One piece of information that I find useful when researching a deal is the property assessment value. In Ontario, that valuation is determined by MPAC – the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation.
In other provinces, you’ll have a different government body setting those valuations for you. And sometimes you can even get them for free from your local municipality (Calgary is a good example — hey City of Ottawa, why don’t we have this?)
If you’re working with a realtor, they can often provide you most of this information and more. But what if you don’t have a realtor, or you’re dealing with a For Sale By Owner property?
That’s why I decided to create a short 16-minute video (my first one for this blog) to explain how to do all of the above for free. Check it out below…
(Best viewed in full screen mode)
Items Mentioned In This Video
- City of Kingston, ON
- City of St. John’s, NL
- City of Calgary, AB
- City of Mississauga, ON
- City of Winnipeg, MB
- City of Airdrie, AB
- City of Edmonton, AB
- City of Canmore, AB
If you know of any other good search tools, feel free to leave a comment below with the website link.
And if you enjoyed this video, please let me know by leaving a comment below 🙂
Founder and Editor at Spirepoint Wealth
Paul is an entrepreneur, investor, speaker, educator and publisher. He is founder and editor at Spirepoint Wealth, a financial education company dedicated to helping people improve their finances, create more cash flow and build long-term wealth.
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Paul,
thanks for the info, i use a lot the one for Calgary but i am glad for the tips,
looking forward to the next video, mostly the tax one
thanks again and great info
Michaelle, Calgary
Hi Michaelle,
You have it lucky in Calgary — most of us have to work with very limited information, but you get it all for free!
Let me know if you find any more tools in Alberta or elsewhere. I just found one for Canmore, which is not too far from you — I’ll add it to the list above.
Paul
Hi Paul
As always, you find great tools online for real estate investors to expand our knowledge
Thank you for the great info. Ontario is the harder one to find assessments on I have found since I watched your video. Maybe this will change soon.
Thanks again
Winston
Thanks Winston. Funny thing is… MPAC used to be fully open (it was when I first started using it).
Then they locked it down, required a login, and restricted you to only 12 comparables. Then they changed it again and increased it to 100 comparables.
So it wouldn’t surprise me if they change it again. Hopefully they’ll take the lead of other cities and provinces… it’s public information anyways.
hey guys, i have two unit i bought in Camlachie, On, not to far from Sarnia, i would love to have comparison on it but i dont’ have access to MPAC and I don’t have the assessment documents, any idea on how i can go about finding the assess value, the tax value and some comparison
thanks for your help
Michaelle, Calgary
Try giving MCAP a call and asking for help getting into their system. They’ll likely verify your name, address, roll number and other info beforehand.
http://www.mpac.ca/pages_english/property_owners/contactus.asp
You could also check if the township has assessments online, or give the city hall a call and ask for help from them.
Perfect, thanks very much Paul, i will do that
take care
Great video Paul. Your information is always incredibly easy to understand and perfect for a learning real estate investor. Keep up the videos and emails!
Thanks Jon! I think my background as a technical writer helps simplify things for people 🙂
Thanks Paul for the info. The e-mails and videos definitely help to learn investing in real estate. Thanks
Glad you’re enjoying it Fabrice. Let me know if there’s anything in particular you’d like to learn about. Thanks
Great post Paul, this little tidbit will be invaluable in determining valuations, to make informed offers. Especially on FSBOs.
Thanks Benjamin. It’s something I don’t hear many people talk about, and it can prove useful sometimes when you’re dealing with limited information. More tips are coming soon! 🙂
HI Paul,
I’ve been enjoying all your posts. I just happened to be on the MPAC site
this morning and noticed that they’ve changed site some what. They now have
a propertyline service that you can lookup assessments, residential and
structure reports and as a well an Enhanved Market Value Report which
supposedly provides you with 3 comparable properties sold recently within
the subject neighbourhood you are investigating. I’m wondering if you can
share you thoughts. I’m thinking this would be a great tool for real estate
investors that don’t necessarily have access to MLS sold properties
information for comparables.
Anyways, just thought I’d point this out.
Cheers,
Chris
OREIO Member since 2009
Thanks for the tip. I did see those new paid reports MPAC offers, but I figured I’d focus on the free methods for now.
I read the description of the Enhanced Market Value Report in the pricing guide. However, I question using such reports for your comparable data. This report is actually called AVM Enhanced Market Value Report, with ‘AVM’ meaning ‘Automated Valuation Model. In other words, there are using computer criteria in their database to generate the report.
There is a lot of information that MPAC would not have access to (whereas a realtor and even neighbours would). For example, if a new development was just announced in the area that would have a positive or negative affect on valuations, or the fact that drug dealers used to live in the house and people still arrive at all hours looking for their ‘fix’.
You can try out the report if you want, but at $40 each, it can quickly add up if you’re just looking for some basic info. Or you can use a cheaper alternative (free)… to ask your realtor to lookup some MLS sold comps for you.
Hope this helps
Does anyone actually READ their assessment notices?
It says right on the notice that you can visit http://www.aboutmyproperty.ca and access information about your property and similar properties in your area…and guess what?? It’s free!
Hi Ed,
Thanks for the updated link. I’ve updated the Ontario link above.
Paul
Thank you so much for the information! Very helpful!
Glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
— Paul
Nothing is as easy as this Property Inquiry Tool from City of Hamilton, ON and it’s absolutely free. Any address input can provide history and current assessed value and taxes.
https://www.hamilton.ca/home-property-and-development/property-taxes/property-inquiry
Thanks Andy, this looks like great tool!