Understanding County Property Ownership Data

[Aaron Sauceda]

I recently came across @Jack Butala's "How to Make 10,000 Offers a Week in Less than an Hour." Now, I'm not against hard work, but the idea of (at least trying) automating the acquisition process immediately captured my attention. I acquired property data for a few cities in my local market, but I'm having some trouble now deciphering the data in order to take next steps.

If you haven't read Steven's post, I highly recommend you do. But if you're strapped for time, here's the basic premise (apologies to Steven if I'm rehashing this inaccurately, but it was my interpretation): acquire public property ownership data, set acquisition criteria, identify potential owners most likely to sell undervalued properties (out-of-state, owe back taxes, etc.), and mail offer letters to those that fit all of the above criteria.

Now I have the property ownership data, but I'm having a hard time using the data to fulfill the remaining steps. For example, my data has fields such as "DocDate," "Price," "StampCode," "TaxAmt," and "Total" (presumably in dollars), among other things. I'm not completely sure the meaning of these fields within the context of your approach here.

How would I take this data to the next step? Which fields would I filter to identify owners who owe back taxes or no longer owe anything on their home anymore (i.e., mortgage paid off)? Similarly, in the spirit of automation, how would I know which amount to offer? Would I simply insert a new column and multiple the "Price" or "Total" field by some sort of discount I'm looking for, say 40% (or more)? Is the "Price" or "Total" field typically indicative of a market value to do that sort of calculation?

I really appreciate everyone's help with this. I'm really intrigued by this process and would like to take it to the next steps, I just want to ensure I'm executing it properly!

All the best,
Aaron