To find out how much a home sold for, start with a free real estate site like Zillow, Redfin, or Realtor.com, then confirm the number against your county recorder’s deed records. If the sale is too recent to appear online, if you’re in a state that keeps prices private, or if you need a defensible figure for a legal or financial matter, you’ll need an agent with MLS access or a licensed appraiser. Each route trades speed for accuracy, and about a dozen states don’t make sale prices public at all.
Check a Free Real Estate Platform First
Zillow, Redfin, and Realtor.com pull sold data from local multiple listing services and county records. Filter by sold properties in the neighborhood and you’ll see the closing price, the closing date, and how long the home sat on the market. No account is needed for basic searches, and coverage runs across most of the country.
The weakness is timing. Sales flow into these platforms on a delay, and Zillow accounts for that latency by publishing updated sales data around the middle of the month after closings occur.1Zillow Research. Housing Data Some transactions appear within days; others take weeks, depending on how fast the county processes transfer documents. If a neighbor closed last week, the number may not be posted yet.
Separate the sold price from the site’s estimate. The displayed sold price comes from the actual closing record and is reliable. The automated valuation — Zillow’s Zestimate, Redfin’s estimate — is an algorithm’s guess. Median error runs around 2% for homes currently listed and roughly 7% for off-market homes, and it widens further in areas with few comparable sales or unusual housing. The algorithm can’t see a new roof, a gutted kitchen, or deferred maintenance. Use the sold figure; take the estimate with caution.
Pull the Deed From the County Recorder
Every property transfer gets recorded with the county recorder (called the register of deeds in some states). The deed and any associated transfer tax documentation are public records, and they’re the same documents that feed property tax assessments and, eventually, the online platforms. This is the authoritative source.
Most counties have a searchable online database. Look up the property by address or by parcel number — sometimes called an assessor’s parcel number or APN. The parcel number is more reliable than a street address, especially for subdivided lots or shared parcels, and you can usually find it on a prior tax bill or the assessor’s website.
In the roughly three dozen states that impose a transfer tax, you can back into the sale price from the tax amount. Divide the recorded transfer tax by the local rate. If the county recorded $550 in transfer tax at a rate of $1.10 per $1,000 of value, the home sold for $500,000.
Older transactions may not be digitized. If you can’t find what you need online, visit the recorder’s office in person. Certified copies of deed documents typically cost $1 to $6 per page, depending on the jurisdiction.
Don’t Confuse Assessed Value With Sale Price
The assessed value on a tax bill is not the sale price. Assessments exist for property tax calculations and are often updated on a different schedule than market activity, and in many places they run below what homes actually trade for. A home assessed at $320,000 that sold for $410,000 is normal. For the actual price, look at the recorded deed or transfer tax, not the assessor’s valuation.
Ask a Real Estate Agent to Pull MLS Data
The Multiple Listing Service is a private database maintained by real estate professionals, and it holds more detail than any public site.2National Association of REALTORS. Multiple Listing Service MLS What Is It Beyond the sold price, the MLS shows seller concessions, buyer credits for repairs, and each price reduction before closing. If you want to know whether a home sold under asking because of foundation issues or because the seller was in a hurry, that context lives here.
Only licensed agents and brokers who pay dues to their local MLS board have direct access, but any agent you work with can pull the data for you, usually at no charge. Agents commonly package it as a comparative market analysis, comparing the target home to similar sales nearby — generally within about a half-mile and the last three to six months.
MLS data also tends to be fresher than county records. Agents can see a pending sale before the deed is recorded, and the final price appears shortly after closing. If you’re not working with an agent, many brokerage websites publish basic sold data under MLS data-sharing agreements, though the detail won’t match what a licensed professional can access.
Order an Appraisal or Title Report When You Need Documentation
For a mortgage, an estate settlement, a divorce, or a tax dispute, you need a defensible number, not a website estimate. That’s an appraisal. Appraisers follow the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, a set of national standards enforced by every state and required by federal banking regulators for appraisals tied to federally related mortgage transactions.3Appraisal Subcommittee. USPAP Compliance and Appraisal Independence
An appraiser inspects the property, measures it, documents its condition, and compares it to recent comparable sales with adjustments for square footage, lot size, age, and upgrades. A standard single-family appraisal typically runs $300 to $425, with higher costs for large, complex, or rural properties. The resulting report is accepted by mortgage lenders, courts, and the IRS.
A title company offers a different product. A property profile or preliminary title report shows the chain of ownership, recorded liens, easements, and prior sale prices from deed history. Title companies often provide a basic snapshot free as a marketing tool, with the full report typically prepared during closing when a home is purchased. For a complete transaction history going back decades, this is the most thorough source.
Non-Disclosure States Don’t Publish Sale Prices
About a dozen states don’t require sale prices to appear in public records. The non-disclosure states include Alaska, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming. Missouri is a partial-disclosure state, where some details are public but the sale price may remain private. In these places, the deed and the county recorder’s database will not show a price no matter how carefully you search.
Your realistic options narrow to two. Work with a licensed real estate agent who has MLS access — the MLS tracks sold prices in non-disclosure states because agents report them as part of the listing process. Or order a professional appraisal, since appraisers can access proprietary sales databases that aren’t open to the public. Some county assessors in partial-disclosure states receive sale prices for tax purposes but are prohibited from sharing them, so the assessor’s office won’t help either. If you’re in Texas or Idaho and can’t find a price in public records, the system is working as designed.
When the Deed Shows $10 or Nothing at All
Sometimes you pull a deed and find that a home apparently sold for $10. Nobody got the deal of a lifetime. Many deeds use boilerplate language like “for and in consideration of ten dollars and other good and valuable considerations” instead of listing the actual purchase price. That $10 is nominal consideration, a legal formality showing that something of value changed hands. The real price lives in the separate purchase agreement between buyer and seller, which usually isn’t recorded publicly.
This pattern is common with transfers between family members, into trusts, or between a person and their own business entity. A parent adding a child to a deed, a spouse transferring property in a divorce, or an owner moving real estate into an LLC will produce a recorded document with little or no dollar amount. These aren’t arm’s-length market sales, and the recorded figure says nothing about market value.
When you see this, check whether a transfer tax was paid. If the county recorded one, you can calculate the real price from the tax amount and the local rate. Many jurisdictions exempt interfamily and trust transfers from the tax, so if none was paid, the deed won’t reveal a price. In that case, look at recent comparable sales in the area to estimate what the home is actually worth.