Every listing is a sales document. The county record is the other account of the same house: written by an assessor with no commission on the outcome, updated on its own schedule, and free. Buyers who read both catch the disagreements, and the disagreements are where the questions live. This guide takes the Clark County Assessor's record field by field, then the sale history, then the ways a listing and the record disagree and what each disagreement usually means.
The APN is the house's real name
Counties do not track homes by street address; they track parcels by assessor's parcel number. The APN is the key that joins everything: the assessor's facts about the building, the recorder's history of deeds and liens against it, the treasurer's tax roll. Two records that share an address but not an APN are two different properties, which is exactly the kind of thing a condo listing gets wrong.
The record, field by field
In the order the assessor's page shows them. The left column is what the county wrote down; the right is the question it answers for a buyer.
| Field | What it says | What to do with it |
|---|---|---|
| Parcel number (APN) | The 11-digit key the county tracks the property by, e.g. 162-08-210-034. Book, page, block, parcel. | The one identifier to search on. An address can be wrong, shared or renumbered; the APN cannot. |
| Owner and mailing address | The name on the last recorded deed, and where the tax bill goes. | A mailing address in another state or an LLC name means an absentee owner: a landlord, an investor, or an heir. |
| Land use code | What the property legally is: single-family residence, townhouse, condominium, vacant lot, duplex. | Settles what the photos blur. A 'house' coded as a condo has an HOA and shared walls in law, whatever it looks like. |
| Year built | The year the original structure was completed, sometimes with an 'effective' year after a major remodel. | Predicts the surprises: roof, plumbing, AC, wiring. The fixer-upper guide's era table keys off this number. |
| Living area | Heated, finished square footage as the assessor measured it. Garages, patios and casitas are listed separately. | The number the price per square foot should use. A listing that claims more is counting something the county did not. |
| Lot size | The parcel's land area in square feet or acres. | Room for an addition, a pool, an ADU. A lot that is mostly slope or easement reads the same here, so look at the map too. |
| Bedrooms, bathrooms, stories | The counts on the assessor's building sketch. Half-baths are counted separately. | One more bedroom than the county has is a converted garage, den or closet. Ask which. |
| Construction and roof | Frame or masonry; tile, shingle, or built-up flat roof. | A flat roof on a 1960s house is the line item to price first. |
| Garage, carport, casita, addition, pool, spa | Each outbuilding or feature, usually with its own square footage. Blank means none on record. | A pool or casita in the photos but not the record is unpermitted, or newer than the last reappraisal. Either way, ask. |
| Taxable value: land and improvements | The assessor's full cash value, split between the land and what is built on it. Reappraised on a cycle, not on sale. | Trend, not price. The land share is what is left if the house is a teardown. |
| Assessed value | Exactly 35% of taxable value. The base the tax rate applies to. | Read the tax math from it, never the market. It is low by construction. |
| Tax district and rate | Which overlapping jurisdictions tax the parcel, and the combined rate per $100 of assessed value. | Two homes a street apart can sit in different districts. The rate, not the value, is often why one bill is higher. |
| Exemptions and abatement | Whether the owner claims the 3% primary-residence cap or the 8% cap for everything else, plus any veteran or senior exemption. | The cap resets to full value when the home sells. Your bill will not be the seller's bill. |
| Sale history | Recorded transfers: date, price, document number, and the deed type. Nominal transfers show as $0 or a few dollars. | What the owner paid and when. That is their equity, their holding period, and the whole negotiation. |
The two values that are not the price
Nevada records confuse newcomers because neither headline number is a market value. The taxable value is the county's own appraisal of land plus improvements, and the assessed value is fixed at 35% of it, because that is the base the tax rate applies to. Both routinely sit far below what the home would sell for. Use them for trend and for the tax math, never as an appraisal; for what the market thinks, you want comps and price per square foot.
A worked example at a typical valley district rate. Rates run from about $2.50 to $3.50 per $100 of assessed value depending on the district; the assessor's page names yours.
Then the abatement. An owner-occupied primary residence's bill may rise at most 3% a year, anything else at most 8%, so a long-time owner pays well under the arithmetic above. The cap belongs to the owner, not the house: it resets on sale, and a buyer's first bill is the full figure. The seller's tax bill in the disclosure is therefore a floor, not an estimate. The payment calculator takes the full figure for that reason.
The sale history is the part that is a price
The recorded sale line tells you what the current owner paid and when, which quietly answers the two questions every negotiation turns on: how much equity is in the house, and how long they have held it. The deed type on each line says whether the price beside it means anything.
| Deed type | What happened | The price beside it |
|---|---|---|
| Grant, bargain and sale deed | An ordinary arm's-length sale. Nevada's standard conveyance. | A real market price |
| Trustee's deed upon sale | A foreclosure auction. The trustee conveyed to the high bidder or back to the lender. | The credit bid or auction price, usually under market |
| Quitclaim deed | One party gave up whatever interest they had, with no warranty. Divorces, family, trusts, clearing title. | Nominal. Ignore it as a comp |
| Deed in lieu of foreclosure | The owner handed the home to the lender to avoid the auction. | The loan balance, not a price |
| Deed to or from a trust or LLC | The same owner moving the title into an entity for estate or liability reasons. | Nominal. The owner did not change |
One caution worth repeating: a recorded transfer for $1 or a few hundred dollars is not a bargain you missed, it is a nominal transfer, usually into a trust, an LLC, or between family. Kouzr treats anything at or under $1,000 as exactly that and keeps it out of the price math. A recent real sale at a low price followed by a new listing at a high one is the other pattern to know: that is a flip, and the record tells you the flipper's basis.
When the listing and the county disagree
The disagreements are the cheapest due diligence a buyer gets, and they belong in your inspection window. The common ones, and what each usually means.
| Disagreement | Usual reason | What to ask |
|---|---|---|
| Square footage higher on the listing | Converted garage, enclosed patio, or an addition the county has not measured, sometimes unpermitted. | Which room, and is there a permit? Price it at the county's number. |
| An extra bedroom | A den, loft, or garage conversion counted as a bedroom. The assessor counts rooms with a closet and egress. | Is there a window and a closet? If not, it is an office. |
| Pool in the photos, none on record | Built after the last reappraisal, or built without a permit. | Permit number. Unpermitted pools fail the barrier rules and the insurer's questions. |
| Year built differs | The listing quotes the effective year after a remodel, or the agent copied the wrong parcel. | Original year for the plumbing and wiring; effective year for the finishes. |
| Lot size differs | The listing rounds up, or counts a shared easement. The county's figure is the surveyed parcel. | Use the county's. Fences are not property lines. |
| Owner name is not the seller | A trust, an estate, an LLC, or a sale by someone with power of attorney. | Who signs? Title will need the trust documents or the letters of administration. |
The rule: when the two disagree, price the house at the county's number and treat the difference as a question, not a feature.
Where to find all this
Assessor: the building and the values
The Clark County Assessor's property search takes an address or APN and returns everything in the table above, free, with a building sketch and the aerial.
Recorder: the deeds and liens
The Recorder's document search, by name or document number, holds the deeds behind each sale line and anything recorded against the parcel: deeds of trust, HOA liens, notices of default.
Treasurer: the bill
The Treasurer's site shows the actual tax bill by parcel, the district rate, and whether the owner is current. Delinquent taxes are a lien that follows the house.
Kouzr: the join
Every listing page carries the assessor's record beside the listing's own claims, and the property records section publishes off-market records as the rollout reaches each city.
Kouzr does the joining for you: every listing page carries the county record beside the listing's own claims, and the property records section publishes assessor records for off-market homes as the rollout reaches each city. The disagreements between the two columns are highlighted by proximity. For what to do with the year built once you have it, the fixer-upper guide keys its era table off it.
Questions people ask
What is an APN, and where do I find it?
An assessor's parcel number is the county's identifier for one piece of land and what sits on it. In Clark County it is eleven digits in the form 000-00-000-000. It is printed on the tax bill, on the deed, on the assessor's property search, and on every Kouzr listing page. Search by APN rather than address whenever you can: addresses get renumbered, shared between units, and mistyped.
Why is the assessed value so much lower than the price?
Because Nevada assesses at 35% of the taxable value, and the taxable value itself is the assessor's estimate on a reappraisal cycle rather than a current appraisal. A home that would sell for $500,000 might show a taxable value near $400,000 and an assessed value of $140,000. Neither is a market figure. Use recent comparable sales for the price and the assessed value only for the tax math.
How is property tax calculated in Clark County?
Assessed value (35% of taxable value) times the district rate, which is set per $100 of assessed value and combines the state, county, city, school district and any special districts. Rates across Clark County run from about $2.50 to $3.50 per $100. Then the abatement applies: an owner-occupied primary residence's bill can rise at most 3% a year, other property at most 8%. The cap belongs to the owner, not the house, so a buyer's first bill resets to the full amount.
Can I find out who owns a house in Las Vegas?
Yes. Ownership is public record. The Clark County Assessor's property search shows the owner of record and the mailing address for any parcel, and the Recorder holds the deed itself. Kouzr shows the assessor's building and valuation record on listing pages, but not the owner's name, on purpose.
How do I read the sale history?
Each line is a recorded transfer with a date, a price, a document number and a deed type. A grant, bargain and sale deed at a plausible price is a real sale. A quitclaim or a transfer to a trust at $0 or a token amount is a paperwork move, not a sale, and should not be read as a bargain or used as a comp. A trustee's deed is a foreclosure. Kouzr treats any transfer at or under $1,000 as nominal and keeps it out of its price math.
How up to date is the county record?
Sales and ownership changes appear within a few weeks of recording. Building characteristics update when a permit closes or on the assessor's reappraisal cycle, so a recent remodel or an addition can lag by a year or more, and unpermitted work never appears. Values are set once a year for the coming tax year. Treat the record as authoritative on what was there at the last look, not on what is there today.
