What You Can Learn About a Property Without Visiting It
- Craig Kaiser
- 6 days ago
- 5 min read
Gone are the days when researching a property meant hours at the county courthouse, endless phone calls to local offices, and multiple site visits just to gather basic information. Today's technology has transformed property research into something you can do from your couch- often with more accuracy and detail than traditional methods ever provided.
Whether you're a landowner managing multiple parcels, a realtor scoping out new listings, or simply curious about that interesting lot down the street, here's what you can discover about any property without stepping foot on it.
What You Can Learn About a Property Without Visiting It
Thanks to modern mapping technology and digital property data, you can learn a lot about a property without visiting it. From exact acreage and property lines to ownership history, zoning rules, tax assessments, and environmental constraints, today’s tools reveal far more than a roadside glance ever could. You can analyze topography, flood zones, soil types, tree coverage, solar exposure, nearby infrastructure- even hidden red flags like contamination or lack of legal access. In many cases, you can determine whether a property is a dream opportunity or a deal-breaker before scheduling a single site visit, saving time, money, and major surprises down the road.
The Basics: Property Boundaries & Size
The foundation of any property research starts with knowing exactly what you're looking at. Digital parcel data can tell you:
Exact acreage or square footage down to decimal points
Precise boundary lines that show where one property ends and another begins
Parcel identification numbers (APNs) that serve as a property's unique fingerprint
Legal descriptions that define the property in official terms
These boundaries matter more than you might think. That "5-acre lot" might actually be 4.7 acres, which could significantly impact its value or your plans for development, in case you’re interested in purchasing the property. Knowing the exact dimensions before you invest time in a site visit saves everyone involved from surprises down the road.
On LandApp’s free mobile app, you can click on any parcel in the U.S. to see property lines, parcel details (location, acreage, APN) and more for unlimited properties nationwide. LandApp is available on the Apple and Google Play stores.
Ownership & Assessor data
One of the most valuable pieces of information you can access remotely is ownership and assessor data. This includes:
Current owner names and sometimes contact information
Ownership history showing how the property has changed hands
Deed dates that reveal when the current owner acquired the property
Type of ownership (individual, LLC, trust, etc.)
Assessed value for both land and improvements
Annual property tax amounts
Exemptions or special assessments that affect taxation
For realtors, this information is gold. You can identify potential sellers who've held property for decades and might be ready to cash out. For landowners, knowing who your neighbors are can be crucial for everything from fence disputes to collaborative conservation projects. You can find property ownership information on local county websites (this information is public record), or you can use tools like LandApp Pro to see nationwide ownership and assessor details:
Zoning and Land Use: What You Can Actually Do
Before you dream about building that barndominium or subdividing for development, zoning information tells you what's actually possible:
Current zoning classification (agricultural, residential, commercial, etc.)
Permitted uses within that zone
Setback requirements and building restrictions
Overlay districts that might add additional rules
Understanding zoning laws remotely can save you from falling in love with a property that can never accommodate your vision. That "perfect" commercial lot might be zoned agricultural with no chance of rezoning, or that residential parcel might allow for a home-based business you hadn't considered.
Environmental and Geographic Features
Photos can be deceiving. Modern mapping technology and satellite imagery provide remarkable insights into a property's physical characteristics:
Topography and elevation changes: Identify the “buildable” spots versus the areas where the incline could make construction impossible.
Wetlands, flood zones, and water features: Wetlands and flood zones can impact development and insurance costs if you choose to buy land to build a home on. Check FEMA maps, National Wetlands Inventory data, or LandApp’s Environmental data layer to see if the property is legally (and physically) underwater.
Soil types and composition: For farmers and developers, knowing if the ground is Prime Farmland or rocky soil is the difference between a goldmine and a money pit.
Tree coverage and vegetation: Trees can be timbered or used for carbon credits, or they may have to be clear cut for development.
Solar exposure and shading patterns: This is crucial for anyone interested in leasing land for a solar farm or growing crops on their property.
You can see any property’s soil types, solar irradiance, and tree details with a free LandApp Property Report. Find a parcel on our map to create your free report:
Hidden Risks and Red Flags
Some of the biggest deal-breakers aren’t visible from photos of the property. Digital mapping allows you to overlay risk layers that protect your investment:
Contaminated Sites: Are there old mining sites or industrial runoff issues nearby? Flagging environmental hazards before they become a liability is crucial for anyone buying or selling land, as it directly impacts the property’s value. You can find Superfund sites on the U.S. EPA’s website, or you can see contaminated sites (Superfund, underground storage tanks, industrial contamination) within LandApp’s Contamination data layer. You can also find out if a property is contaminated using LandApp's proprietary Risk Index Scores within it's free property reports, which rate different contamination risks on a scale of 0 to 100.
Proximity to Infrastructure: See exactly how far the nearest power lines, substations, or EV charging stations are- crucial for both residential and renewable energy development. Proximity to power infrastructure also impacts property values. You can see how far a property is from transmission lines and substations with a free LandApp Property Report.
Access and Infrastructure
You can often determine crucial access information without visiting the property, like:
Road frontage and type of road access (paved, gravel, private)
Easements that grant access to landlocked properties across other properties
Utility availability (power, water, sewer, gas)
Distance to major roads and amenities
A landlocked parcel with no legal access is essentially worthless, while one with 300 feet of highway frontage might be a commercial goldmine. Remote research reveals these make-or-break details before you waste time on site visits.
How to Research Land Remotely
Researching remotely doesn't just save gas; it saves time. By filtering out properties that don't meet your slope, soil types, or zoning requirements, you can focus your physical energy only on the "winners." However, it’s important to remember that digital data has limits. You can't smell the neighbor's hog farm from satellite imagery, and you won't discover that the "quiet country road" is actually a drag racing strip on weekends. Remote research should inform your site visits, not replace them entirely- but it dramatically improves the quality of properties you visit.
The challenge isn't that property data doesn't exist- it's that it's traditionally been scattered across county websites, government databases, and proprietary systems that require expertise to navigate. Pulling together comprehensive information on a single parcel used to mean visiting multiple websites, understanding various data formats, and sometimes paying for individual reports. That's exactly why tools that consolidate this information matter so
much. When you can access parcel boundaries, ownership data, zoning information, and geographical property features in one place, you're not just saving time, but you're also making better decisions with better information.
Ready to stop guessing and start knowing? You don't need a professional subscription to start your research. Get a free Property Report or download LandApp today on the Apple and Google Play stores to access detailed parcel data, property boundaries, and land features for properties nationwide- completely for free.
