Ken Madsen, The Assessor-Treasurer
I’ll never forget the first time I visited the Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer parcel search website. I was shocked to find out that all you have to do is type in the address of a house or piece of land and it would tell you who owned it and how much they paid for it. This is a fantastic tool for first time buyers to use when researching homes they find online.
It’s useful for homeowners as well. If there’s a house on your street that is rented and the tenants are causing trouble, look up the landlord and send them a letter. Is there a house that appears abbandoned that you might be interested in buying? Look up the owner. I work with a guy who keeps an eye out for empty houses then looks up the owners on the parcel search. If they are out of state he sends them a letter offering to purchase their property. He turns them into rentals and he has made some pretty incredible deals this way.
