Investors' Guide to Using the Bexar Appraisal District Website

Today I'm taking a look at how to use the Bexar Appraisal District website to lookup owners, property taxes, appraised values, and other things to help you assess potential investment opportunities. If you're an investor interested in the Bexar County area, you NEED to familiarize yourself with this site because you'll be doing a lot here. Read on or watch my YouTube video to get the scoop of what you need to know.

Bexar Appraisal District Website

This is the appraisal district that decides what each home valuation will be for property taxes. The main reason most of us log in is to get this information. You can basically find out who owns any given property on this site, unless they have taken some steps to hide it. To look up a specific property, from the home page you go to "online services", then "property search". You can either put in a name or address into this field. Sometimes people use this to search for an owner of a home they drive by and are interested in, that way they can approach the owner.

You can find out the legal description, the zoning, mailing address, the appraised value (what the appraisal district is using to tax the home, so if it is different from the sales price, don't worry too much). I don't want you guys to be alarmed, but you should know that the property taxes are pretty high, but Texas has a LOT of exemptions, many of them having to do with the military. When you are looking, you want to make sure that you are looking at the existing exemptions and don't count ones that you won't qualify for. This can make a big difference in weather or not it is a good deal.

It also has a nice section to show you over time how the taxes have changed year over year. You can also look at the deed history. I use this to help determine if the house was a flip, or if it was passed down in a family. It is good to know this information when you go to approach a homeowner about selling.

Deed Search

You can get to the deed search website through the county clerk's website or directly to the Bexar County Official Records Search. You can search by address, name, or other things and find any public records associated with the property. I can see who owns the property, if there are any tax liens, etc. I can also sometimes see if there was a hard money lender on a flipped home, which lets me work backward to see how much I might be able to negotiate with them.

If you have any questions or need help navigating this, I'm happy to help. I hope this little overview gave you another tool/reminder to do your research when assessing deals.