When a potential tenant looks for a home they often go through background checks.
But what if things could also work the other way around?
It’s possible now through a new website that gives Milwaukee renters a way to background check potential landlords and learn who owns their buildings, even when properties are held by multiple limited liability companies, or LLCs.
The free tool, MKEPropertyOwnership.com, allows users to search rental properties in the city, identify a landlord’s network of related LLCs and view information including code violations and eviction filings.
Milwaukee Property Ownership Network Project
The project and website are the brainchild and creation of housing researcher John Johnson, research fellow in the Lubar Center for Public Policy Research and Civic Education at Marquette University, and software developer and public data enthusiast Mitchell Henke. They began work on the project after Johnson repeatedly encountered the same obstacle while researching Milwaukee landlords.
“Every time, I would have to manually figure out which legal entities were actually that landlord because large landlords usually use lots of different LLCs,” Johnson said.
The challenge was compounded by inconsistent spellings of names and business entities in public property records. Rather than repeating the process for each property record, Johnson and Henke built a system that automatically groups related ownership records using network analysis.
Users can search an address within the city of Milwaukee to view property information and follow links to a landlord’s broader ownership network. The site maps associated properties and provides data on code violations and eviction filings, giving renters additional information to consider before signing a lease.
“I think it’s helpful to know if you’re renting from someone who’s a large landlord or a small one,” Johnson said. “You can see whether they’re local or from another state. You can see if they get a lot of code violations or if they file evictions frequently.”
Who can use the site
Anyone can use the site. Johnson said he doesn’t have detailed website traffic data but knows the tool is being used because people regularly ask him about it. He said city employees and others also use the site in their work.
“We used the code violation and eviction filings/orders for the landlords profiled in our unreleased report,” said Amy Rohan, a program manager with Data You Can Use. “For the report, we also used the data for all of the properties owned by a specific LLC and mapped the counts by alder district.”
Data You Can Use is a local organization that helps residents access data and also uses data to help improve community conditions. Rohan said the mapping feature is relatively new and wasn’t available yet when putting together their report.
Property ownership information is updated every weeknight using the City of Milwaukee’s parcel database, Johnson said. Code violation data is refreshed several times a year, while eviction data is being updated in collaboration with another researcher.
One feature Johnson encourages users to explore is the website’s ownership network, which visually connects related LLCs, business addresses and individuals. Those connections can provide starting points for people who want to research a landlord beyond basic ownership records.
Johnson also said that the project would not have happened without Henke.
“I could not have done it without my friend Mitch,” he said. “Mitchell Henke was an essential part of it.”
For now, Johnson said his priority is maintaining accurate data rather than expanding the site’s features.
“I’m just trying to keep improving and maintaining the quality of the data so it’s as useful as possible for the people who use it,” he said.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
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