The Tennessee records that decide what a home really costs and what the seller has to tell you: disclosure law, property-tax reset, the official registry, and the FEMA flood map — sourced, with the county offices that hold the files.
Check the records behind the address before you offer.
Check any address — free previewThe legal standard: Under the Tennessee Residential Property Disclosure Act (Tenn. Code Ann. 66-5-201 et seq.), sellers of 1-4 unit homes must disclose all known material defects in good faith, unless the buyer waives disclosure or an exemption applies.
Most Tennessee sellers must give you the Residential Property Condition Disclosure before contract acceptance, covering known defects plus flood and drainage problems. A buyer can waive it and accept a disclaimer statement instead — do not waive without inspections. Sellers who have not lived in the home in the prior 3 years and certain foreclosure, auction and new-construction sales are exempt.
Sources: tn.gov · documents.sparkplatform.com · comptroller.tn.gov · rcsotn.com
Your bill generally tracks the seller's until the county's next reappraisal, because a sale does not trigger a reassessment in Tennessee. When the 4-6 year reappraisal lands, values are reset countywide to market and the bill can jump at once.
Homestead: Tennessee has no general homestead exemption on property tax; state tax relief is only for low-income elderly and disabled homeowners and disabled veterans or surviving spouses.
Tennessee Sex Offender Registry is run by Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Search it by the home's address before you offer — and search again before closing, because registry data changes as people move.
Open the official Tennessee registry
You can also search every state at once through the federal National Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW). A CurbFacts report shows the registry count for the home's ZIP — the same public data, organized for the decision.
The only flood map that decides a lender's insurance requirement is FEMA's — the National Flood Hazard Layer behind the official FEMA flood map viewer. Listing sites license private models that can and do disagree with it; when they conflict, the FEMA map is the one your lender and insurer use.
Check the exact parcel, not the ZIP code: flood-zone boundaries cut through streets, and two houses side by side can sit in different zones.
If you waive the required disclosure in writing, the seller may give an 'as is' disclaimer statement instead of the condition disclosure (Tenn. Code Ann. 66-5-202) — waiving removes most of the information the Act was meant to give you.
Transfers are exempt where the owner has not resided on the property at any time within the prior 3 years, plus many foreclosure, auction, court-order and new-construction sales (Tenn. Code Ann. 66-5-209).
What the Tennessee disclosure does and does not cover, section by section, and the questions it never answers.
Read the guideHow to run an address through the official Tennessee registry, and how to read what comes back.
Read the guideRecords live at the county level — assessor, recorder, permits. Pick the county for its records checklist.
Every CurbFacts report pulls the public records behind an address — flood determination, registry, tax reset, price history, permits, and what's planned nearby — and shows its sources.
Check any address — free preview