Question 1

What is Parcela?

Accepted Answer

Parcela is an institutional property due-diligence platform covering the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Poland, Sweden, Finland, Norway and Denmark. From a single address it builds a notarial-grade report in under 30 seconds: parcel extent, zoning, FEMA flood zone, seismic, wildfire, contamination, geology, comparables and an AI narrative.

Question 2

How does the US identifier work — is there a parcel number?

Accepted Answer

The US has no national cadastre, so there is no universal parcel number. You enter a street address or ZIP; Parcela runs it through the US Census Geocoder to resolve the state and county, then retrieves the parcel boundary from an open statewide layer — New York, California, Texas, Florida, Illinois and Washington at launch — or deep-links the county assessor (the parcel APN is a county-level identifier).

Question 3

Why does the US behave as one country with thousands of systems?

Accepted Answer

The federal hazard and physical data (USGS, FEMA, EPA, FWS) is genuinely national and excellent. But under the 10th Amendment, land records are reserved to the states, which delegate them to ~3,243 counties, with zoning held by ~30,000 local governments. There is no national cadastre, no national zoning database, and title is protected by private title insurance rather than a Torrens register. Parcela uses the federal layers for hazard/physical data and routes title and zoning to the right county.

Question 4

Does Parcela replace a title search or a survey?

Accepted Answer

No. The Parcela report is a technical pre-assessment. A title search and title insurance commitment, an ALTA/NSPS Land Title Survey, an ASTM E1527-21 Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (the CERCLA innocent-landowner defence), and any geotechnical investigation remain necessary before closing. Parcela consolidates the open public data so you enter those steps already informed.

Question 5

How does Parcela assess flood risk?

Accepted Answer

Parcela reads the FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer for the specific parcel — the flood zone (Zone AE/VE high-risk Special Flood Hazard Areas that legally trigger mandatory flood insurance for federally-backed mortgages, Zone X, etc.), covering over 90% of the US population. It is the single most legally-consequential geodata layer in any US debt-financed land transaction. First Street Foundation's climate-adjusted Flood Factor is referenced as a forward-looking complement.

Question 6

How does Parcela assess seismic and wildfire hazard?

Accepted Answer

The USGS National Seismic Hazard Model is the basis of IBC/ASCE 7 seismic design — major sources are the San Andreas fault (California), the Cascadia subduction zone (Pacific Northwest, M9.0+) and the New Madrid zone (Central US). Wildfire in the wildland-urban interface is modelled as its own risk axis using USFS Wildfire Hazard Potential plus state fire-hazard-severity zoning such as CAL FIRE's — a first-order Western-US risk with no European equivalent.

Question 7

How does Parcela screen for contamination?

Accepted Answer

Parcela runs an EPA proximity search — Superfund (NPL), RCRA, Leaking Underground Storage Tanks and the Facility Registry Service — around the parcel, the automated equivalent of the ASTM E1527-21 Phase I "nearby Recognized Environmental Conditions" screen that the CERCLA All Appropriate Inquiries standard requires. The federal list is not exhaustive — 50 separate state contamination registers also exist — so a full Phase I still requires a state-database search.

Question 8

What elevation and terrain data does Parcela use?

Accepted Answer

The USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) — 1 m LiDAR-derived terrain across most of the country — with a per-parcel Elevation Point Query Service. Heights are referenced to NAVD88. It rivals the best national LiDAR programmes in the world and is entirely free.

Question 9

Which coordinate systems does the US use?

Accepted Answer

The horizontal datum is NAD83(2011), epoch 2010.0 (EPSG:6318), with the State Plane Coordinate System (~125 zones) for local survey work; vertical datum NAVD88. NAD83→WGS84 is roughly 1–2 m, so Parcela transforms to WGS84 for display. The NSRS modernisation to NATRF2022/NAPGD2022 (target end of 2026, coordinated with Canada) will be the largest US datum change in 40 years.

Question 10

What pricing is available?

Accepted Answer

A Property Report from $99, a Due Diligence report from $349 — one-off, no subscription. For regular use, monthly packs (Starter, Professional, Enterprise) cut the per-report price by 25–60%. White-label, REST API and SSO sit in the Professional and Enterprise plans (see /us/enterprise). For comparison, a single commercial Phase I environmental search runs $150–400 and a full Phase I ESA $1,500–5,000+.

Question 11

Which markets does Parcela cover?

Accepted Answer

The United States, Canada, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, Italy, France, Austria, Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom and Switzerland — 16 countries, the US being the largest. For the US: statewide/county parcels, USGS Topo + Imagery basemaps, the FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer, USGS seismic + wildfire, EPA contamination proximity, USGS 3DEP LiDAR, NWI wetlands and PAD-US protected areas.