document updated 15 years ago, on Aug 17, 2009
There are various online places that let you search public records. However, the sites can be tricky to navigate. There are two problems to be aware of:
- Many third-party sites provide paid access to public records that are available for free (or lower cost) from the county government wherre the record originated. (however, these third-party sites do sometimes provide the value-add of allowing you to search many counties' databases at once)
- Even if you only want to search for data from one county, often that county's websites and/or in-person search process is more complicated than it needs to be. (no surprise)
The point is that if you live near the county seat in question, or the county has a decent website, then it's probably cheaper to get the data directly from the county. However, this can take extra time.