Mining for Data - Part 4

Having decided on a neighborhood -- in this case, the portion of CRIS MLS Market Area 21 that lies east of Storer and south of Amelia, and which just happens to take in Census Tracts 5065 and Tract 5064, Blocks 4 and 5, it is time to collect all the transactions in a given time period. A quick peek at a ZIP Code map of the area reveals that three separate ZIPs are found there : 44302, 44313, and 44320.

We will use Realist.com for the data source, since it is one of the tools supplied to Realtors in the CRIS system. This tool is accessed by clicking the "TAX" button in the main CRIS menu bar. We will do a General Search of the tax data.

The General Search window for Realist.com is used for setting our search parameters. Searches can be done in Realist by ZIP Code and by Municipality. If there are multiple Census Tracts in a given ZIP Code (as there will be with this search), the data can be sorted by Census Tract later as needed.

First, the general search criteria. We are looking for single family market data. The "State Code" portion of the Land Use menu should be set to "Sort Numerically"; this allows you to easily pick LUC 510. Then we choose "Akron City" and ZIP "44302". The recording date fields are now set; we are going to gather all the sales data since January 1, 2001, but in order to do this in a manageable way, we will take the data one year at a time. The starting and ending dates for this search are set at "1/1/2001" and "12/31/2001", and the "SEARCH" button is clicked. In short order the "Property List" records are presented. For my purposes, I prefer the "Single Line View".

Now to extract the information so that we can save it and not worry about having to do this search again. Click the "EXPORT" button. You will be taken to the "Export Builder". Be sure you check "Select All" for the fields to be printed in "Full Records". That will give you more information than you will need (or want), but again, the data can be fine-tuned later.

Set the "Full Records" export choice to "Excel", and click the "EXPORT" button. The Export Status window will soon appear. From there you can go to the Export Manager to download the report, back to the Property List, or back to the General Query for a new search. The exported data will wait in the Export Manager until you are ready to save the report to your hard drive. It will be in the form of a comma-delimited text file, or .csv format.

We will go back to the General Search pane and follow this procedure for ZIP Codes 44313 and 44320 as well. When that information is gathered for 2001, we repeat the process for 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006. If we were updating our information for a current appraisal assignment in 2007, we would also draw the information from 1/1/2007 through the current date, but until that information is needed, it is best to pull data sets for complete years. Realist allows CRIS users to download only 5000 records per month under their CRIS account, and this kind of information is too valuable to waste. Of course, you can always buy the data separately from First American, but part of the reason for this tutorial is to teach utilization of existing resources.

Finally, in the Export Manager, we will download each of the reports to the hard drive. We are ready to sort and crunch some numbers.