The Warren Group Real Estate Database is property centric. Annually, we collect the property files from assessors. Our technology links transactional data: sales, mortgages, assignment of mortgages, discharge of mortgages, foreclosure, and credit-related records (State, Federal, Municipal tax liens, etc.) to the individual property/assessment record. We then link all transactions to a parent property record.
Property/Assessor Information
We receive an annual assessor file, so our data is as accurate as the day we collect it. An assessor may continue to make changes, and thus, we will not receive those changes until our next annual update. During the year if asked to research and update a data anomaly, we will confirm the data with the assessor to assure that you see the most accurate data available.
Transactional Data
Transactional data is collected on a frequency schedule from the State, Registry, County, or Town Clerk’s office. Most of the collection is completed weekly, however, there are some towns and counties that are collected either bi-weekly or monthly. This is often due to a low volume of transaction records available in that specific market.
Processing Data
Over many years, we have developed several state-of-the-art processes for preparing and processing data. At present, these processes are run weekly for each state and include:
- Address Standardization
- Name Standardization/Recognition
- Deduping
- Suspicious Data Review
- Examples include transactions over $1 million and mortgages totaling $1.00
- Standardization of Data Elements
- Sales & Mortgage Matching to create Purchase Money Mortgages
- Transaction Record Linking to Property Records
- Manual Review of Non-Computerized Matches (Property and Transactional linking described above)
Quality Control
For a few reasons, a transaction record may not have been collected at a Registry. Therefore, we have created a list of routines that are processed to ensure all documents are being collected. These routines include:
Validations in Data Entry Application – Over 40 validations have been incorporated into the data entry application to ensure that records are being entered correctly into our system at the time of capture.
Missing Book/Page/Document Number Logic – We review the filing dates and book/page/document numbers to make sure no books were missed, and that filing dates were entered in the correct chronological order.
Closing Counts Confirmation – Our Data Collectors are asked monthly to confirm that amount of transaction records by document type collected. The Data Quality Auditor (DQA) uses these counts as a resource in the event of low volume discrepancies.
Averages Formula – We created a unique formula which compares the average number of records of a given period also considering holidays and bad weather days and then highlights low volumes that need further investigation.
Test Track – Our customers are our eyes. We have created a tracking mechanism for customers or users of our web data products to report a data error. Therefore, we have tens of thousands of users working on our behalf. Within 24 hours, we research and fix the error as necessary. It can take up to 10 days for an end-user to see the correction.
Data Auditing – Our (DQA) monthly, spot checks and audits different components of the data. Comparing original documents, keyed data, to the data within the database and finally to the data that is delivered to the customers. DQA is also responsible for providing updated training documentation to our Data Collectors as well as providing valuable feedback on how to improve our collection methods
What if data is incorrect?
Occasionally a mismatch can happen. As a result, there may be discrepancies with property characteristics that may not accurately describe the property or may not reflect the most recent improvement. We make every effort to verify and correct erroneous information when it is brought to our attention promptly. To notify customers and clients, they receive “Change and Delete Records” as part of their weekly update.
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