A PM question that was asked of me can help everyone

I received the following PM tonight:

My question is, after a house has been sold, is there any way to find out information on it such as, days it was on the market, if they were behind on property taxes, was it a HUD loan, that type of thing. I have seen some homes that have been sold for a deep discount on the Internet and I am trying to find out what the terms were or why it was sold for so cheap, maybe they were in pre-forclosure. Any feed back would be greatly appreciated.

My response was as follows: (I have beefed it up a little since my response to him)

The answer is yes and no. Some homes are sold in such a manner that you can find out some additional information quickly. I believe HUD homes that have sold are listed on the their website for a while so you can check there. The county auditor also shows the transfer date, amount and to whom. The county tax office will show if there are any tax arrearages. I guarantee that they get their money! To dig deeper, you can search the clerk of courts and see if the buyer took out a new mortgage and for what amount. And lastly, you can use the services of a Realtor who can access some information that is proprietary to their MLS system such as days on market. But sometimes the data is not readily available because of the manner in which it was transferred. Real estate is still a mysterous animal and there is a lot that goes on in the background that isn't easily obtainable by the lay person. Of course, these offices may be different in your state because different states have different offices doing different jobs. I hope this helps.