waiting, you can use redfin, they seem to have more historical info than zillow because I think they draw info from zillow and merge with other sources. If the property is not for sale right now you have to punch in the address rather than find it on a map like you can with listings. Redfin won’t tell you if it was a repo sale. Here’s the prop you looked for:
As you can see there isn’t much in the way of historical info because it is a new property and redfin doesn’t have the tax info which is rare, usually they do even on new properties but if there was a sale during a given year it will goof up the taxes.
Rustico, all of the info anyone needs is public record, San Diego will probably digitize it’s public records soon if it hasn’t already. Riverside County has and you can run anyone’s name and see the public records from the comfort of your home, including nods, nots, refi’s, helocs, liens, etc. You can’t see the actual doccument or amount of the loan unless you pay a small fee per doccument($1-$3 usually) because the county contracted the digitizing out to a private company and that is how they pay for their work. At some point all of the counties will digitize it and you will no longer have to go to a county facility to look up the public records. But that is what they are, public records, they belong to the public and are available to the public. Zillow and others merely organize some basic info that they cull from public records, but more specific info is available. If you are worried about betraying someone’s privacy direct them to the public records, 1600 Pacific Coast Highway, the County Admistration building, where they can look at it all, as is their right as a taxpayer and their duty if they are a buyer.