Commercial Plots, Property Tracking, Commercial Markets
I live near DC and I work in real estate. Sometimes I'm driving down the road and I see a few properties. I'm able to look up residential units but when it comes to commercial, I can't find anything in the public records.

Is this normal around the country?

Real Estate seems like the laggard when it comes to embracing some of this stuff. I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I'm just saying what I've noticed.

Now owners of commercial units, do they not want the ownership to be known? I'm sure people can speak for this but there are probably numerous ways to hold and manage properties, whether through companies or management, holdings, reits, etc. I don't know too much about this right now and I'm sure there are a lot of legal considerations.

Is there a reason it's like this or is it just slowly adjusting and slowly re-developing this stuff? The tech bubble was 20 years ago and real estate's something that's been around for over a millennia.

I assume they want to get it right so there isn't a rush. I'm just pointing out that sometimes when I enter a building like a local cafe, I can't look it up.
[{"id": "gb4cldg", "text": "All of that information is in CoStar", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gb4hkgw", "text": "Each county has the records online. If a property is held in an LLC, etc,you can look it up with the state corporation commission. Owners have always tried to keep info as private as possible for obvious reasons.", "replies": [{"id": "gb57yrm", "text": "So I guess it's standardized already, at least to some extent\n\nand I'll drive down the road and see a sign like \"Lease this property. Call 324-234-2342 for more info\" and that's it. There's no address or anything and when i search it i can't find it. \n\npeople who typed below say that this stuff is listed in county records", "replies": [{"id": "gb5eqdw", "text": "You\u2019ll need to stop at the property and read the address on the building. Then figure out which county (or city) it\u2019s in, and go to its real estate information website. You will be able to search it by address. \n\nOwners, real estate brokers, and property managers get many calls from brokers wanting to list or buy properties that are not being offered for sale. We either are brokers or do not lack for brokers that we know to call if we want to sell, so there is no need to make it any easier for our days to be interrupted. What area of commercial real estate are you in that you don\u2019t already know this?", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gb4jg7d", "text": "If you search the address in the county\u2019s tax database it will list the property owner. That said, for liability reasons most commercial properties are held in an SPE (e.g. 123 Main Street, LLC) and you likely won\u2019t be able to find any links to the developer/investor that owns that entity. CoStar (expensive) is probably your best bet for that information.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gb4vqm9", "text": "Are you looking to go on a website and click the parcel to get information on it? Similar to how if you zoom in on zillow and click a parcel?", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gb4wqas", "text": "DC's public records are an absolute pain the ass. Use this link.\n\n\nhttps://otr.cfo.dc.gov/page/real-property-tax-database-search\n\nDo you have a BrightMLS account? That is my preffered public records database for DC.\n\nIf you need access to deeds you have to pay.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gb5bgqv", "text": "Most Maryland counties have a GIS site and Maryland has Merlin. It\u2019s pretty easy to link from map to assessment info.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "gb9yxwd", "text": "Any investment property you want to take for yourself is better done by setting up an LLC to keep a distance between you and the liability of the investment property.  \n\nIt\u2019s not that they don\u2019t want you to know who they are, many office and commercial investment owners are a little different than residential investment owners. Commercial may have many owners and shareholders compared to an individual who may own 5 SFH properties. Depends on the cost of the building and how much work might be needed. They may be just owners and not property managers. Some owners like to save themselves some money but with larger commercial properties it can be a full time job just to manage one building.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]