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Property Database Search

Erie County Real Property Mapping Website

This is the County's Real Estate Mapping application:

http://gis2.erie.gov/HTML5/ErieCountyNY/default.aspx

You can search on street addresses, company or personal names, and the Section/Block/Lot number. Most common searching here will be for addresses and names. From the main mapping page, the one with the map of Erie County on it, click "I want to", choose Search parcels by owner (or address), then click on the record that shows up in the left pane of the window. That will zoom you to the parcel and provide all the information about the property, including owner's name and address.

In the mapping application, you can zoom in and out and pan around to look at neighborhoods. When you zoom close enough, parcel numbers (street addresses) appear. This helps identify all the parcels in a particular area. These are usually, but not always, postal addresses. The real property people and the Post Office have slightly different criteria for assigning numbers.

You can click "Identify", then click on a parcel for that parcel's record to appear. This is a good way to determine the ownership of adjacent and nearby parcels.

When you have a property record showing in the left pane, you can click on the SBL number (a link in the format 88.68-3-19, for example). This gives you another view of owner information, including past sales and County Property Tax status for several years.

The mapping website doesn't work with all browsers. If you can't start it or get errors, try different browsers.

The mapping application is not as up to date as the next database.

Records Search

This is the Erie County Clerk's records search page:

http://ecclerk.erie.gov/or_wb1/or_sch_1.asp

This is, I believe, the most up to date place to find deeds, assumed names etc. I think they're a week behind the actual filings. The only more up to date method is to go to County Hall and use their computers, which I think are almost real time.

What would be most interesting here is deeds - it shows who granted the deed to whom, when and for what consderation ($$). You'll need to go here http://ecclerk.erie.gov/recordsng_web/DocTypes.pdf

To figure out what type of document you've found. There are thousands of different types . . .

Corporation Database

If an LLC or other corporation owns the property, you may need to go to the Secretary of State's website:

http://www.dos.ny.gov/corps/bus_entity_search.html

Here, you can search on a corporation's name and get a little bit more information, such as where they get their mail. This doesn't always indicate who owns the LLC or the property, as many LLCs get their mail sent to a lawyer's office. So LLCs can hide property ownership. There are ways to figure out some of them - for instance, many of Ellicott Development's numerous LLCs have an Ellicott Square Building mailing address.

Other

Other useful applications are the mapping applications from Microsoft (bing.com/maps) and Google (maps.google.com). Both are good for aerial photos and street views, and sort of looking around the neighborhood. Bing's "Bird's Eye View" is a nice way to get a angled aerial views of a property, from all directions.

The other municipal property database is accessed via

http://www.ci.buffalo.ny.us/applications/propertyinformation/default.aspx

This view into the property database is for the City of Buffalo only, and gives information on assessment and political jurisdictions, the most important one usually being Council District.