Sacramento

[EddieDagstanyan]

I'm considering purchasing a rural property in El Dorado County (CA) - quite a distance away from my current home.  The listing describes the "house" to be in teardown condition, so some significant reconstruction would be necessary.  Is there a way to find out what the "house" actually is (floor plan with dimensions, manufacturer/builder, etc) without physically visiting the property?  Such data would allow me to estimate construction costs a little more clearly.  Thanks in advance...

Eddie

[Greg_Cowart]

Eddie,

This is a tough one. I know I just did exactly this for a client of mine in Sacramento and in the City Of Sacramento you can usually click on 'Online Record Library' and find almost everything for a given property. I say usually because for some properties you have to go to the County instead of the City. And, of course, on very old homes the documents may just not exist anymore.

I would imagine El Dorado County would have something similar. Record keeping has been pretty standard in California for at least the last 60 years and many jurisdictions have documented/archived the documents digitally. Since you said it's a rural property (and we don't know what city/town) I would start with the county first. If you can't find what you need online a lot of times a quick phone call is all you need to make to get pointed in the right direction.

Sincerely,

Greg

[househunter2828]

You can look up your parcel info at the link below.  The County will be able to help you with records.  They are at 2850 Fairlane Ct Placerville and building dept is 530-621-5775.  If you don't know your APN number the website will guide you to it.

http://www.edcgov.us/Government/Planning/Parcel_Data_Information_System.aspx 

http://edcapps.edcgov.us/building/Parcel_request.asp

Good Luck!

[evilmonkeys10]

Some cities call them "Licenses/Permits/Projects." Such as The City of Rocklin requires you to email them and they retieve the information on a need to know basis per property. Other cities such as The City of Roseville have an online look up Licenses/Permits/Projects which you can use at your finger tips. Very neat. 

You can also find out property information for all parcels within the City of Roseville online. http://maps.roseville.ca.us/webpit/ 

Ohh the joys of having free information.

[EddieDagstanyan]

Thank you all for pointing me in the right direction!  I'll give your suggestions a try and, hopefully, come up with some solutions.

Eddie