Assessor’s Office Enters 21st Century with Digital Records

The City of Rye Assessor’s office has entered the 21st century.

The records for the 5,200 private and commercial land parcels that compose the six square miles that make up the City are now available via an online database – news that should please brokers, appraisers and residents. Previously, the records were on paper property cards available at the assessor’s City Hall basement office.

The new system, called PROS for Property Record Online System, has each of the old paper property cards scanned as well as fielded information on each property such as acreage, square footage, date of construction, room counts and any available photos. The project got started early last year.

“Now people can do it on their own,” said Rye City Assessor Jon Flynn. “Real estate agents email us and we’re pretty good getting back to them in a timely manner, but now, they don’t have to wait at all. If an agent needs to submit an offer quickly, and they’d like to take a look at the property card – if they’re doing this over the weekend, and we’re not here – they’re not going to get it till Monday. Now, they can go online on a Saturday, and just look up the property card and print it out. And there you go… they can they can get the records they need quicker, including surveys of the properties and the exact information that’s in our system.”

COVID was a catalyst for towns on the area digitizing their property records, with Rye now keeping up with other nearby towns that have gone digital including Harrison, Mamaroneck and Rye Brook.

“We always like to just fact check before we go either on the list presentation or [when representing a] buyer. We like to know that everybody is talking about the same thing,” said Real Estate Salesperson Paul Murphy of Houlihan Lawrence. “No one likes surprises a week before closing when things don’t pair up.”