Monroe & Carbon counties in PA

[dottigram]

Hi all! I am a fairly new Certified Residential appraiser in PA (certified in January of this year). I currently cover Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery & Philadelphia counties in PA and use Trend MLS to find my comps & whatnot. I am going to be relocating to Monroe County, PA (or "up the mountains" as I like to call it) and would like to know if there are any other MLS sites out there for Monroe & Carbon counties. Trend has a limited number of comps & public records for these counties, but I am not confident that it will be enough. PLEASE HELP! I appreciate any info you can provide. Ty, Dottie

 

[JTip]

I don't know about those two but Northampton County has a SWEET property records site. Oh, and it's free.

http://www.ncpub.org/Search/GenericSearch.aspx?mode=ADDRESS

I wish we has something like that in my county.

 

[dottigram]

Montgomery county, PA has the same kind of site, it's the best! I wish they were all like that, they even have sketch plans (which we all know is a BEAUTIFUL thing)!

http://propertyrecords.montcopa.org/Main/home.aspx

What areas do you cover?

 

[Meandering]

It is Flex.
www.flexmls.com
Look me up when you get here.

 

[Laughing Heir]

Montgomery county, PA has the same kind of site, it's the best! I wish they were all like that, they even have sketch plans (which we all know is a BEAUTIFUL thing)!

http://propertyrecords.montcopa.org/Main/home.aspx

What areas do you cover?

You're out of luck if you like good-quality county assessor websites. POC Data is your best best (in my experience) for assessment records - they cover Carbon, Monroe, Pike, Wayne, etc. It's a client (not web) based application and its pretty expensive but it has plats and some data for the improvements in some counties. Wayne County is really the only area up here that has a comprehensive assessment website.

Like Marion posted, FLEX is the MLS database that all of the boards use 'round here (except for Bradford & Sullivan Counties, they use Navica).

Hope you have a smooth transition. Good luck!

 

[Meandering]

And Flex will do the 1004 MC form, ..swish... faster than you can figure out what it did, but you can also down load the data it used to check it. Plus it will map all the listings and sales you select so you can see what is what, very helpful for some of these back-woods properties. Bring a flashlight and canteen.

 

[Meandering]

When you get up this way check with one of the local appraisers for awhile, cause there are places that are built over old mines and other interesting stuff that you may not have seen down in the flat lands. It is also a good idea to download google earth to your computer. Helps you see the square lakes that used to be slate mines.

 

[Laughing Heir]

Marion -

Are there any major ones that come to mind? I go as far as Tobyhanna, are there any that far north?

 

[ARRE]

I know there are still some coal mining operations in the Mount Carmel/ Shamokin/ Schuylkill Haven Areas. Also, when you get up in the Northern Tier, they are still doing some mining in Mildred/ Wyalusing Areas. Most of that has slowed down to a slow crawl within the past few years though.

 

[Meandering]

There are different types of mines all over the north east pa region. Tobyhanna has some defunct peat mines that are not a real issue as that was surfaced mined and most are lakes or wetlands now. Slate mines from just north of the northampton county line on south and in parts of carbon county are harder to identify as some where dug in 17xx and provided slate roofing and educational products to the nation. The larger coal mines can be found on the internet. Oil wells can be found on-line, Zinc, lime stone, shale, gas, iron, and other mineral mines are harder to identify, especially in the Slatington through Bangor region. I find the information most reliable from the oldest person in the municipal building that grew up in the area, they usually know. There are some digitized google books about some of the slate mines. It is always best to drive around REALLY look into the "undeveloped" land, question any fenced in undeveloped land, and searh the township name and mines, and check the state's website:
http://www.dep.state.pa.us/hosting/minesafetycommission/

Always remember we are a geological wealthy region and people have known that for over two hundred years. Don't take the dirt you walk on for granted as being solid.