How to Use Your County's GIS Mapping System

When I first started investing in land - there were a lot of little hurdles I had to get over. One of the common problems I encountered was the fact that it was really hard to locate some of these vacant land properties.

If you're a land investor, you probably know what I'm talking about because it is VERY common for vacant land properties to exist without a physical mailing address.

No street name. No address number. Nothing.

So where did this leave me? If I couldn't plug a street address into a mapping service like Google Maps - how was I supposed to find where the property was located? This was a serious obstacle because if I didn't know where a property was located, what it looked like, the shape of the parcel, the size of the property or what it's surroundings are - how was I supposed to know what it was worth and make an offer??

I eventually learned that there was always an answer on where a property is located. It was just a matter of whether I knew how to find it.

The vast majority of counties in the U.S. have what's called a Geographic Information System (GIS). These systems usually aren't user-friendly to work with, but if you care enough to go through the trouble of learning how it works - it can be a MAJOR help.

This information tends to be quite reliable and will give you data like:

- Property Sizes
- Property Dimensions
- Property Ownership
- Precise Property Locations
- Property Assessed Values
- Etc...

Each county's system is a little bit different and it takes some time to figure each one out - but it is absolutely worth the trouble. #realestate #retipster #sethwilliams #realestateinvesting #landinvesting

[plorks]

Good into thanks.
Is there anyway to get GPS cordinates from this type of map?

[scottlori]

Can anyone tell me how accurate these gis maps are? I know where my pins are and the map is way off. It's causing problems with new neighbors! It's off on atleast one pin by over 12 ft.

I know the gis is off. I just don't know how to explain to my new millennial aged neighbors.
I don't think they've ever heard the term "Close enough for Gov't work".

[bahmannosratollah]

Thank you so much for the easy-to-understand explanation.

[gregmsnow]

Thanks. Why would someone buy a lot assessed at 5k for 15k? Just curious

[hallucinatinghawk]

Maybe you just missed the apostrophe on Evan’s?

[joshuachapa]

I appreciate this information, very insightful!

[davidfricker]

how do you get liability insurance on unimproved vacant property?

[vLife]

I have a seller selling two properties (in one sale) a 1/4 mile apart with same address and Folio number. there is a winding dirt road but nothing for 3 or 4 blocks. I suspect a survey will be very difficult and expensive. Also, wonder what the process for separating into two folios and addresses?

[Lovean]

Very useful thank you very much for this info

[OfficialHankIII]

Do you have a tool you like to use for checking on flood zones?

[billyhendrix]

If you can’t find a map, you make one. If you don’t have a way to do that, find one.

[rimmyblumpkin]

How do I use ArcGis for a parcel search instead of searching for address only in the search function?
Thanks for the video.

[ZeeCaptainRon]

Thanks for wasting the first 2:45 telling us why we might need to go to a GIS map instead of getting into how to use the GIS map like your title suggests. Very little actual useful information, lots of silly hypothetical scenarios.