I. Upon entering the database site, note the seven tabs across the top, Home, Search, Summary, etc. You will automatically default to either the "Home," or "Search" tab when you open the page for the first time. You have the option at this point to conduct a search by Street, Parcel or Owner. The default is Street, since that is most frequently used.

                           Street search

Enter the street name in either upper or lower case followed by only 2 letters for Street (ST), Road (RD), Avenue (AV), Place (PL) etc. Example: Maple Street = maple st, Maple Road = maple rd and so forth. You can omit the RD or ST entirely and still have a successful search but if you type "street" instead of "st" you will get a message saying "No matching records found." If you know the house number, enter that in "Number." If it has two numbers as is common for multi-family houses, just enter the single lowest number. Example: 263-265 Upham Street would be found by typing Upham and 263.

If you do not know the house number, you can search the entire street by entering the street name and leaving "Number" blank. In the instance cited above where there is both a street and a road, Maple Street and Maple Road, if you type in just Maple, you will come up with a list of properties on Maple Grove Street, Maple Road and Maple Street. Select the property you want from the list and the record card will appear.

Parcel search

Parcels are entered in three parts, the map designation, a zero and the parcel number. They are separated by a space. Example: Map A6, Parcel 6 would be entered as follows: A6 0 6

Owner search

The easiest way to search by owner is to use only the last name, get a list of people with that last name and select the appropriate name from the list. If you spell the first name differently from the way it is entered into the database, you might come up with the "No matching records found" message.

 

Maneuvering Within the Record Card

Selecting the Summary, Interior and Exterior tabs will provide information on your house. Note also that each tab has additional pages that are accessed by clicking on the appropriate item on the line directly below the tabs. From the Summary tab you can get previous assessments, condominium information (where appropriate), zoning and a Yahoo map, locating the property within the city. From the Interior tab you can access room and bedroom counts and get a breakdown of the square footage of the sub-areas of the house. From the Exterior tab you can go to yard items and recorded permits. You can print a summary of all the data, including a sketch of the footprint of the house and a picture from any of the tabs by selecting "Printable Record Card."

Return to the "Search" tab for a new search at any point.