via the internet. Can I ask how much you pay per year/month/day to download deeds and maps?
A local municipality is looking to put their land records online. They are talking $300 a year to access them online.
They will startwith records from 1991 forward to today at first, then add other years prior to '91.
I was just curios what others have paid.
Joe
> via the internet. Can I ask how much you pay per year/month/day to download deeds and maps?
>
> A local municipality is looking to put their land records online. They are talking $300 a year to access them online.
>
> They will startwith records from 1991 forward to today at first, then add other years prior to '91.
>
> I was just curios what others have paid.
>
>
> Joe
We don't pay a flat fee of $300 per year, but our registry has been offering online services through Browntech for almost a decade, and they charge per page as well as a flat fee.
The fees for the Lincoln County Registry of Deeds in Maine are $5 per month, then $0.50 per page. So to equal your registries fees, we'd have to print out about 500 pages in a year.
On second thought, $300 per year may not be too bad... 🙂
> I was just curios what others have paid.
Deeds, Grantee/Grantor Books, Plats, State & Colonial Patents, etc. all free for every county in the state, run by the state archives.
I've only had to leave my office to do land record research once in the last seven years (needed a description that was in a will).
I usually keep the deed, plat & tax assessor web pages open in a browser all day, when a potential client calls I can have all their land record info in front of me in about 30 seconds.
Free to look at, $1.00 a page to print or $250.00 a month for unlimited printing.
Bruce
Access? Free
Printing? Free
When they first talked about putting the records online I think I shocked them by opposing the idea of Free. I told them there should be a nominal fee for monthly or yearly access. (I had in mind $10 a month.) My logic was this fee would keep out those whose only reason for getting to the records was to develop junk mail lists.
They obviously decided to go with totally free 15 years or so ago and have never looked back. Every time I see the Register of Deeds I thank her for doing such a great job for us.
All the deeds are online going back to the mid 1920's. When a deed is recorded it is available online within ONE week. Maps are added at the end of each month.
Searchable Grantor - Grantee lists go back to 1995. A scanned index goes back to the 1920's.
The whole thing is a very sweet setup.
Larry P
I pay based on usage (something like 0.15/minute)...I'd estimate the yearly cost at $500-ish...so $300/year doesn't seem out of line.
Just about every county that has deeds/plats online in Florida is free. One County I know of gives you deeds for free, but you have to pay $5/month to access plats.
> Free to look at, $1.00 a page to print or $250.00 a month for unlimited printing.
>
> Bruce
You need to learn how to do a screen cap and paste to paint or a word doc.
Control-Printscreen is the windows command to capture your desktop and copy as an image to your clipboard. You can paste into any image viewer. Alt-Printscreen captures the current window.
ga-zactly.
Access is free. $1 per page to print.
Mr. Fleming...
I am soooooo jealous..
I only have access to two counties.
One is $500 a year flat rate. Only goes back to mid 1970's online. They have been incredibly slow in adding deeds over the years, have made very little progress.
The other county is $25 a month, and they have most deeds and plats online, but the index only goes back to the 1980's, so if you don't have a previous deed ref. in the derivation part of a deed you are out of luck and to the clerk's office you must go.
Maryland's system is great.
In Georgia a site run by the Clerks of Superior Court you pay $9.95 per month to search and read plus $0.25 per page to print. These records only go back to 2004, when the law went into effect. Our local county (Cobb County) has their records on line for free, you just have to install DejaVu (a free download) to view the documents.
Andy
Kennebec County, Maine, has the images (both written records and plans) indexed and available back to 1799. If you're unsubscribed, index use is free but it's 50 cents a page to buy copies, and that's the only way you see the documents. Prices are way down of late, owing I suspect to MacImage's success in court (about which I've posted here).
If you subscribe: for $50/month you can see anything free of charge, but copies still cost 50 cents a page. It is well worth it for me as the Registry is 45 minutes from here.
Franklin County, Maine uses a different company (Browntech, same as in Newton's post). You can see anything they've scanned for free but can only make (legal) copies if you subscribe at something like $150/year, which I've not done so I don't know the per-copy cost. But the scans only go back to the mid-1980's.
We all like free stuff but I'm generally in favor of the registries turning a buck on their websites as an incentive to scan the older records. I rarely go to the Kennebec building anymore but often have to drive to the Franklin registry even to just do a cost estimate.
D.J.
> Maryland's system is great.
Occasionally "socialism" hits one out of the park 😉
D.J.
Yes, the People's Republic of Maryland did good on this one, but I still have to worry about crossing the MD border with a weapon in the vehicle....
🙂
Joe,
In Mass it varies by Registry District, most are administered through the Secretary of State's office and are free; a handful are Browntech and requie a fee. At least 90% of my my work is limited to 2 or 3 free ones.
Free to view and free to print from your home or business computer. If you come to the office we'll charge you 25-cents per page. Verbal information via the phone is free. We are government and here to help since your tax dollars are already paying for it.
Help yourself:
http://www.lincoln.ne.gov/asp/cnty/surveylu.asp
Lee County Florida... all is free.. download anything from any recorded book .. OR, Plat, DEED , Condo, in tiff or PDF format. Also aerial data by STR and date, so you can see old aerials from 40 years ago if you want. If you actually go to the office and have them make copies, you pay for that.
State data through LABINS has all the coastal info, MHWL data and survey maps, original field notes, section maps, corner records and LOTS of other stuff I don't even use, but it's there.