Search by Parcel Number

An assessor parcel number (APN) is the identifier a county assigns to a parcel of land. Every property endpoint accepts one through the apn parameter.

curl 'https://api.whitepages.com/v3/property/?apn=197500-0015' \
  --header 'X-Api-Key: YOUR_API_KEY'

A parcel number is not unique nationally

Counties assign parcel numbers independently, so the same string can name a parcel in Maryland, another in California, and a third in Georgia. A parcel number identifies a property only once you know which county issued it.

The fips parameter supplies that county. A FIPS code is the five-digit federal identifier for a US county — 53033 is King County, Washington, and 24510 is Baltimore City, Maryland.

curl 'https://api.whitepages.com/v3/property/owners?apn=0342-021&fips=24510' \
  --header 'X-Api-Key: YOUR_API_KEY'

Without a county

Each endpoint handles the ambiguity in the way that fits its job.

Search returns a list because a list is what a search is for. The other two answer about one property, so they stop and hand back the candidates instead of guessing:

{
  "error": {
    "code": 409,
    "message": "APN 0342-021 matches 3 properties",
    "long_message": "An APN is unique within a county rather than nationally. Choose one of the candidates and look it up by its property_id.",
    "meta": {
      "apn": "0342-021",
      "candidate_count": 3,
      "candidates": [
        {
          "property_id": "RSAMPLE0001",
          "address_id": "ASAMPLE0001",
          "full_address": "1708 Eutaw Pl, Baltimore, MD 21217",
          "details_url": "/v3/property/RSAMPLE0001"
        },
        {
          "property_id": "RSAMPLE0002",
          "address_id": "ASAMPLE0002",
          "full_address": "990 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94102",
          "details_url": "/v3/property/RSAMPLE0002"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Resolve it either way: add fips and repeat the call, or take the property_id of the candidate you want and look it up directly.

Narrowing an address

fips is not only for parcel numbers. It narrows an address search to one county too, which matters where a street name repeats across county lines:

curl 'https://api.whitepages.com/v3/property/?street=123%20Main%20Street&city=Seattle&fips=53033' \
  --header 'X-Api-Key: YOUR_API_KEY'

A county that does not contain the address matches nothing, rather than falling back to the address on its own.

Combining parameters

A parcel number and an address are two ways of naming the same thing, so the API does not accept both at once. Sending apn together with street, city, or zipcode returns 400, as does sending apn with a lat/lng pair.

fips and state_code are the exceptions. Both describe where to look rather than which property to find, so either can accompany a parcel number.

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