canonical: https://jentic.com/apis/melissa.com/melissa # Melissa Property Data API The Melissa Property Data API delivers detailed US property records including assessor, deed, mortgage, and ownership information for over 140 million parcels nationwide. The single LookupProperty endpoint accepts a property identifier or address and returns valuation estimates, lot characteristics, building attributes, and the most recent transaction history. Common use cases include underwriting, real estate due diligence, lead enrichment, and tax assessment workflows. ## For AI agents Look up detailed US property records - ownership, valuation, deed history, and parcel attributes - by address or APN. Returns assessor and recorder data for residential and commercial parcels. ## Scope Does not handle person enrichment, address autocomplete, or geocoding - use for US parcel-level property record lookups only. ## Capabilities - Retrieve current and historical assessed value, market value, and tax records for a US parcel - Resolve a parcel by address, FIPS code, or assessor parcel number (APN) in a single LookupProperty call - Pull deed and mortgage transaction history including sale price, loan amount, lender, and recording date - Return building attributes such as square footage, year built, bedroom count, and lot size for underwriting - Identify legal owner and mailing address for direct-mail and skip-tracing workflows - Enrich a real estate CRM record with parcel-level data without scraping county assessor sites ## Use cases ### Real Estate Lead Enrichment Enrich inbound real estate leads with parcel-level data including current assessed value, last sale price, owner name, and building attributes. The single LookupProperty endpoint returns this information in one call keyed by address or APN, which lets brokers and proptech apps qualify leads in under a second instead of pulling fragmented data from county sites. Example prompt: Call LookupProperty with the inbound lead's street address and zip code, return owner name, last sale price, last sale date, and assessed value, and write them back to the CRM record. ### Mortgage and Lending Underwriting Pull recorded deed and mortgage history during loan origination to verify ownership, identify existing liens, and confirm the recorded sale price matches the application. Underwriters use the API to validate borrower-stated property details against assessor records before pricing risk. Example prompt: For a given subject property address, retrieve the last three recorded transactions, the current mortgage lender, and the assessed value, then flag any mismatch with the borrower-stated purchase price. ### Direct Mail Skip Tracing Resolve an address to a current legal owner and a tax-bill mailing address so off-market real estate investors can target absentee owners. The API returns both the situs address and the owner mailing address, which lets campaign tooling segment owner-occupied versus investor-held properties. Example prompt: Take a list of 1,000 target addresses, call LookupProperty for each, and return only the parcels where the owner mailing address differs from the situs address along with the owner's full name. ### AI Agent Property Research An AI agent acting on behalf of a real estate analyst can resolve any natural-language question about a US parcel - owner, value, taxes, last sale - into a single LookupProperty call. Through Jentic, the agent receives the input schema and parses the structured response without browsing Melissa documentation or building a custom client. Example prompt: Given the user request 'who owns 123 Main St in Austin TX and what's it worth', search Jentic for 'look up US property data', load the LookupProperty schema, execute with the parsed address, and return owner and assessed value. ## Key endpoints | Method | Path | Description | | --- | --- | --- | | GET | / | Look up property records for a US parcel by address, APN, or FIPS code | ## Key resources - **Property Lookup** — Single endpoint that returns assessor, deed, owner, and building data for a US parcel given an address, APN, or FIPS code. ## Why Jentic - **Setup:** Wiring Melissa Property Data by hand means passing your license key in the id query parameter and hand-coding the LookupProperty call against property.melissadata.net. Through Jentic you install once, import the Melissa Property Data API from the API Directory, store the license key once, and your agent calls it. - **Permission scoping:** Melissa Property Data exposes a single lookup whose address and options travel in query parameters, so scope the agent to the LookupProperty read operation it needs. You choose the operations it may call, and this API is read-only US parcel lookup, so nothing beyond that lookup is exposed. - **Credential handling:** Your Melissa license key is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected into the id parameter at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context. - **Discovery method:** Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'look up US property data' or 'get owner by address', and Jentic returns the LookupProperty operation with its full input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without browsing the reference docs. ## Related APIs - **Smarty US ZIP Code API** — Validates and standardises addresses before a property lookup - **MaxMind GeoIP** — Geolocates a user by IP address rather than by parcel - **FullContact** — Person and company enrichment rather than parcel records ## FAQ ### What authentication does the Melissa Property Data API use? The API uses an API key passed as the `id` query parameter on every request. Through Jentic, the key is stored in the encrypted vault and injected at execution time, so the raw credential never enters the agent's prompt or chat history. ### Can I look up a property by APN instead of street address? Yes. LookupProperty accepts an assessor parcel number combined with a FIPS county code as an alternative to the address-based lookup, which is useful when working from county assessor exports. ### What are the rate limits for the Melissa Property Data API? Melissa enforces credit-based metering rather than per-second rate limits - each LookupProperty call consumes credits from your subscription. The exact rate depends on your contract tier; check the credits remaining header on each response. ### How do I look up a property through Jentic? Run `pip install jentic`, search for `look up US property data`, then call `client.execute` against the LookupProperty operation with the address or APN. Jentic returns the structured JSON response with assessor, deed, and owner fields. ### Does the Melissa Property Data API cover commercial properties? Yes. The dataset includes residential and commercial parcels across all US counties, though attribute coverage is denser for residential properties. Commercial records reliably include owner, assessed value, and lot data; building-level attributes vary by jurisdiction. ### Is the Melissa Property Data API free? No. Melissa offers a small free trial credit pack, but production usage requires a paid subscription priced per credit. Each property lookup consumes credits at a rate set by your plan. ### Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Melissa Property Data API? Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which operations and credentials the agent may use, and you can scope it to just the single LookupProperty read operation this API exposes. That endpoint is a read-only US parcel lookup by address, APN, or FIPS code, so the agent can retrieve owner, valuation, deed, and building data but has no way to write or change anything. You grant only the LookupProperty call it needs, and nothing beyond that lookup is reachable.