A new website pulls together real estate information from four sources in all 99 Iowa counties and makes them available in one place. Shelby County Auditor, Marsha Carter says it’s called the "consolidated real estate information website’ or CREW, and includes information from assessors, auditors, recorders, and treasurers.
Carter says the website is still a work in progress, but says you can do statewide searches by typing in a name. She says you don’t have to go to each county to search, you can go to this website. Carter says the legislature had asked about the possibility of such a website back in 2005, and that’s what got the idea going.
Carter uses her name as an example of how it will work. She says you can type in "Marsha Carter" and get all the properties statewide linked to that name. Carter says there were a couple of issues they had to resolve to get the website going.
Carter says recorders and treasurers already had a statewide website, but the auditors and assessors did not have such sites, and they had to develop those sites so they could have the information available. Carter expects the site to get a lot of use. Carter says they’ve been calling it a "one-stop shop" from the start and they believe attorneys and realtors, or anyone working on an estate will be able to go in and look up the information without having to look up each individual county.
Carter says they recieved a $200,000 grant from Access Iowa to get the site going and that will fund the operation of the site for awhile. You can see the site here .