1. REAL PROPERTY WEBSITES – AND THEN SOME
Michael S. Klein
Ira J. Waldman
©2011
I. Bookmarks
A. Title Insurance Companies
1. http://www.vuwriter.com/ - Stewart Title Underwriting Manual
2. https://www.agentxtra.net/extranet/SingleSource/NavMaster.asp?TopicAr
ea=Main+Menu – Land America Single Source
3. https://passport.fntic.com/ - Fidelity Title Passport
4. http://ul.firstam.com/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2fDefault.aspx – First
American Underwriting Library
5. http://www.netronline.com/ - NETR Online Property Data Store
6. http://westregion.com/ - West Region Title Insurance Center – unofficial
site with links to underwriting manuals, forms, closing practices, etc. –
author of site does suggest your own verification.
B. Forms
1. http://cori.missouri.edu/pages/ksearch.htm - CORI Knowledge Database
including Forms.
2. http://www.freddiemac.com/ - Freddie Mac home page, a good source for
current multifamily forms, adaptable for many property types.
C. Federal Government
1. http://thomas.loc.gov/home/thomas.php# - Thomas Library of Congress
2. http://www.foreclosurelaw.org/ - United States Foreclosure Laws
3. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqscanv/ - USGS –
California and Nevada Earthquakes
4. http://www.epa.gov/epahome/whereyoulive.htm - EPA Website
D. Local Government
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2. 1. http://zimas.lacity.org/ - Zimas (Zone Information and Map Access
System for Los Angeles
2. http://www.municode.com/ - Access to Municipal Codes nationwide
3. http://www.amlegal.com/library/ca/losangeles.shtml - Access to Los
Angeles City Code
4. http://www.city-data.com/ - City-Data – Everything you want to know
about a U.S. City
5. http://assessor.lacounty.gov/extranet/default.aspx - Los Angeles County
Assessor
6. http://www.generalcode.com/webcode2.html - E-Codes - Municipal Codes
on the Internet
E. State Government
1. http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/table_property - State Property Statures
from Cornell
2. http://www.boe.ca.gov/ - California State Board of Equalization
3. http://www.sos.ca.gov/business/ - California Secretary of State Business
Portal – excellent for checking entity status
4. http://senate.ca.gov/ - California bills and statutes (can subscribe to bills)
5. http://www.corp.ca.gov/FSD/licensees/default.asp - California Department
of Corporations, Financial Services Division – the place to check for
active finance lender licenses
6. http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/ - California legislative information and statutes
(and see new beta site - http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/ )
7. http://www.ftb.ca.gov/index.shtml?disabled=true – California Franchise
Tax Board – the place to go for tax forms and information on California
withholding requirements in connection with real property sales
8. http://public.leginfo.state.ny.us/menugetf.cgi?COMMONQUERY=LAWS
– Laws of New York – valuable with the number of financings selecting
New York law to govern
9. http://www.law.upenn.edu/bll/archives/ulc/ulc.htm - the location of drafts
and final adoption of Uniform Laws by the National Conference of
Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (the Uniform Law Commission) –
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3. very valuable for statutory history for Uniform Laws enacted in a
particular state
F. Libraries
1. http://www.plol.org/Pages/Search.aspx - The (free) Public Library of Law
– free resources with a tie in to fast case (see below)
2. http://www.fastcase.com/ - Fast Case – next generation legal research for a
relatively inexpensive price
3. http://www.lawriter.net/ - Casemaker from Lawriter – free with
membership to many bar organizations; alas, not California
4. https://members.lalawlibrary.org/members/about.html - Los Angeles
County Law Library Members Portal/Remote Databases – significant
service at low cost
G. Commercial Databases
1. www.costar.com – Commercial Real Estate Information Company
H. Residential Databases
1. http://www.realtor.com/ - Realtor.com – data and listings
2. http://www.zillow.com/ - Zillow - homes for sale, homes for rent and
home values
3. http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/ - LA Times residential
database
I. Real Industry Trade Groups
1. http://www.uli.org/ - Urban Land Institute – research and publications
2. http://www.narea-assoc.org/ - National Association of Real Estate
Appraisers
3. http://www.crefc.org/ - CRE Finance Counsel, formerly known as the
“Commercial Mortgage Securities Association” – news links, resources
and publications
J. Real Estate Education
1. http://www.joshuastein.com/ - the website of Josh Stein one of the most
prolific authors on real estate legal matters – click on the Publications link
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4. 2. http://www.firstam.com/title/resources/reference-information/jack-
murray-law-library/ - the library of Jack Murray, another prolific author
on real estate legal matters
3. www.acrel.org – the public site of the American College of Real Estate
Lawyers has all of its program materials and newsletter articles on line and
searchable 1 year after the publication date. A treasure chest of relevant
material
4. http://realpropertylaw.calbar.ca.gov/RealPropertyLaw.aspx - California
State Bar – Real Property Section – Member access to Real Property Law
Journal articles
5. http://www.lacba.org/showpage.cfm?pageid=186 – Los Angeles County
Bar Association Real Property Section (but also check out the online
version of LA Lawyer at http://www.lacba.org/showpage.cfm?pageid=40
for searchable archival access
6. http://www.americanbar.org/publications/probate_property_magazine_ho
me.html - ABA Real Property Trust & Estate Law Section Probate and
Property Magazine – full access for members only
7. http://scholar.google.com/schhp?hl=en&tab=ws – Google Scholar – a
good source of cheap opinion and article access, always to be ultimately
verified.
K. Real Estate News and Publications
1. http://online.wsj.com/public/page/news-real-estate-commercial.html -
Wall Street Journal Property Report
2. http://www.gspartners.com/ - George Smith Partners – always good
finance information
3. http://www.bizjournals.com/ - Business Journals from around the U.S.
4. http://www.bizjournals.com/losangeles/ - The Los Angeles Business
Journal
5. http://realtytimes.com/ - Realty Times – News and Advice featuring local
market conditions
6. http://dirt.umkc.edu – DIRT Listserv
L. Miscellaneous
1. http://maps.google.com/ - Google Maps
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5. 2. www.spoofcard.com – Caller ID spoofing, voice changing and call
recording
3. www.yousendit.com – online file sharing, send larger files, manage file
transfer, FTP replacement with no email attachments.
4. www.pamela-systems.com – call management tool, especially for Skype –
record voice mail calls to disk
5. www.google.com/googlevoice/ - One number for all your phones, online
voicemail and cheap calling
6. www.teamviewer.com - the All-In-One Solution for Remote Access and
Support over the Internet
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