About our ads

How advertising works on OnlineRecords.US, and how to tell it apart from the public records.

The report stays free

Property reports on OnlineRecords.US are free. Advertising and partner links help pay for that. Nothing that is free today moves behind a paywall because of advertising.

How ads are labeled

• Sponsored marks a placement a business paid for, or a partner link that may earn us a fee when you use it.
• Advertisement marks an ad served by Google AdSense.
• Free official resource marks a link to a government program, such as My Safe Florida Home (opens in a new tab), FloodSmart (opens in a new tab) or FEMA (opens in a new tab). Nobody pays us for these.

Every paid unit sits in a dashed, hatched frame with its label, so it never looks like a record. Ads never appear inside a report sheet, the map, the unit picker, the lookup status panel, the contact form or the pros and cons.

"Next steps" under a report sheet

Some findings in a report suggest a practical next step. For example, a home built before the 2002 Florida Building Code may qualify for a wind-mitigation inspection, and a home in a FEMA special flood hazard area usually needs flood insurance. When a finding is in the report, a next step can appear directly below that sheet, with a line that starts "Shown because" and names the finding and its source. If the finding isn't there, no next step appears.

By default a next step points to a free official resource. A licensed local business or partner can pay to appear there instead, and then the unit is labeled Sponsored.

How placements are sold

• Businesses buy placements by state, county or ZIP code and by service category (for example "flood insurance in Pinellas County"). Prices are set per county and category.
• Ads can't be targeted by race, color, religion, sex, disability, familial status, national origin or any other protected characteristic, or by who lives in an area. Ad copy is screened under the Fair Housing Act, and housing-related ads carry the Equal Housing Opportunity statement where required.
• Real estate and insurance advertisers must hold an active state license, which we check when they sign up and again each month. A lapsed license pauses the ad. Contractors show their license number where their trade requires one.
• Direct-sold placements come first, then partner links, then Google ads.

Ads are not endorsements

A paid placement means a business paid to appear. It isn't a recommendation, a rating or a review, and we don't vouch for the advertiser's work. Paid content never changes the facts in a report, the order of its sections or which hazards it highlights. Check any provider yourself, including their license with Florida DBPR (opens in a new tab) or the Florida Department of Financial Services (opens in a new tab).

Your data

• Advertisers never receive your contact details from us.
• We count ad views and clicks ourselves, in aggregate (how many times a unit was seen or clicked per day). The counter uses a random number that lives only in the open page; it sets no cookie.
• Partner links carry tracking tags (UTM parameters) that tell the partner the visit came from OnlineRecords.US. Paid links are marked rel="sponsored".
• When Google ads are shown, Google and its partners may use cookies. See how Google uses data in our privacy policy.
• Your browser's Global Privacy Control signal is honored automatically. You can also opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information for ads on Your privacy choices. Either one switches Google ads on this site to non-personalized ads.

Questions or advertising

Questions about an ad, or want to report one? Use the contact details in our privacy policy. See also our terms.