re lucky, they might update once a year. You end up needing to clean up and double-check the data yourself.
If you want a truly accurate data set, either you need to put in the time yourself to make it perfect, or you’ll need an online subscription-based service like ParcelQuest to keep that data maintained.
Let ParcelQuest Do the Heavy Lifting for You
ParcelQuest is the only authoritative source of parcel data for all 58 California counties, updated daily, available in a single platform. You can access the information in whatever format makes sense for your needs, whether that’s plugging in owner addresses or APN to search a property, exploring maps and GIS data sets, or using visual layers to find specific types of parcels.
We’re also the only source of up-to-date zoning data matched to the parcels and fully integrated into a searchable parcel map layer. We can keep this accurate for 13 million California parcels because we have a dedicated team assigned to it, and because we have more than 25 years of relationships built with County Assessors statewide.
Are there free parcel search tools online? Sure. Are they the best use of your valuable time? That’s up to you.
If you’re ready to get out of the parcel business and get back to your priorities, give us a call. We offer two subscription levels and custom enterprise solutions, so you can get the right info into the hands of the right people on your team without wasting a second.