Hello.  I am looking to buy a condo in Brooklyn, New York.  I don't
know the area well and can't judge if the asking price is fair or not
for a particular neighborhood.  My question is how to find out what
similar properties in the neighborhood have been selling for recently?
 Homepricecheck.com (domania.com) and its derivatives provide very
limited data (only address and price but not the size and type of
property) and it is a few months behind.  So it is pretty useless. 
There must be better sites.    In theory, there should be detailed
public records of each sales transaction.  Perhaps, there are
databases available for sale.  Local government should have all the
info but where does it keep it?   In other words, what can you
recommend to help me with a valuation of a condo offered for sale?  To
appraise a property in Brooklyn costs $400 so I can't really do it for
each property I look at.  Plus, condos stay on the market for only a
few days and there is simply no time to schedule an appraiser’s visit.
I have to rely on some Internet based or otherwise available home
sales data.  I hope you can help me locate that data.  Thank you

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Request for Question Clarification by rainbow-ga on 27 Sep 2003 03:14 PDT

Hi theskigirl,

I have located a few databases which provide the prices of properties
sold in Brooklyn. Some are online, some by email and some are for a
fee. If you are interested in the information I have, I will post them
as an answer to your question.

Let me know what you decide. Thanks.

Regards,
rainbow

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Clarification of Question by theskigirl-ga on 29 Sep 2003 10:18 PDT

I am interested in those databases as long as they provide detailed
sales info such as size and type of property, common charges, address,
asking price and sales price.  PLease note that I am aware that NY
Times has this type of detailed sales info for some properties.  I am
looking for databases beyond that of NY TImes.  Thank you.

Most of the systems that can give you detailed comparable house prices
are subscription / membership sites that real estate brokers have
access to.  I would recommend you find a reputable broker who can find
all of this information for you.

The New York Times allows you to search for home sales in a particular
area at this link:
http://realestate.nytimes.com/recentsales/searchindex.asp

You could search to see what homes have sold for.

Prices for home sales do not help you get a comparable price for
another property unless you know a lot of factors not included in the
house price listings such as age of the house, # bedrooms / baths,
condition of the house, type of neighborhood, etc.

Hi theskigirl,

I'm posting this as a comment because I'm not sure whether these sites
will provide you with all the information you require.

This first site is access to databases for a fee:.

"No other provider of Foreclosure Data for the New York City area can
give you all that we have.
Our online database has the most comprehensive and descriptive
collection of data for every property in foreclosure in the New York
City area.
In addition to our online database that allows you to download your
data into an Excel spreadsheet we provide by email data in virtually
every format that is needed."

PropertyTrac
http://www.propertytrac.com/

You can access a database demo here: 
http://www.propertytrac.com/indexdata.asp


This site is email-based:

"Find Out What The Home Down The Street Sold For
To receive a listing of all recent home sales in your area, just fill
out the form."

Real Estate Information Source
http://www.queens-brooklyn-real-estate.com/gold_findout.asp

Other sites which may interest you:

Real-Info
http://www.real-info.com/index.asp?RISID=7c2efdb178fef50356313f5dedbbc78d

NYC Apartments Exchange
http://www.nyc-apartments-exchange.com/archived_sales.html

I hope this helps.
Regards,
rainbow-ga