Find properties on the map

Start from an empty database, or add to the one you have: draw an area on the map, say what you are looking for, and add every property in it that fits.

How it works

Open Database and switch to the map.
Draw an area with the draw tool — a neighbourhood, a corridor, a few blocks.
Click Add data, at the top of the page. From the map it opens on Find; from the table, choose the Find tab and it offers to open the map, staying open while you draw. Under Property type, choose what you are looking for: apartments of 2–6 units, apartments of 7 or more, mixed use, commercial, industrial, vacant land — single-family homes and condo units are off unless you turn them on. Then a min and max for any of units, building size, land size, year built and market value; leave either blank. A range on units keeps to kinds that have units, so "at least 50 units" returns apartment buildings, not offices.
Search this area. It says how many match and how many you already have, and draws the new ones on the map as outlined pins — the first few listed in the panel by address.
Under Add with them, the owner of record is always included; tick anything else the panel offers to fill once the properties are added — zoning or owner contacts, say — each shown with its source and what it costs when it finds something.
Add N properties. Each arrives with its address, PIN, type, units, building and land size, year built, market value, the assessor's NOI, EGI and cap rate where the assessor values it on income, and its owner of record, linked as a company or person.

Or ask the assistant: "Find every apartment building of 7 or more units in Hyde Park built before 1950 and add them."

Everything else you might want on these properties afterwards — sale history, assessed values, more of the assessor's own figures — is on the Enrich tab beside it: Find brings what comes with the search itself, and Enrich is where you fill in the rest, for these properties or any others.

Where the properties come from

The Cook County Assessor's open data — its parcel index, addresses, income valuations and building characteristics. It is free, and Find works anywhere in Cook County. Other counties are on the way.

Buildings on more than one parcel

A large building often sits on several parcels, and the assessor values it once, under one of them. Find counts the building once, with its units and value, and says how many further parcels were folded into it — you add the building, not each of its parcels.

When the county has no figure

If you set a range — say, at least 7 units — and the assessor has no unit count for a parcel, Find looks for one on the building's last sale: the transfer declaration a buyer files with the state states the number of units. If neither has a figure, the parcel is left out, because it might not qualify. The search says how many that was, and you can choose to include them.

Very large areas

One search looks at up to 3,000 parcels. An area with more says that only part of it was checked — draw a smaller area, or choose fewer property types, to see all of it.

Where the assessor records a size or a value as zero, it means it does not know it, and Everre leaves the field empty.

Owners

The owner of record comes from the assessor. It is linked to a company or person you already have with the same name, or added as a new one — and only where the property has no owner yet, so an owner you recorded stays. A building in a land trust is linked to the trust company as its trustee: the people behind the trust are not in public records, but you know it is held in one.

Adding twice, and undoing

Searching the same area again adds nothing twice: a parcel you already have is updated with what the county says now, and a value you typed yourself is kept. When an add finishes, Undo in the panel takes the whole batch back in one step — the properties and owners it added are removed, and the ones you already had keep what was filled in. Later, ask the assistant to undo it.