A Cedar Grove home inspector has launched a free website that pulls building permits, flood zones, fire history and property taxes for any New Jersey address.
The site, Permit & Parcel, covers all 564 municipalities in the state, including Short Hills and Millburn. It draws from official sources: state and county databases, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood maps and municipal codes. No account or email is required.
Leo Betancor, a Certified Master Inspector and co-owner of Smart Choice Inspections, announced the tool on Patch on Friday, Aug. 28.
"I kept watching buyers fall in love with a house before anyone checked the paper trail — the open permits, the flood zone, what the town actually requires when a home changes hands," Betancor said. "All of that is public record. It just wasn't in one place anyone could actually use."
The tool is especially relevant in Millburn Township, where the 2025 certified tax rate is $2.019 per $100 of assessed value, according to the township's Tax Collector page. Essex County property owners paid an average of $13,900 in 2024, the highest county average in New Jersey and the most recent statewide figures available, NJ Spotlight News reported in March 2025.
Flooding is another persistent concern. Millburn Township created a Flood Mitigation Advisory Committee by Ordinance 2729-26 on March 3 and appointed nine members in May, according to Township Committee meeting minutes. A companion site built by Betancor, njflood.zone, provides instant FEMA flood-zone lookups for any New Jersey address. Betancor said he built it after a federal government shutdown left FEMA's own mapping site unreliable.
Permit & Parcel's building-permit records go back to 1985. Its fire-history data covers more than 762,000 New Jersey incidents recorded since 1982 in the federal National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS) database, according to the site's about page.
The site also includes a lead-safe inspection lookup. New Jersey law requires municipalities to inspect certain pre-1978 rental units for lead-based paint hazards. The tool shows which inspection method each town uses under that law.
According to the site's about page, Permit & Parcel does not publish computed home-value estimates and does not pair owner names with addresses, citing compliance with New Jersey's Daniel's Law. The tool is live at oprasearch.app.
