St. Louis’ $30,000 Geo?
No, not Geo the car but Geo St. Louis — a helpful GIS database. Through this database one can find out lots of information about a property, such as sales data, when it was built, building permits issued and finally, if the house falls within a local historic district or a Preservation Review District.
So, if you are buying that expensive old house on a very grand street and you are just not quite sure if you can rip out those great old windows full of character and pop in some tacky vinyl windows with interior muntins you need to check this database, because as Elliot Davis would say, you paid for it.
In Ways & Means hearings last week on the new city budget it was noted the licensing for the software used to power this information is now at $30,000 a year. This of course does not include staff time to update the database and add new information. It is money well spent? I think so. Through no other source could I easily verify if a property fell inside or outside a historic district but this database makes it easy. As a REALTOR® I often direct my clients to this site to help guide them in the due diligence in making a home purchase.
I can imagine that various city staff spend less time calling other departments looking for data now that this system brings that all together. It does help to know what you are looking at. For example, the “assessed value” of property is not the same as “market value.” Assessed value is a fixed percentage of what the assessor determines is the market value. I can never remember the percentage which is why I like the St. Louis County assessor site — they show both the assessed and market values.
So if you are a homeowner, real estate professional, contractor or architect — you need to book market this site. If you are unsure about the meaning of the information contained inquire to the appropriate department. Do not assume you do not need a building permit.
– Steve
One note of caution- don’t assume the date of building construction that the city gives you on this site (or any other) is accurate. They did not research the building and are often giving the assessor’s given date, or getting the date from the street numbering certificate, which for an older building is something entirely different. For instance, Geo St. Louis gives the date of my house as 1884, which is the date the owner got a street number. But since I’ve researched my house, I know without a doubt it was built in the late 1860s.
But the website is fabulous. The Citizen Service Bureau information is worth the $30,000 alone.
$30,000 per year for a large piece of custom software is not excessive. If they city were to maintain a system like this by themselves, I would guess they would need between 2 and 4 full-time people.