Property characteristics - Cotality developer portal

Returns land, structure, and ownership attributes for a single property, keyed by CLIP. Use it for collateral valuation, underwriting checks, and hazard risk profiling on residential or commercial parcels. Once you have one or more CLIPs from the CLIP tools, pass them here to retrieve the full characteristics profile for each property.

Industry solutions and use cases

This tool is designed to support specific persona workflows. Choose your path to understand how property data maps to your business outcomes:

Lenders and AMCs (valuation)
P&C insurers (risk and underwriting)
Realtors and investors (market analytics)

Automate valuation and collateral review

Comparable matching — Filter properties using livingSquareFootage and actualYearBuilt to locate geographic comparables for appraisal reviews
MISMO compliance — Ensure structural characteristics align with FHFA appraisal datasets and MISMO v3.x container mappings
Accessory units — Iterate through the structure array to identify multiple structures (ADUs, guest houses) on the parcel using buildingSequenceNumber

See the full mortgage and valuation solutions guide →

Evaluate structure vulnerability

Building classification — Assess construction materials using buildingClassificationCode (Fireproof Steel vs. Wood Frame) and universalExternalWallCode to determine replacement costs
Roof characteristics — Analyze universalRoofCode (Gable, Flat) and universalRoofCoverCode (Clay Tile, Aluminum, Shake) to price hazard policies
Basement exposure — Review universalBasementCode and basementSquareFootage to price flood and sewer backup riders

See the full property insurance solutions guide →

Search and screen properties

Investment screening — Combine landDimensionAcresTotal with summaryNumberOfBedrooms and totalNumberOfBathrooms to filter opportunities
Assessment data — Analyze tax valuation histories via attributes.universalTotalValue and verify tax rates across local county jurisdictions

See the full brokerage and investing solutions guide →

Industry standards alignment

Cotality property data conforms to the dominant industry standards used across mortgage, insurance, and real estate:

MISMO residential XML (v3.x) — The nested structure elements map directly to the VALUATION_RESPONSE/VALUATION_ANALYSIS/PROPERTY/STRUCTURE container. livingSquareFootage maps to MISMO’s GrossLivingAreaSquareFeet attribute
ACORD P&C standards — universalConstructionTypeCode maps to the ACORD ConstructionCode standard; universalExternalWallCode and universalRoofCoverCode map to ACORD structural rating standards for risk underwriting
USPS publication 28 — Address fields (streetNamePrefixDirection, streetNameSuffix, unitType) are pre-standardized using USPS postal addressing standards
OGC well-known text (WKT) — Building footprint geometry in the footprint object is returned in WKT format, compatible with ArcGIS, QGIS, PostGIS, and Leaflet

AI agent onboarding guidelines

When integrating this tool into LLM-powered agents or AI workflows, configure your agent’s system instructions with the following rules:

Address fuzzy matching — If a user queries by address, always invoke clip-find_property_by_address first. Use the returned clip to call pd-get_property_characteristics.Structure loop — Parcels can contain multiple structures. If the user asks about “the building,” check whether summaryNumberOfBuildings > 1. If so, iterate through the structure array and ask the user to clarify which building sequence they want.Modeled vs. recorded data — This tool returns actualYearBuilt on each structure from county records. It does not tell you whether a year was modeled. If you need that signal, call at-get_property_roof_age and check attributes.yearBuiltModeledIndicator; a value of 1 means the year is a statistical estimate, not a county record.

Recommended tool call sequence

This tool takes CLIPs, not addresses. Resolve the address first.

clip-find_property_by_address   → resolve the address, capture data[0].clip
pd-get_property_characteristics → batch up to 50 CLIPs in one call
at-get_property_analytics       → roof age and climate risk, if you need risk context

Batch up to 50 CLIPs per call. Fifty CLIPs in one request costs one unit of your quota; fifty single-CLIP requests cost fifty.

`pd-get_property_characteristics`

Required scope: property:characteristics. Retrieve comprehensive property characteristics data from Cotality for residential and commercial properties using CLIP identifiers. When to use:

You need detailed land, structure, or attribute data for one or more properties
Performing property valuation or appraisal workflows
Conducting real estate market analysis or comparables research
Looking up owner information, tax assessments, or zoning details
Verifying building specifications, construction details, or amenities

Examples:

“Compare characteristics of properties with CLIPs 111111111 and 222222222”
“Find building square footage and year built for CLIP 555555555”
“Retrieve owner information and land use for CLIP 999999999”

Input schema

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
`clips`	`array[string]`	Yes	A list of CLIPs — the unique numeric parcel identifier Cotality assigns to every US property. Minimum 1, maximum 50 per request. Each item must match `^\d+$`.

Each CLIP must be a non-empty string consisting only of numeric characters (e.g. ["123456789", "987654321"]). The tool supports batch queries with multiple CLIPs.

Example request

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "pd-get_property_characteristics",
    "arguments": {
      "clips": ["123456789"]
    }
  }
}

Output schema

Each item in data is a flat property record — clip plus promoted scalar fields plus the owner, structure, lot, landDimension, topography, and attributes collections. See Response envelope and Property record.

Response envelope

Field	Type	Description
`data`	`array`	Array of flat property records (see Property record)
`count`	`integer`	Number of records in `data`

Both fields are always present in a successful response. There is no success or messages field — failure is signalled by an MCP error carrying a ToolError payload. See Response envelope and MCP tool errors.

A CLIP that matches no property is not an error. You receive a successful response with count of 0 and an empty data array. When you submit several CLIPs, only the ones that matched are returned — compare count against the number you sent.

Property record

Each object in the data array is a flat property record. The upstream propertyCharacteristics, land, and propertyAttributes wrappers are removed before the data reaches you, and their scalar fields are promoted to the top level. All fields are optional and are omitted when no value is available.

Do not look for propertyCharacteristics, land, propertyAttributes, summaryData, propertyRights, exteriorFixtures, map, location, functionalComponents, features, or locationInfluence in the response. Those names belong to the upstream data model, not to the MCP tool output.

Identity and ownership

Field	Type	Description
`clip`	`string`	Cotality CLIP identifier for the property
`absenteeOwnerCode`	`string`	Indicates whether the owner resides at the property (M/O/S = owner occupied; A/T = absentee)
`absenteeOwnerCodeDescription`	`string`	Description of the absentee owner code
`absenteeOwnerIndicator`	`string`	Absentee owner indicator
`ownerOccupiedIndicator`	`string`	Owner-occupied indicator
`jurisdictionCountyCode`	`string`	County jurisdiction code
`legalPropertyDescription`	`string`	Legal description delineating exact property boundaries

Building summary

Aggregate counts and square footages across every building on the parcel.

Field	Type	Description
`summaryNumberOfBuildings`	`integer`	Total buildings on the parcel
`totalNumberOfBuildings`	`integer`	Total buildings on the parcel
`summaryOfLivingSpace`	`number or string`	Total living area across all buildings (excludes garage, porch, unfinished basement)
`summaryTotalBuildingSquareFootage`	`number or string`	Total square footage for all buildings on the property
`summaryAboveAreaSquareFootage`	`number or string`	Total above-ground square footage for all buildings
`summaryAdjustedAreaSquareFootage`	`number or string`	Total open-area square footage for the property
`summaryBasementSquareFootage`	`number or string`	Total basement square footage for the property
`summaryNumberOfBedrooms`	`integer`	Total bedrooms across all buildings
`numberOfRooms`	`integer`	Total rooms as supplied by the source
`summaryNumberOfRooms`	`integer`	Total rooms across all buildings
`summaryNumberOfBathrooms`	`integer`	Total bathroom rooms across all buildings
`summaryNumberOfFullBathrooms`	`integer`	Total full bathrooms (null if source does not distinguish)
`summaryNumberOfHalfBathrooms`	`integer`	Total half bathrooms (null if source does not distinguish)
`summaryNumberOf1QuarterBathrooms`	`integer`	Total quarter bathrooms (null if source does not distinguish)
`summaryNumberOf3QuarterBathrooms`	`integer`	Total three-quarter bathrooms (null if source does not distinguish)
`summaryNumberOfBathroomsFixtures`	`integer`	Total bathroom fixtures across all buildings
`summaryNumberOfFireplaces`	`integer`	Total fireplace openings across all buildings

Zoning, pool, and parcel map

Field	Type	Description
`primaryZoneCode`	`string`	County/local zoning code (not standardized by Cotality)
`primaryZoneCodeDescription`	`string`	Zoning code description
`universalPoolCode`	`string`	Pool type, construction, or amenity code (e.g. Kidney, Gunite, Vinyl, Heated)
`universalPoolCodeDescription`	`string`	Description of the pool code
`universalPoolIndicator`	`string`	Pool indicator
`rangeCode`	`string`	Geographic range from local surveys (east/west of meridian, 6-mile intervals)
`sectionCode`	`string`	Geographic section (1 square mile; 36 sections per Range/Township intersection)
`quarterSection`	`string`	Quarter section (NE, NW, SE, SW)
`platmapBook`	`string`	Reference to the recorded subdivision map book in county records
`platmapPage`	`string`	Reference to the recorded subdivision map page in county records

Geography

Field	Type	Description
`townCode`	`string`	Town code (some counties use this instead of municipality codes)
`townCodeDescription`	`string`	Description of the town code
`cbsaCode`	`string`	Core Based Statistical Area code (U.S. Office of Management and Budget)
`cbsaName`	`string`	CBSA name
`cbsaType`	`string`	CBSA type (Metropolitan or Micropolitan)
`metropolitanDivisionCode`	`string`	CBSA division number
`metropolitanDivisionName`	`string`	CBSA division name
`censusIdentification`	`string`	Census Tract + Block Group + Block identifier
`townshipRangeSectionConfigurationValue`	`string`	Standardized value combining first two characters from Township, Range, and Section
`mlsMarketArea`	`string`	Geographic area defined by the local Multiple Listing Service board
`municipalityCode`	`string`	Municipality code
`municipalityCodeDescription`	`string`	Municipality name
`townshipCode`	`string`	Township portion of geographic coordinates (north/south of meridian, 6-mile intervals)
`townshipCodeDescription`	`string`	Description of the township code
`situsCensusTract`	`string`	Census Tract, Block Group, Block, and Block Suffix (U.S. Bureau of the Census)

Utilities

Parcel-level utility and service codes.

Field	Type	Description
`universalFuelCode`	`string`	Fuel type for heating (e.g. Solar, Gas, Oil)
`universalFuelCodeDescription`	`string`	Description of the fuel type
`universalElectricityCode`	`string`	Electricity/wiring type (e.g. Average Wiring, Underground Wired)
`universalElectricityCodeDescription`	`string`	Description of the electricity type
`universalSewerCode`	`string`	Sewer system type (e.g. Public, Septic, Commercial)
`universalSewerCodeDescription`	`string`	Description of the sewer type
`universalUtilitiesCode`	`string`	General utility type (e.g. Electric, Oil, Private)
`universalUtilitiesCodeDescription`	`string`	Description of the utility type
`universalWaterCode`	`string`	Water service type (e.g. Public, Well, Cistern)
`universalWaterCodeDescription`	`string`	Description of the water type

View and location influence

Field	Type	Description
`viewCode`	`string`	View from building (e.g. Gulf, Mountains, Pool)
`viewCodeDescription`	`string`	Description of the view code
`locationInfluenceCode`	`string`	Positive or negative location aspect code (e.g. Waterfront, Flood Plain, Airport)
`locationInfluenceCodeDescription`	`string`	Description of the location influence code

Land

Field	Type	Description
`landDimensionAcresTotal`	`number or string`	Total acreage of the parcel (Cotality derived or county provided)
`landDimensionSquareFeetTotal`	`number or string`	Total land mass in square feet
`landDimensionAcres`	`number or string`	(Deprecated) Total acreage of the parcel
`landDimensionSquareFeet`	`number or string`	(Deprecated) Total land mass in square feet
`landUseCode`	`string`	Cotality standardized land use code
`landUseCodeDescription`	`string`	Description of the `landUseCode`
`propertyIndicatorCode`	`string`	General property type code (e.g. Single Family Residence, Condominium, Commercial)
`propertyIndicatorCodeDescription`	`string`	Description of the `propertyIndicatorCode`
`landUseStateCode`	`string`	State-level land use code
`landUseStateCodeDescription`	`string`	Description of the `landUseStateCode`
`landUseCountyCode`	`string`	County-level land use code
`landUseCountyCodeDescription`	`string`	Description of the `landUseCountyCode`