Why Does the Paid Report Show No Sources and Nothing I Couldn't Find Free?

The complaint arrives in the same words every time: "I paid, and the report told me nothing the county GIS didn't." "There isn't a single source in it." "I can't even save it as a PDF." "How did they get that number?" The pattern behind these sentences is not a bug. Resellers of public records and lead-generation calculators sell the raw county file with a value stamped on top, because evidence costs effort and invites questions. Below: what the free records give you, what a report must add before it is worth money, and what to do if you already paid for one that falls short. For the machinery itself, start with how an automated valuation model reaches its number.

The report had no more information than the public records: why that happens

Three kinds of businesses sell "property reports", and none of them is in the valuation trade. Records resellers download the assessor roll and the recorder's index, add a search box and a logo, and charge for what the county hands out at no charge. Lead-generation calculators show a value to collect your phone number and sell it to agents; the paid "full report" is an afterthought. Subscription data sites bundle the two behind a monthly fee. In each model the value is a model output nobody intends you to inspect, so the document carries no sources.

The Maricopa County Assessor, to take one large county, lets anyone search parcels by address, open a parcel viewer with maps, use a GIS portal and download its data files without an account or a fee¹. Recorders work differently: the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder lets any member of the public search and request recorded real-estate documents going back to 1850, but does not post its records or index online, citing a Government Code section on the home addresses of elected and appointed officials, and supplies copies on request online, by mail, by fax or in person². A reseller's "deed history" tab is usually that index, bought in bulk and re-sold by the lookup.

So when the report repeats the square footage, year built, lot size and assessed value you had already seen on the county map, you have bought a copy of the public record. The value on top is the only thing the vendor made, and the one thing the document does not explain. That makes "how did they get that number" the right question, and a published standard answers it.

How did they get that number? The evidence a valuation has to show

Banking regulators wrote down what they expect a value estimate to contain before a lender relies on it, and the list is a fair yardstick for anything you pay for. The Interagency Appraisal and Evaluation Guidelines of December 10, 2010 expect an evaluation to describe the analysis performed and the supporting information used, and to indicate all sources of information: external data such as market sales databases and public tax and land records, property-specific data such as previous sales and comparable sales, evidence of an inspection, photos and a description of the neighborhood. The content should be documented in the credit file or reproducible, and an automated model may be used only when the resulting evaluation meets all of those expectations³.

For the comparables themselves, Fannie Mae's Selling Guide sets the level of detail: at least three closed sales in the sales comparison approach, each with its distance from the subject stated in miles with a directional indicator and measured in a straight line, and any sale from a competing neighborhood flagged with its differences addressed⁴. Neither text binds a consumer report, but both describe the minimum that makes a number checkable.

A document that fits the right column cannot be traced.

County GIS is free: what you can get without paying anyone

Five public sources a US report should rest on, what each gives you, and what none of them does:

Notice what the right column has in common: every public series describes an area, a tract or a zone, never one house. FHFA publishes its quarterly all-transactions index down to three-digit ZIP code, and annual developmental indexes down to five-digit ZIP code and census tract⁵; the step from that average to your address is the work a paid report owes you. Public data is the set of ingredients. A valuation is the cooking, and that is the only part worth paying for. The guide to official data sources for home values covers each series in depth; the complete guide to how much your house is worth explains what the result should mean.

What a paid report should add on top of the free records

Five steps separate a record from a valuation, and each one leaves a trace a reader can check. The model selects comparables from recorded sales by proximity, recency and similarity. It prices the differences between those sales and your house with coefficients estimated from local sales. It moves each older sale to the date of value with a price index. It derives a range from how far the adjusted comparables disagree. And it reads the maps, the rent level and the cost side for the same address. A report that performs these steps can print them; one that prints none of them either skipped them or would rather you did not look.

The adjustment step deserves the same treatment. A line that reads "garage: plus $28,000" is an assertion; a line that reads "garage: plus $28,000, coefficient from closed sales in this ZIP code over the last 12 months" is evidence, because it can be wrong in a way you can find. The guide to finding comparable sales shows how to assemble the comparables yourself, the fastest test of whether a vendor's three sales were chosen or merely nearest.

Why can't I export the report as a PDF?

Usually because the vendor prefers it that way. A web widget keeps you on the site, where the agent form and the next upsell live, and a screen cannot be forwarded to a lender, a sibling in an inheritance or a spouse's lawyer and argued with. The consequence is practical: no file means nothing to compare next year, nothing to show anyone, and nothing left when the site changes its plans.

Before you pay, check four things on the product page: the word PDF, the storage period in your account, whether a report can be shared by link, and the languages available. If the page is silent on all four, assume the answer is no. The free preview of your report at CheckValue shows the full layout with sample figures before you pay.

Generic report not worth paying for: five checks before you pay

1. Open the sample report. No sample means the vendor is selling the purchase, not the report. Read it to the last page.
2. Search the sample for the word "source". Count numbered references. Zero means the value is an assertion in a nice typeface.
3. Count the comparables. Three closed sales, each with date, distance and price, is the floor Fannie Mae sets for appraisers⁴. Fewer than three, or sales without dates, is a template.
4. Find the date of value and the index. A value without a date is a value for no particular day, and a time step without a named index is a guess.
5. Look for your own inputs. If you cannot correct the county's square footage, state the condition and add photos, the report values the record, not the house.

One more sign: a page that demands your phone number before it shows anything is a lead form, and the report is the bait. The subscription variant, where sold prices that used to be free move behind a monthly charge, is covered in why sold prices are suddenly behind a paywall.

What to do if you already paid for a report with no sources

Start with the vendor. Write, do not call, and ask for the three things the document should have carried: the comparables with dates and distances, the adjustments with their coefficients, and the sources behind the index and the maps. Point out that regulators expect any evaluation a lender relies on to be documented or reproducible³. A serious vendor can send that within days; a reseller cannot.

If the product page promised a PDF, sources or comparables that never arrived, the charge is disputable. Regulation Z counts property or services not delivered as agreed as a billing error; your written notice must reach the card issuer within 60 days after the first statement that shows the charge; the issuer has to acknowledge it within 30 days and resolve it within two complete billing cycles, no later than 90 days; and you need not pay the disputed portion while the investigation runs⁸. The Comptroller of the Currency spells out what that letter has to do: identify you and your account number and state why you believe there is a billing error. The bank then has 30 days to acknowledge it, may not collect the disputed portion while it investigates, and may not report that amount as delinquent⁹.

What the CheckValue report prints, and what it does not claim

CheckValue sells an AI valuation report, so hold it to the yardstick above. Its answer to "how did they get that number" is the reference list at the end: numbered entries naming the FHFA series behind the time step, the Census tables behind the neighborhood figures, the FEMA layer behind the flood map and the county file behind the parcel facts. Every comparable sale carries its date and its distance from your address. Every adjustment line, from the pool to the energy class, states the coefficient applied and the source that coefficient comes from. You see and can overwrite the county's facts before the calculation, and may add photos. For a US address the report also includes the owner of record from public county records, together with the Fair Credit Reporting Act notice: not for credit, employment, insurance or tenant-screening decisions.

Delivery is the other half of this complaint: the report appears on screen and as a PDF in five languages, can be shared by link, and stays in your account on the web and in the app. If no report arrives despite payment, or the address was wrong, the report is credited back automatically or refunded within 30 days.

What it is not: a licensed appraisal, an inspection, or a figure with an accuracy percentage attached. Nobody visits the property. Where a lender, a probate court or a tax authority insists on a signed appraisal, this report is the briefing you take into that meeting, not the paper that satisfies the requirement. What a single report and the packs cost is on the pricing page.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Figures and rules carry the year they were published; check the cited source for the current version.

Josef Eckmair MBA

Co-founder, CheckValue · More than 20 years in real estate in Tenerife and Austria · Reviewed by Christian Eckmair

Josef Eckmair MBA is co-founder of CheckValue (CBDNOL GmbH, Ansfelden, Austria). He has more than 20 years of real estate experience in Tenerife and Austria and writes about appraisals, taxes, selling costs and valuations for professionals.

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