Utilizing the Tax Assessor Website

The New Jersey tax assessor website contains a wealth of information for investors researching individual properties or contact information for homeowners. It's available online and best of all, it's completely free.  Each property record on the tax assessors website includes:  

• Property Location
• Current Owner Name
  
• Previous Owner Name
• Tax Mailing Address
  
• Square Ft
• Year Built
• Tax Assessment
• Previous Years' Taxes
• Sale Date
• Sale Price
• Land Type
• Block/Lot

Often times, the tax assessor website is also the first stop for title searchers. By inputting the address on the website, you can find the exact book and page numbers for the most recent deed transfers on the property. This can heavily reduce the need to filter through the tons of search results at the courthouse. You can also find the property’s block and lot designation to confirm that you’re looking at the appropriate documents. Of course, the website would be pretty useless if you couldn’t obtain tax information as well, including assessments and tax amounts. 

You will also want to gather a phone number to contact the tax collector. Provide them with your property’s block and lot, and they will be able to give you any outstanding taxes and last year’s total taxes. Although it is rare, some townships may require you to collect tax information in person and others may require payment so do not be surprised if you encounter this.  (Note that the tax assessor is different from the tax collector in that the assessor makes property valuations based on particular criteria, whereas the collector is in charge of the billing and collection of the actual property taxes.)

Do yourself a favor. Visit the NJ Tax Assessor website and familiarize yourself with this invaluable tool.