Which data source do you recommend?

[Amit Ronghe]

Ladies and Gentlemen, I am a newbie hoping to get started on the amazing journey of real estate investing. While researching topics related to RE, I came across Bigger pockets and its been amazing what I found.. A literal gold mine of knowledge. Thank you @Brandon Turner for this amazing resource. I went through the videos, guides, and a few postcasts. This is my first post and hoping to contribute more as I get further into this.

I am from Houston, TX and will start with focusing on the local market. I have been in IT (and still am) and have some experience analyzing data, building data models etc. So if anyone needs help with it, feel free to let me know.

In terms of getting quality data (prop info, mortagage/Liens info, owner info, comps etc.) to filter out and analyze deals , I would like to solicit your input and feedback. Which one(s) would you recommend getting a paid service from? I have looked at following sources:

1) CoreLogic - RealQuest pro. This to me is a little expensive. $140 for one state plus any reports are extra. What turned me off is if I need any details to analyze the deal then I will need to order multiple reports and the cost may add up quick.

2) CoreLogic - RealQuest Express. This looks like what I may be able to work with but the sales lady told me this may be discontinued.

3) Foreclosure.com. This is about $40 a month. Seems reasonable. They have links to order lien searches which is extra. (looks like its just a link to a different company)

4) REI/KIT: I haven't really explored this but it looks similar to RealQuest express.

5) Free sites like Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, HAR  etc.? What do you think is the accuracy of these free sources?

6) Pre-foreclosure data: What do you recommend a good source to get pre-foreclosure data.

Thank you,

-Amit

[Mike Russ]

Hi Amit - I am just getting started in real estate investing and closed my first deal on a multi-family property last week.  I found my deal and numerous leads from using the county auditor's web site and performing some basic scrubbing/filtering of sales data.  I would recommend starting there since it is free of charge if you are looking at starting local.   Good luck!

Mike