Finding out what land and homes are selling for in Effingham County can continue to be done from the comfort of a computer.

Effingham County commissioners approved a request for $7,500 for qPublic to operate the tax assessors’ Web site. QPublic has been hosting the site for nearly nine months for free.

“They service a great number of counties in Georgia,” chief assessor Janis Bevill said. “It’s a good site. It’s an opportunity for people to do sales studies from home. Anyone in the world can access information in Effingham County.”

She also said the tax assessors office has surveyed the site’s users to see if they like it.

“It’s surprised me how many people have accessed the site,” Bevill said.

Surfers can hang their research on the basis of parcel number, name or street address.

“We update this site every Tuesday night with the latest and greatest (information),” Bevill said.

Information on the more than 26,000 parcels can be accessed through either www.effinghamcounty.org and clicking on the link Tax Appraisal Records on the lower right hand portion of the Web page.

“I like the idea of everyone being able to access this information from their homes,” Chairperson Myra Lewis said. “And I like the idea of them tailoring this to our needs.”

Bevill said the assessors’ office had been working on an in-house system with the county’s GIS department for the last three years.