First American Corp. Exact coordinates can unlock data.

A business-information provider, whose services include monitoring real estate for lenders, announced on April 16 that it will begin selling access to its vast database of exceedingly accurate parcel information.

First American Corp.,  Santa Ana, Calif., calls the offering ParcelPoint. It uses proprietary processes to track latitude and longitude coordinates to parcel and address data and can then link the location to other information. David Rogers, director of marketing of First American Flood Data Services, says the system was developed internally to help the company provide parcel-by-parcel flood-zone risk data to the mortgage and insurance industries. First American guarantees the accuracy of its flood-zone determinations, says Rogers, “so we need to be incredibly accurate.”

The company also contracts to alert clients when Federal Emergency Management Agency flood-map changes or zoning issues affect mortgaged properties. Such tasks require First American to have a large staff in more than 2,000 offices around the country to constantly update and expand information.

“We service over 80 million parcels for the life of their loans,” Rogers says. “As FEMA remaps an area, we keep the mortgage holder advised.” In Houston, for example, 100,000 residents outside the flood plain recently were mapped in, he says.

First American reported revenue of $8.5 billion in 2006. It has built its data either from 2-D maps and aerial photos or by incorporating and enhancing GIS data from counties that have it. The company has committed to expanding coverage to include the majority of the estimated 144 million parcels in the U.S. by the end of the year and pledges 80% coverage by the end of 2008. Information can be found at location.firstam.com.