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Teledex Advanced Help Topics
This page is still being drafted. It will be more readable and informative when it is finished. Thanks for your patience.
This page is used as hyperlink targets for further reference one level down from general Teledex help. We are linking to topics on this page that are more complex or detailed than is practical to put at the Top level.
Why Display By Isn't Automatically Set to Match Your Query
You might wonder why we don't simply force the Search As and Display By settings to match and save you the trouble of setting them. The answer is that having them independent of each other gives you some interesting display options. For example, setting Search As to buyer and Display By to Location gives you an index of all the locations where your buyer has purchased property. Setting Search As to buyer and Display By to seller gives you a handy index of everyone from whom your buyer has bought property. Switching these last settings gives you an index of everyone to whom your seller has sold.
Dates of Recording Vs. Dates of Execution
There is normally only a several day lag between the date on which the parties to a sale sign (execute) the deed and the day that the deed is recorded at the county registry. This is not always the case. Sometimes deeds are signed and the recording is put off and or forgotten. These deeds occasionally surface after months or years and get recorded. These will show up in Teledex records in the year in which they were actually recorded. Be alert for this if you are trying to establish comparable sales value. These sales are clearly not relevant to a study of contemporary value. Always check both the recording date and the date of deed. For a closely related topic see Prices on Teledex.
We use the concept of search strings to encourage subscribers to think of strings of characters instead of whole names or locations. For the many searches on Teledex it might not necessary or desirable to enter a whole name.
This paragraph is not yet complete. It is referenced from Names and Location discussion about the concept of search strings.
The more information you enter into a query, the more likely it is that something about the way the data is actually stored will be different than the query. This will cause the query to fail. "Less is usually more" on Teledex.
This paragraph is still being drafted. It will make this concept clearer when it is done.
System Rules For Starting With and Containing
"Starting with" means that the characters in a field are evaluated starting with the first one and then taking each one in the order that they come. "Containing" means that the characters you are looking for can be anywhere in the field. "Starting with" fields in the database can be indexed and therefore can have very fast searches. When you are using search criteria that require a "containing search", the system must chug through all the characters in the field to find the ones you want. These can't be indexed and are therefore slow. For the time being Last Name is a "starting with" search and "First Name" is a containing search. Location is a "starting with" search. This is why "first name only" searches will time out unless you make them very narrow by using other criteria.
This paragraph is still being drafted. It will further and more clearly develop the notion of starting with and containing. This paragraph is referenced from Contingent Criteria and from the descriptions of First name only" searching.
There are a number of important points to remember about names and how they might appear in the Teledex database.
The names that appear on Teledex are the names as they appear in the deed. Even if the parties to the sale you are looking for used their own names, there is no way to know in advance exactly how their names were actually written into the deed. The parties might or might not have used their middle initials or the names by which you know them might be nicknames. See the discussion below for information about how we report sales when the parties have different last names.
There is no theoretical limit on the number of people who can own a property together. We have seen deeds having a hundred parties. The economics of reporting dictate that we limit our records to one surname and a reasonable number of associated first names. We can sometimes get additional names into the comment section of the detail page. Names in the comment section cannot be indexed and therefore will not show up in a standard search for that name.
Our policy is to report the first surname and associated names that appear in the deed. Surnames that are not listed first in the deed and which we cannot or do not fit into the comment section are not reported. We frequently get calls from people who want to know why "since my name was on that deed and I paid for the property too why didn't you report my name so I get public recognition as an owner of the property". Our "first name in the deed" reporting policy is the reason. This is the sole criterion we use for reporting names. Some policy is necessary. Using the name which the parties themselves listed first is as neutral and impartial a policy as we have been able to devise.
Many people use trusts or other similar legal entities to hold their property. Many properties are held in the name of corporations. To find these by name, you need to know the name of the entity. The New Hampshire Secretary of State maintains corporate names and trade names. Their office might be able to help you with information about registered names.
All of this uncertainty about how names will appear is why you need to understand following concepts to get the most out of Teledex. Search strings is about entering the smallest number of characters that will get you a reduced set of records to pick from. Overspecifying Your Search has to do with entering so much search information that your search is bound to fail. Rules for Starting With and Containing gives you some idea how Teledex actually conducts your search and what you can reasonably expect Teledex to find for you.
We are building in the capability to search for multiple names and Locations in the same search. This feature is not yet ready.
When the Advanced Search Syntax described above is ready, we will develop this further and give examples of using the advanced search syntax in Name and Location searching. This paragraph will be referenced from top level name search info.
Location data have been taken from the deeds. This raises a number of issues you need to understand when using this data.
New Hampshire deeds are notoriously uninformative in their descriptions of where the deeded property is located. Location descriptions frequently were written in antiquity and have simply been passed from deed to deed without being revised to reflect current circumstances. This situation persists because there is no legal requirement in New Hampshire that a deed contain a current address or description of the property location. The law does require that the town be given but we have even seen a deed description that read, in effect "... I hereby convey all my right, title and interest to all real property that I may own anywhere in Hillsborough County."
Properties are frequently described by meets and bounds, one of which might be what we call a "from/to" description of the road passing the property. These frequently refer to the nearest town. Such a description might read, "... running 300 feet along the road leading from Hillsborough Village to Henniker ...". Due to space limitations, we would reduce this to "Hillsborough - Henniker road". If you can't find what you are looking for in a rural area try a search starting with a few characters of the nearest town name. Repeat the search using the town at the other end of the road.
Many times there is only a description of the (long gone) bounds and no currently identifiable road at all. One of the all-time classics goes ".. a line ... running northeasterly 124 Rods to an iron pin in an oak tree and turning and running southeasterly a distance of 197 Rods to a stake and stones on the ice in Bog Pond. For these we simply put NA.
Mortgagees are a bit more careful about describing the property. Sometimes we can get a location from the mortgage if there was one.
If the property being transferred is located on more than one street (corner lots, lots going through to two streets or large tracts) the Teledex location index will only index one of these streets. The other streets will be "imbedded" in the location description. A search based on these other locations will not find the record. To make the best possible location searches, search for any street that might border the property. See the discussion of Multiple Parcel Conveyances for more about how multiple locations appear in the database.
Even where the deed gives a street name, you should remember that street names and numbers have changed frequently over the years. This is particularly true with the advent of E911 in New Hampshire. Much of New Hampshire is being numbered or renumbered. Even if the recognized street address or location has not changed, there is no necessary consistency in the way the same property will be described in each successive deed. Each new "drafter of deeds" has broad discretion to make up their own description of what they are selling.
For the above reasons it is very difficult for us to present standardized location information. We are working on ways to match the sales data with information from the underlying parcel records. This will greatly improve the situation.
The deeds generally give the unit numbers and names of Condo developments, not the street on which they are located. Search for the name of the condo, not the street.
See also Why Teledex Works The Way it Does
Street Numbers Imbedded in Location Names
Occasionally developers will include the street address in the name of the condo or development. If you suspect that this might be the case, search for the number alone. Occasionally we mess up and put the street number in the location field instead of the street number field.Try a search starting with the street number if you want to check for this.
We are developing an advanced search syntax which will allow you to search for more than one location at a time. This feature is not yet ready. We will post instructions for use here as soon as this feature is available. This paragraph is referenced from top level location search info.
The Property Type descriptions on Teledex were taken from the property descriptions in the deeds. The deeds do not provide detailed information on property improvements or property use. Therefore we can't give you information on building types or use such as residential or commercial.
The property type descriptions from the deeds are sufficiently accurate to be useful except for L/B (land and building) and Land. New Hampshire deeds are notoriously inaccurate in differentiating between land and improved property. Descriptions frequently were written in antiquity and have simply been passed from deed to deed without being revised to reflect current circumstances. The Property Type descriptions are given only to indicate what was in the deed. You might try these to see what they yield but please do not consider the results of searches made using the L/B and Land Property Types to be useful. The condo Property Type designations are usually very good.
We clearly understand the need for better property type and use descriptions. We expect to be able to improve these descriptions dramatically starting in 1998. See What's Coming Next.
Limit on number of records found - If your query would otherwise have found 300 records or more, Teledex instead returns a "Too many records" message and invites you to further refine your search.
Price searches - Statewide price searches are limited to prices of $500,000 or more and ranges can't exceed $50,000. These limits will save you hits because the number of sales records returned from searches for lower prices or wider ranges will exceed the system limit.
Inactivity timeout - If you don't submit at least one hit for 60 minutes, Teledex will close your session on inactivity timeout.
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