Public records · Sarasota & Manatee · every permit system the county publishes, every house

Know what's wrong with it before you show it to anyone.

You find one you love and send it to someone. Then the inspection comes back and the roof is twenty years old, the plumbing is original, and a room was built without a permit. The county knew all of it the whole time. Text me the ten houses you're deciding between and I'll pull all ten — before you get attached to the wrong one.

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4701 SPAHN ST · SARASOTA FL 34232

FLOOD ZONE X — building sits clear

LAST ROOF PERMIT
2006 · 20 years ago

EFFECTIVE YEAR 1994
ACTUALLY BUILT 1959

AC REPLACED 2019
this one's fine

Public record

Unpermitted carport enclosure · county wrote it up in 2017

The wedge

The listing tells one story. The records tell another.

Every report is a side-by-side: what the listing claims, and what Sarasota County actually has on file. Everything below is one real house — 4701 Spahn St — and every line is checkable against the county's own records.

Listing says

"Charming bonus room."

The county says

"Unpermitted carport enclosure, to include 2 windows, structural walls, and two exterior doors."Sarasota County record 17 120801 00 CB · 4/19/2017

Listing says

"Newer roof."

The county says

The last roof permit is 2006. That roof is 20 years old.Permit 06 104620 00 BO · "RE-ROOF, 20SQ, GAF TIMBERLINE, ASPHALT"

Listing says

"Updated throughout."

The county says

No repipe on record, and no electrical permit either. The house was built in 1959.Searched county records through 2026-08-03 · cast-iron and aluminum-wiring era

What happens after you text

Send ten addresses. That's the whole ask.

No form, no email, no account, and nothing to cancel later. You text me the houses you're actually choosing between, I pull what the county has on every one of them, and you get back a ranked page — so you can see which ones deserve your inspection money and which ones don't. Send fewer than ten if that's all you're looking at.

1 Text your top 10 to 866-794-1618 2 All ten back in 24 hours, ranked 3 Send more as you find them

What's in it for every house: every permit on record with its date, roof and AC age, plumbing, electrical, windows, whether the building itself sits in a flood zone, and anything the county recorded as done without a permit. Sarasota and Manatee counties. Anywhere else, I'll tell you straight rather than guess.

Why this exists

I built this because I lived it.

A few months ago my wife and I were buying in Florida from out of state. I'm not green — I know floods, roofs, windows. Didn't matter. I was falling for Zillow photos and glossy descriptions, even making offers, and only then realizing how much I couldn't see.

The worst part was never the money. It was sending her a listing, both of us picturing our life in it, and finding out later what it was actually going to cost us. By then you aren't deciding with your head any more. You've already moved in, in your mind.

So I did it the hard way: pulled permits and assessor data on every house by hand, driving the county with my pregnant wife at the wheel. Half the time the "new" roof was really 12 years old.

You know this feeling too. So I built the thing that reads the records for you, and I'll run yours for free — I'd rather you find out now than at the inspection.

The artifact

A real report, not a dashboard.

This is 4701 Spahn St, one of 43 Sarasota houses already run. It reads like something you can forward to whoever you're talking it over with, and every finding says how sure the public record actually is. Of those 43 houses, 42 had at least one major system flagged.

4701 Spahn St

Sarasota, FL 34232 · Built 1959 · 6 permits on record

4 / 5

Major systems flagged

RoofPermit 06 104620 00 BO · 2006 · 20 yrs against a 15-yr gate

Flag

PlumbingNo repipe on record · built 1959, cast-iron era

Flag

ElectricalNo electrical permit on record · built 1959, aluminum branch-wiring era

Flag

WindowsNo window permit on record · pre-2002 code, no wind-mitigation credit

Flag

AC / HVACReplaced 2019 · 7 yrs — this one is fine

Verified

Unpermitted workCounty record 17 120801 00 CB, 2017 — carport enclosed with walls, 2 windows, 2 doors

Flag

Flood zone at the buildingZone X · the structure sits outside every mapped flood polygon

Verified

Effective vs actual yearCounty effective year 1994 · actually built 1959

Verified

What to ask before you tour it

Ask for roof documentation — the last permit the county has is 2006.
Ask whether the enclosed carport was ever permitted. The county says it was not.
Ask what the plumbing is. There is no repipe on record and the house is from 1959.

See all 43 Sarasota houses, best documented first →

The offer

Text me your top ten.

Free All ten · Sarasota & Manatee · no catch

It's free, and here's the trade: I'm going to want to talk to you. Not a sales call — I want to hear how the search is going, which of the ten you kept, and whether any of this changed what you did. Right now that's worth more to me than charging you would be.

Every permit on record — with dates, so you can see how old the roof, AC, plumbing, electrical and windows actually are on each one
The flood zone at the building — not the parcel, the structure itself, which is the one that matters
Anything done without a permit — in the county's own words, quoted exactly
All ten ranked against each other — so the answer is which of these is worth paying an inspector for, not just what's wrong with one

What it costs youNothing

Back to you in 24 hours · every claim linked to the county record it came from · no signup, no email, no account.

Text 866-794-1618 →

Just send the addresses. I'll take it from there.

Honest disclaimer: This summarizes public permit, property, and flood records — it is not a home inspection, an appraisal, or legal advice, and not a guarantee that every issue has been found. Records can lag reality; always confirm critical findings on tour and with a licensed inspector before you make an offer.