Adam Leitman Bailey, Esq. Colin E. Kaufman, Esq. Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. 26 Broadway, 21 st Floor New York, NY 10004 Tel: 212-825-0365 Fax: 212-825-0999 www.alblawfirm.com Using the Internet To Manage, Locate, Investigate and Increase the Value of Real Estate By Adam Leitman Bailey, Esq and Colin Kaufman, Esq. Use of the internet is a necessity for today s property investor or manager. While it does not replace traditional research skills, the internet and the resources available on it permit a speed and breadth of research unimaginable just a few years ago. CAVEAT: The websites listed here are used by us in our practice. However, since we have no control over their content, we take no responsibility for their accuracy or currency of information. Information about laws and regulations is no substitute for consultation with a lawyer specializing in this area. Basic Internet Tools To Find Anything About Everything On the Internet 1. Internet Connection a) Four components: i) Computer (1) Speed v. storage v. RAM (2) convenience v cost v power ii) Operating System (1) e.g. Windows (many flavors), Linux, Sparc iii) Line (1) dial up (2) DSL (3) T-1 (4) fiberoptic, dish, etc iv) browser a software application which permits the user to interact graphically with the web (1) Most popular: Internet Explorer (2) most versatile: (IMHO) Mozilla (3) may need/want more than one (Netscape, Opera, Firefox, AOL Explorer, Apple Safari ) (a) http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/default.asp (b) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/comparison_of_web_browsers
2. Basic Tools a) Search engines i) E.g. Google http://www.google.com (by far the most popular and usually the most useful), Yahoo http://www.yahoo.com/, http://www.ask.com/, Windows Live http://www.live.com/, Lycos http://lycos.com/, Clusty http://clusty.com/ (for more, see http://searchenginewatch.com/), b) Meta-search i) E.g. Dogpile http://www.dogpile.com/, Webcrawler http://www.webcrawler.com/, metacrawler http://www.metacrawler.com/, surfwax http://www.surfwax.com/index.html, search.com http://www.search.com/ ii) New and interesting: goshme.com refers searcher to specialized search engines http://goshme.com/ iii) One of the best, (I think) is A9 http://a9.com/, which allows a single search for web, books, images c) General drill-down databases a/k/a directories i) E.g. About.com http://about.com/, Yahoo Directory http://dir.yahoo.com/, The Open Directory Project http://dmoz.org/ d) Specific topical databases (many not indexed by spiderbots from the search engines) i) E.g. New York State Corporate Listings http://appsext5.dos.state.ny.us/corp_public/corpsearch.entity_search_entry, ii) NYS Professional Licenses http://www.op.nysed.gov/opsearches.htm, iii) New York City Administrative Decisions http://www.citylaw.org/cityadmin.php 3. Using Search Engines a) Search strategy i) Where do you want to end up (1) Searching for general information about an area/topic/person (2) searching for specific information (3) seeking to confirm ii) What particular search areas do you want to query (1) General v. specific iii) Query language(s) (1) Go to Help (2) Always use Advanced Search until you are familiar with the search engine iv) Refining or expanding your query (1) Add or subtract terms (2) Alternate spellings
(3) Other search engines (4) Specialized searches b) Maximizing internet searches, i) Query Construction (1) structure (2) choice of words (3) stemming (4) quotes ii) Pay attention to the supported grammar of the engines (1) operators (2) advanced v basic search Due Diligence on a Property 1. Due Diligence: Navigating the Internet to Locate and Learn About Property a) Finding investment properties i) Using the internet to find property (1) establish criteria (a) geographic location (i) neighborhood (b) last sale price (c) comparables (d) zoning ii) Online News (1) More General (a) NY Times Real Estate http://www.nytimes.com/pages/realestate/ (b) NY Post Real Estate http://www.nypost.com/realestate/ (c) NY Sun Real Estate http://www.nysun.com/section/22 (2) Real Estate Oriented (a) The Real Deal http://www.therealdeal.net/ (b) StreetEasy http://www.streeteasy.com/ (c) Costar Group NYC Commerical Real Estate News http://www.costar.com/news/default.aspx?market=nyc (d) Wall Street Journal, Real Estate Journal http://www.realestatejournal.com/ (e) NY Observer Real Estate http://therealestate.observer.com/ and http://www.observer.com/20060508/subtoc_financeproperty.asp (f) The Cooperator http://www.cooperator.com/index.shtml (g) New YorK Magazine Real Estate http://www.newyorkmetro.com/realestate/index.html (3) Buildings and facilities (a) Today s Facility Manager http://www.todaysfacilitymanager.com/default.php (b) Buildings.com http://www.buildings.com/default.asp
iii) Blogs (Web logs) (1) find at http://www.technorati.com/ (2) http://www.curbed.com/ (3) http://propertygrunt.blogspot.com/ (4) http://matrix.millersamuel.com/ iv) RE Searches (1) every broker (2) Citifeet: http://www.cityfeet.com/newyorkcommercialrealestatelocal/newyork CommercialRealEstate.aspx?PartnerPath=& v) NYC Lien Sale Notices http://www.nyc.gov/html/dof/html/property/property_bill_taxlien.shtml#notic es vi) Business Improvement Districts (1) 125 th Street: http://125thstreetbid.com/ (2) Columbus Avenue http://www.columbusavenuebid.org/home.html (3) Grand Central http://www.grandcentralpartnership.org/home.asp (4) Times Square: http://www.timessquarenyc.org/ (5) Downtown Alliance: http://www.downtownny.com/ (6) Lower East Side: http://www.lowereastsideny.com/ (7) Full listing of BID s: http://www.newyorkbusiness.com/page.cms?pageid=1320 or http://www.nyc.gov/html/sbs/html/bid.html 2. Decisional law i) Lexis http://www.lexis.com/ (subscription), http://www.lexisone.com/caselaw/freecaselaw?action=fcldisplaycasesearc hform (free but very limited) ii) Westlaw http://web2.westlaw.com/ (subscription) iii) Findlaw http://lawcrawler.findlaw.com/, Hieros Gamos http://www.hg.org/ and http://www.hg.org/redir.asp?url=http://www.lexisone.com/legalresearch/legal guide/states/new_york.htm iv) OCA online search (Supreme Civil and some Supreme Criminal) http://portal.courts.state.ny.us/pls/portal30/cms_dev.decisions_ndaw CASE.show_parms v) New York Official Reports (Court of Appeals, Appellate Divisions, some trial court decisions) http://government.westlaw.com/nyofficial/search/default.asp?tempinfo=sear CH vi) Great general legal source http://www.llrx.com/ vii) American Law Sources onlone http://www.lawsource.com/also/usa.cgi?ny#z7q
3. Statutes and Regulations i) NYS laws http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgi?commonquery=laws ii) NYC Building Code http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/reference/code_internet.shtml and updates http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/reference/code_update06.shtml iii) NYC Electrical Code http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/model/nec.shtml iv) NYC Index (by Topic) to Selected Department of Building Directives, Memoranda, Policy & Procedure Notices and Interpretations 1. http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/reference/a-index.shtml v) Rent Stabilization Code http://www.dhcr.state.ny.us/ora/pubs/html/rentcode.htm vi) Emergency Tenant Protection Regulations http://www.dhcr.state.ny.us/ora/pubs/html/rentregsetpa.htm and http://www.dhcr.state.ny.us/ora/pubs/html/2005etpr.htm vii) Selected DOB Rules and Reference Standards http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/reference/stan_rules.shtml viii) Current New York City Administrative Decisions: http://www.citylaw.org/cityadmin.php 4. Governmental Agencies a) US Government portal http://www.firstgov.gov/ b) NYS portal http://www.state.ny.us/ c) NYC portal http://nyc.gov/portal/index.jsp?front_door=true and (to search) http://search1.nyc.gov/search?access=p&sort=date%3ad%3al%3ad1&output= xml_no_dtd&site=default_collection&ie=utf-8&oe=utf- 8&client=default_frontend&proxystylesheet=default_frontend&ip=68.236.174.4 &proxycustom=%3cadvanced/%3e d) HUD: http://www.hud.gov/ e) NYS DHCR http://www.dhcr.state.ny.us/ f) NYC Board of Standards & Appeals: http://www.nyc.gov/html/bsa/html/home/home.shtml g) NYC Council Land Use: h) NYC Dept of City Planning http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/home.html i) Zoning Maps http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/zmapintr.shtml ii) Zoning Text http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/zone/zonetext.shtml iii) Land Use Application Status http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/lu_apps/lu_app1.shtml i) Department of Buildings http://www.nyc.gov/html/dob/html/home/home.shtml i) DOB Building Information System http://a810- bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bsqpm01.jsp j) NYS Division of Housing and Community Renewal http://www.dhcr.state.ny.us/ora/ora.htm k) NYC Rent Guidelines Board http://www.housingnyc.com/ l) NYC Environmental Control Board http://www.nyc.gov/html/dep/html/ecb.html
m) NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/html/home/home.shtml n) Worker s Compensation Board Forms http://www.wcb.state.ny.us/content/main/forms.jsp o) Useful Items Not Available on the Internet as of Date of Lecture (1) Housing Court Decisions (2) Title Reports (3) Lis Pendens (there are some commercial services; we have not used them and therefore cannot recommend them) (4) Department of Housing and Community Renewal decisions and judgments Purchase Information 1. General Property Shark (free and subscription) http://www.propertyshark.com/mason/accounts/logon.html Real Estate Board of NY (subscription) https://members.rebny.com/html/welcome.html 2. Other addresses for the premises a) NYC Housing Preservation & Development http://167.153.4.71/hpdonline/provide_address.aspx 3. Sales prices a) Top Real Estate Brokers in Area b) Comparable Sales Prices i) Real Estate Board of NY (subscription) https://members.rebny.com/html/welcome.html ii) Property Shark http://www.propertyshark.com/mason/accounts/logon.html iii) Zillow http://www.zillow.com/ iv) Real Estate ABC http://www.realestateabc.com/home-values/ v) Home Price Records http://www.homepricerecords.com/ c) Recorded Documents ACRIS (Automated City Register Information System) http://a836-acris.nyc.gov/scripts/coverpage.dll/index Property Shark http://www.propertyshark.com/mason/accounts/logon.html d) Number of floors Property Shark http://www.propertyshark.com/mason/accounts/logon.html e) Year built/pre-war/post War Property Shark http://www.propertyshark.com/mason/accounts/logon.html f) Elevator/Walkup Property Shark http://www.propertyshark.com/mason/accounts/logon.html g) Floor plans brokers (also search building for old listings, retrieve cached pages) h) Locating a Seller ACRIS (Automated City Register Information System) http://a836-acris.nyc.gov/scripts/coverpage.dll/index Property Shark http://www.propertyshark.com/mason/accounts/logon.html p) Determining Information About a Property
i) Owner (1) HPD Registration http://167.153.4.71/hpdonline/provide_address.aspx (2) Deed/filed leases ACRIS http://a836-acris.nyc.gov/scripts/coverpage.dll/index (3) Who is paying taxes NYC Department of Finance http://webapps.nyc.gov:8084/cics/fin1/find001i ii) Managing agent HPD Registration http://167.153.4.71/hpdonline/provide_address.aspx iii) Taxes (1) Amount of taxes: NYC Department of Finance http://webapps.nyc.gov:8084/cics/fin1/find001i PropertyShark http://www.propertyshark.com/mason/accounts/logon.html iv) Certificate of Occupancy (1) NYC Department of Buildings http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bsqpm01.jsp v) Information on Neighborhood, city and street (1) NYC Office of Operations My Neighborhood Statistics http://gis.nyc.gov/ops/mmr/address.jsp?app=mmr (2) Infoshare (extremely detailed census information) http://infoshare.org/ (3) Map/Graphical info http://www.myciti.org/make_a_map_citi2.html and/or http://www.oasisnyc.net/oasismap.htm vi) Ownership history and information to contact owner vii) Documents filed with County Clerk ACRIS http://a836-acris.nyc.gov/scripts/coverpage.dll/index viii) Filed Liens ACRIS http://a836-acris.nyc.gov/scripts/coverpage.dll/index ix) Legal and administrative decisions OATH New York City Administrative Decisions http://www.citylaw.org/cityadmin.php x) Legal descriptions (i.e., metes & bounds) ACRIS http://a836-acris.nyc.gov/scripts/coverpage.dll/index xi) Mortgages (filed) ACRIS http://a836-acris.nyc.gov/scripts/coverpage.dll/index xii) Past and Outstanding Violations (1) Open Violations HPD Registration http://167.153.4.71/hpdonline/provide_address.aspx (2) Department of Buildings, Building Information Services (BIS) http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bispi00.jsp xiii) Boiler Information http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bispi00.jsp xiv) Emergency repairs HPD Registration http://167.153.4.71/hpdonline/provide_address.aspx xv) Landmark Status (1) NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission http://www.nyc.gov/html/lpc/html/home/home.shtml (2) NYC Department of Buildings
http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bsqpm01.jsp (3) Property Shark http://www.propertyshark.com/mason/accounts/logon.html xvi) Job Permits (1) Department of Buildings, Building Information Services (BIS) http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bispi00.jsp xvii) Elevator Records (Inspection and Violation) http://a810-bisweb.nyc.gov/bisweb/bispi00.jsp 5. Maps & photos i) Pictures of Property (1) Google Earth (free download at http://earth.google.com/ ) satellite, some aerial change POV (2) Windows Live (map, aerial, satellite change POV) http://local.live.com/ (3) A9 (maps, street level) http://maps.a9.com/ (4) Google Maps (map & satellite) http://maps.google.com/ (5) Yahoo Local Maps (Beta) (map & satellite) http://maps.yahoo.com/beta/#maxp=search&q1=us (6) Mapquest (maps) http://www.mapquest.com/ (7) MSN Maps http://mappoint.msn.com/ (8) Microsoft Terraserver (aerial, topographic) http://terraserver.microsoft.com/ (9) US Geological Survey Maps http://nmviewogc.cr.usgs.gov/viewer.htm (a) Multiple overlays The Internet Is Not A Panacea 1. Why the internet is not enough a) Many sites are not monitored by anyone for correctness b) Sites/pages may not be updated 2. What else you have to do (minimally) a) Title report b) Engineer report c) Inspection of premises d) Rent roll, financials e) Walk-around Determining A Tenant s Primary Residence 1. Illegal Sublet and Non-Primary Residence Cases a) Building a Case i) Hire a good lawyer ii) Hire a PI iii) Tools (1) Zaba Search (free + purchase) http://www.zabasearch.com/ \ (2) MerlinData (subscription) http://www.merlindata.com/
(3) PeopleFinders (free + purchase) http://www.peoplefinders.com/ (4) US Search (free + purchase) http://www.ussearch.com/consumer/index.jsp (5) KnowX (purchase) http://www.knowx.com/ (6) Date of birth (not all and not always easy to determine by name: http://www.birthdatabase.com/ (7) Reverse directories if you have an address or telephone number (a) Langenberg.com http://www.langenberg.com/ (b) Skiptools http://www.skiptools.com/ (c) Infospace http://www.infospace.com/home/white-pages/reverse-phone and http://www.infospace.com/home/white-pages/reverse-address (d) Netscape http://wp.netscape.com/netcenter/whitereverse.html?cp=tec_1b (e) Infobel http://www.infobel.com/usa/wp/revsearch/ and http://www.infobel.com/usa/wp/addsearch/ 2. Researching a Person a) Always do one or more general searches b) Public records directories: i) Search Systems http://www.searchsystems.net/ ii) BRB Publications http://www.brbpub.com/pubrecsites.asp iii) PublicRecordFinder.com http://www.publicrecordfinder.com/ iv) c) Department of Motor Vehicles http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/ i) Beware the federal Driver's Privacy Protection Act (DPPA) CONSULT A LAWYER (1) Text: http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/forms/mv15dppa.pdf (2) Civil & criminal penalties for violation ii) Need MV-15GC Authorization for Release of Personal Information plus http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/forms/mv15gc.pdf iii) MV-15 Request for Driving and/or Vehicle Record Information http://www.nydmv.state.ny.us/forms/mv15.pdf d) Property Address i) Same investigation as above, however local governmental agencies e) Social Security i) Usually unavailable f) Voting Records i) NYC Board of Elections http://www.vote.nyc.ny.us/offices.html ii) Check in all jurisdictions suspected to be primary residence g) Campaign contributions i) Opensecrets.org http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/index.asp ii) Political Moneyline http://www.tray.com/cgi-win/indexhtml.exe?mbf=name iii) Campaignmoney.com http://www.campaignmoney.com/advanced.asp iv) NYS Board of Elections http://www.elections.state.ny.us/nysboe/finance/contribandexpend.htm
v) Other State (reference articles) http://www.llrx.com/columns/roundup10.htm#ny and http://www.llrx.com/columns/roundup25.htm h) Banking send her a refund check i) Licensed professions licensing authority, disciplinary authority NOTE: Noodling on the net is not a substitute for professional help. You are going to need a lawyer sooner or later and he or she should know how to do, or at least to supervise an investigation. He or she should also know enough not to run afoul of local, state and federal privacy laws; you may not and could end up in trouble, criminally or civilly. What is set forth above is a general outline of some initial steps you may want to take before retaining a professional.