Real Estate API Questions

Where can I search county parcel data?

Quick Answer

Realie provides parcel search across more than 3,100 counties from one endpoint. You can query by county parcel ID, by address, by owner name, or by geographic location with a radius, and each result carries both the parcel record and its boundary geometry.

Summary

A parcel is the unit that county records are organized around, so parcel search is usually the entry point to everything else — ownership, assessment, tax, transactions, and zoning all hang off the parcel identifier. The complication is that parcel IDs are county-specific: formats differ, punctuation differs, and the same parcel may be written several ways even within one jurisdiction. Realie normalizes parcel identifiers while preserving the raw county value, so you can search with whichever form you hold and still join reliably against your own records.

Four ways to find a parcel

By parcel ID, when you already hold a county APN — the most precise route. By address, when you are working from user input or an imported list. By owner name, when you are assembling a portfolio view. By location, when you have coordinates and want everything within a radius.

Each path returns the same record shape, so downstream code does not need to branch on how the lookup was performed.

Parcel identifiers and why they drift

Counties format parcel numbers differently, and the same parcel can appear with or without dashes, with leading zeros stripped, or under a legacy identifier after a re-map. Matching on the raw string alone produces silent misses.

Parcels also change: a subdivision splits one parcel into several, and an assembly merges several into one. When that happens, historical records still reference the old identifiers. Ask any provider how they represent splits and merges, and whether they retain the source identifier alongside the normalized one — Realie does the latter, which is what lets you reconcile against records you collected earlier.

Frequently asked questions

Can I search without a parcel ID?
Yes — by address, by owner name, or by coordinates with a radius. The parcel ID is one route among four.
Do results include boundary geometry?
Yes. Parcel polygons come alongside the assessor attributes.
How many parcels can one request return?
Up to 100 on every plan, which is the efficient way to run bulk lookups.
What happens when a parcel is split or merged?
The normalized identifier is maintained alongside the raw county value so historical references can still be reconciled.