The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "land records" ...
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Using Archives and Historical Records for Environmental and Land Use Investigations
Young explains how to use historical records when conduction environmental and land use investigations.
Tags: historical archives; records
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Using property tax/appraisal records in stories: avoiding pitfalls
Lavigne shares general and specific advise for utilizing property and tax records in investigative stories. She explains how to deal with challenges and irregularities that occur when working with land records, and lists types of records that are frequently overlooked.
Tags: land records; real estate; property taxes; titles; deeds; contracts
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Hidden Disparities
This is Gebeloff's PowerPoint presentation on a study the Star-Ledger did that showed discrepancies in property tax rates along racial lines. Using databases and GIS they analyzed 66 different townships in New Jersey that demonstrated a trend; higher-value property owners tend to underpay and lower-value property owners to overpay taxes when properties are not frequently reassessed. The Star-Ledger showed that property values should be more accurately reassessed more often.
Tags: Mapping; GIS; CAR; property values; tax assessment; property taxes
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Investigating Property Scams
Panepento gives a list of documents and sources he used to uncover a property scam. He includes public records, websites and some key things to look for when uncovering property scams.
Tags: "flipping" property; hiding behind LLCs; uncovering predatory loans; land schemes
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Land Grab: Property Records Tipsheet
Lisa Vorderbrueggen has 11 tips for how to find more information on property records, from befriending your local planners, being on a first-name basis with your county assessor, checking delinquent property tax lists, and real estate conflicts of interest.
Tags: property records; environmental impact reports; assessed value; public records; campaign contributions
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Getting good data from the Web: Databases, documents and images
Williams culled together a short but effective tipsheet on web resources. She covers court documents, government databases, land records, business records, medical records and more in two pages.
Tags: web resources; web; Internet; records; public records; FOI; databases; legal documents; legal; court; land records; business records; PACER; SEC; EDGAR; FBO; CFIC; medical records; FindLaw
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Property Records- Checking Out Lawyers
Don Ray highlights the path to follow when searching for property records at the town, city or county level. From tax rolls to trust deeds the tipsheet explains what to search for and where.
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God's Little Acre: Understanding Land Records
Ronald Campbell presents a very well structured approach on how, what and where to search when dealing with land propriety records.
Tags: land; land record; grant deeds; quitclaim deeds; landowner
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God's Little Acre: Understanding Land Records
"Land is the most common form of wealth. It is also far easier to trace than stocks, bonds, or other more glamorous types of property. That makes land records vital for investigative reporters."
Tags: property; building standards; ownership; taxes; utilities; claims; mortgages; tax assessor; quitclaim deeds; grant deeds; land-use laws; land survey system
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Cash Cows
This tipsheet explains how the San Jose Mercury News used CAR techniques to discover that federal tax payers spend more than $100 million every year on grazing subsidies to keep cattle and sheep roaming public lands. The newspaper used federal billing records from the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.
Tags: CAR; San Jose Mercury News; grazing; public land; taxes; BLM; USFS