Many experts believe that California’s commercial real estate industry has ample room for growth over the next several years. A report from Deloitte shows that many companies realize they need to prepare for unexpected interruptions, such as those caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Buying and improving commercial real estate, therefore, could make it possible for investors to earn significant returns.
Before you can purchase commercial real estate, you need to know who owns the building and surrounding land. The following should help you find out who owns property in California so you can approach them about potential deals.
Contact the County Tax Assessor’s Office
If you only need information about a few properties, you can probably find out who owns commercial real estate by contacting the county tax assessor’s office. County tax assessors determine the value of properties within their jurisdictions so they know how much property tax to charge the owner. That means they should have the name and contact information you need.
You can find every county tax assessor’s website through the California State Board of Equalization website.
Keep in mind that California has 58 counties. It shouldn’t take much time to contact a couple of offices to inquire about commercial real estate property owners. However, if your plans include making offers on properties throughout the state, you could waste a lot of time contacting offices and waiting for responses. The government, after all, isn’t exactly known for its quick replies.
Reach Out to the County Clerk or Recorder
The county clerk or county recorder should also know who owns a property in California. As long as you know the property’s location and county, you can typically get the information for free. Even if you need to print documents, these offices typically charge minimal fees.
You can find the right county clerk or recorder through the Public Records Online Directory.
Of course, you could run into the same problem as communicating with county tax assessors. If you have a long list of properties, the number of phone calls, emails, and documents can become oppressive.
Knowing the Property Owner Isn’t Always Enough
Often, you will encounter a second issue when you want to know who owns property in California. Individuals rarely own commercial real estate in their names. Instead, they own them through corporations. If a corporation owns a property that interests you, records will list the organization as the real estate’s owner.
The California Secretary of State office should have documents that show you the individuals that own a corporation. You can even search the online database and download PDFs of incorporation documents for free. Finding out who owns the corporation who owns a given piece of property will enable you to reach out to the owner. Finally, you’ll get to ask whether they want to talk about selling their commercial real estate.
Get Accurate Information Quickly From a Membership Database
Instead of spending time dealing with government offices, you can find out who owns a property in California by purchasing a membership to a CRE database. Most CRE databases update their information often, so you can get accurate contact information for properties in California and other states easily.
A reliable CRE database will also help you find the owner of a corporation, allowing you to eliminate one more step from the search and save even more time.
Rely on ProspectNow for Accurate CRE Information
ProspectNow gives you a fast, reliable way to find out who owns commercial properties in California. Real estate buyers, sellers, and investors have trusted ProspectNow for more than a decade. More often than not, you also save money by choosing ProspectNow over other CRE databases.
ProspectNow uses predictive analytics to help you determine which commercial real estate owners might want to sell their properties. Instead of contacting a lot of property owners who don’t want to sell, you can focus on those willing to give you a good price on their commercial real estate.
Get started with ProspectNow to find commercial properties and their owners in California.