How to Read the MLS Property Report--A Guide for Charlotte NC Home Buyers (Part 1)
How to Read the MLS Property Report—A Guide for Charlotte NC Home Buyers (Part 1)
Due Diligence. If you are a Charlotte NC home buyer, you must learn the meaning of those two words.
Why? A new Offer to Purchase and Contract form that gives a home buyer a negotiated time frame to investigate a property and make a decision to purchase the property was adopted in January 2011. Now you have an opportunity and a responsibility to learn everything you can about the property you wish to buy before you finalize your purchase.
Where should a Charlotte NC home buyer start this investigation? While you were searching for homes, your real estate agent gave you property reports from the Multiple Listing Service for each of the homes you viewed. Now you’ve found the perfect property. Begin your due diligence with the MLS property report.
The MLS property report contains a wealth of information that was entered by the property’s listing agent. This series will help you understand how to read the report and why the information is important. Because there is so much information in the MLS property reports, this guide will be broken into a series of posts about the various sections of a report.
Property Legal and Ownership Information
The first section of the report gives basic information about the property and the owner. This is what you can learn from this part of the property report.
- Sales status. You may see several abbreviations on the first line. ACT means the property is on active status in MLS and that the property is not under contract. ACDDP means that the property is under contract and a due diligence period is underway. COND means that the property is under contract and the contract is conditioned upon a buyer’s completion of certain conditions. CONT means that the property is under contract contingent upon the sale of another property. PEND means that the property is under contract with conditions and due diligence timetables satisfied.
- List price. If you see an arrow in front of the list price, you will know that the price has been raised or lowered depending on the direction of the arrow.
- Mailing address, tax location and county. You should carefully check this information against the tax records. The tax location will tell you whether the property is located in a municipality or unincorporated county and which entities collect property taxes. The mailing address indicates which post office serves the property. The post office often serves more than one municipality and sometimes more than one county.
- Subdivision, parcel ID, deed reference, and legal description. Once again, you should check this information against the county tax records to ensure that you are purchasing the correct property. The parcel ID is used by the county tax assessor’s office to identify each parcel for taxation purposes. The deed reference will help you find the deed from the last sale of the property to check ownership. The legal description identifies whether the property is part of a subdivision and what the boundaries are.
- Tax value. This is the value assigned to the property by the county tax assessor’s office. MLS property reports do not include tax rates or property taxes paid. Check to see whether the property has the most recent tax value assigned. You will need to check with the county and municipality records to identify the amount of taxes paid on the property.
- Zoning, lot dimensions, lot description and acreage. Zoning will determine how you can use the property. Lot description will identify whether the property has a waterview or is on a golf course or a cul-de-sac. Lot dimensions and acreage give you lot size and length of the property boundaries. A survey conducted as part of your due diligence will confirm these numbers.
- Year built and whether the property is new construction. If the property is new construction, the builder and model may be given.
- Primary residence and length of ownership. Here you will learn whether the property is the primary residence of the owner and whether the owner has owned the property for more than one year. These two items will help you identify whether the property is owned by an investor and whether there might be any mortgage restrictions on appraisal or purchase.
- Special Conditions. Special conditions include items that might affect your ability to purchase the property and the conditions under which the transaction might be conducted. Special conditions include foreclosure, in foreclosure, short sale and estate sale.
A final note about the information included in the MLS Property Report. It was entered by the listing agent and may or may not be correct. The information should always be checked and verified as part of your due diligence.
Learn more about the new North Carolina Offer to Purchase and Contract and the due diligence process.
Two Words Every Charlotte NC Home Buyer and Home Seller Should Know
Read other articles in this Guide for Charlotte NC Home Buyers
Part 2: Is the property part of a Homeowners Association?
Part 3: What is the square footage of the home?
Part 4: What rooms does the home have?
Want to know more about buying and selling real estate in Charlotte NC? Visit www.CarolinaSmallTownLiving.com.
Copyright 2011. Carol Fox. Allen Tate Realtors. *How to Read the MLS Property Report—A Guide for Charlotte NC Home Buyers (Part 1)*