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Pulling court records

Posted

Hey all, just curious state of Texas are charging high prices to pull real estate court records (liens, foreclosures, vacant etc) I have been advised that I shouldn’t spend no more then $30 when pulling records from court. But I went online to try to pull records and I was getting numbers $155 to pull just 50 records. Is pulling court records suppose to be this expensive or is there another way I’m suppose to be doing this.

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59
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Cody Lee
  • Specialist
  • Denver, CO
30
Votes |
59
Posts
Cody Lee
  • Specialist
  • Denver, CO
Replied

Hi Roosevelt,

I have pulled court records and recorder's records from many counties across the country, including counties in Texas. $30 as a cap is not a good rule of thumb. 

What may be a good cap for one county holds no bearing on what caps should be for other counties.

I would say $155 for 50 records is pretty steep.

You may be better off pulling these records yourself or learning how to do it and then training a VA or someone you work with to do it for you.

What county are you trying to pull from? 

I may be able to give you instruction if I've already pulled from that county in the past!

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4,876
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Bruce Lynn#2 Real Estate Agent Contributor
  • Real Estate Broker
  • Coppell, TX
4,240
Votes |
4,876
Posts
Bruce Lynn#2 Real Estate Agent Contributor
  • Real Estate Broker
  • Coppell, TX
Replied

There are 3rd party providers that can send you a list.  Typically around $30-$40/list per county.

Check with MLSIQ, Roddy, foreclosures daily for the list....although I'm sure there are other list providers.

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Replied
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:

Hi Roosevelt,

I have pulled court records and recorder's records from many counties across the country, including counties in Texas. $30 as a cap is not a good rule of thumb. 

What may be a good cap for one county holds no bearing on what caps should be for other counties.

I would say $155 for 50 records is pretty steep.

You may be better off pulling these records yourself or learning how to do it and then training a VA or someone you work with to do it for you.

What county are you trying to pull from? 

I may be able to give you instruction if I've already pulled from that county in the past!

Hey Cody, I have been pulling List from Tarrent county and dallas county so far. 

That is what Tarrant county looks like. I'm not sure if that is correct what I have been advised from courts office them selves. 

If you can help that would be awesome!

User Stats

21
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3
Votes
Replied
Originally posted by @Bruce Lynn:

There are 3rd party providers that can send you a list.  Typically around $30-$40/list per county.

Check with MLSIQ, Roddy, foreclosures daily for the list....although I'm sure there are other list providers.

If you have the Website names or links that would be helpful for those! 

User Stats

4,876
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Bruce Lynn#2 Real Estate Agent Contributor
  • Real Estate Broker
  • Coppell, TX
4,240
Votes |
4,876
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Bruce Lynn#2 Real Estate Agent Contributor
  • Real Estate Broker
  • Coppell, TX
Replied

@Roosevelt Carter Jr   You have to google search them.  They're popular and easily findable, but a lot of time BP does not like links and website posted and will delete the post.   Sorry about that.

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Eric James
  • Malakoff, TX
2,450
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2,237
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Eric James
  • Malakoff, TX
Replied

Records have always been like a buck or two a page. Considering that each of your 30 records is probably multiple pages, $150 is in line with that. 

User Stats

59
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Cody Lee
  • Specialist
  • Denver, CO
30
Votes |
59
Posts
Cody Lee
  • Specialist
  • Denver, CO
Replied

@Eric James Pricing varies a lot per county. You can sign up for a free account for a lot of counties in Florida and get literally all of their records for free.

The entire state of Oregon can be searched on a uniform court system search for $40/mo no cap and you get access to thousands of records.

Maricopa county, Arizona (Phoenix), you can pay them $30/week and they will give you all probate, divorce, and civil records...which comes out usually to hundreds or even thousands of records per week or less than a penny per case.

Denver county, Colorado charges about $5/record for probate leads only but other records are $7/search and you must know the party name.

There isn't a one-size-fits-all price tag for every county unfortunately. What may be true for your county is not necessarily true for others.

In most cases above, $150 would be a terrible deal..the only one where it might be good is Denver...however, Colorado has aggressive laws on selling court data. You're not even allowed to keep a database of court records in the state.

Now it seems like the OP is talking about recorder's docs which differs from the Probate and Civil courts. The recorder's docs handles deeds, encumbrances, liens, etc...and these are very frequently free online for many areas and in the areas where you can't access them online, you can often go into the recorder's office and look them up on their kiosk for free.

User Stats

59
Posts
30
Votes
Cody Lee
  • Specialist
  • Denver, CO
30
Votes |
59
Posts
Cody Lee
  • Specialist
  • Denver, CO
Replied
Originally posted by @Roosevelt Carter Jr:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:

Hi Roosevelt,

I have pulled court records and recorder's records from many counties across the country, including counties in Texas. $30 as a cap is not a good rule of thumb. 

What may be a good cap for one county holds no bearing on what caps should be for other counties.

I would say $155 for 50 records is pretty steep.

You may be better off pulling these records yourself or learning how to do it and then training a VA or someone you work with to do it for you.

What county are you trying to pull from? 

I may be able to give you instruction if I've already pulled from that county in the past!

Hey Cody, I have been pulling List from Tarrent county and dallas county so far. 

That is what Tarrant county looks like. I'm not sure if that is correct what I have been advised from courts office them selves. 

If you can help that would be awesome!


Hi Roosevelt, these are actually records from the recorder's office and appear to be historical. The recorder's office is responsible for overseeing the recording of deeds, encumbrances, and liens on those deeds. This differs from Court records like probate, divorce, civil, and criminal cases. 

After viewing your screenshot, it looks like you're focusing on Federal Tax Liens from the 1970's. I recommend finding more recently-filed liens to avoid running into a ton of outdated liens that are no longer relevant. Unless you have a specific project in mind for looking at historical Federal Tax Lien trends from the 1970's, these are not going to be very useful for you if you are trying to wholesale or invest.

It may be a good idea to call Tarrant County's Recorder's office and see if you can get recently-filed Tax Liens, Death Certificates, Divorce Judgments, etc and see what they can do. They may charge you a hefty fee to aggregate that list for you. If they do, then ask them if you can search their database in person for free. Many times you can do the work yourself to avoid paying these fees.

User Stats

21
Posts
3
Votes
Replied
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:
Originally posted by @Roosevelt Carter Jr:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:

Hi Roosevelt,

I have pulled court records and recorder's records from many counties across the country, including counties in Texas. $30 as a cap is not a good rule of thumb. 

What may be a good cap for one county holds no bearing on what caps should be for other counties.

I would say $155 for 50 records is pretty steep.

You may be better off pulling these records yourself or learning how to do it and then training a VA or someone you work with to do it for you.

What county are you trying to pull from? 

I may be able to give you instruction if I've already pulled from that county in the past!

Hey Cody, I have been pulling List from Tarrent county and dallas county so far. 

That is what Tarrant county looks like. I'm not sure if that is correct what I have been advised from courts office them selves. 

If you can help that would be awesome!


Hi Roosevelt, these are actually records from the recorder's office and appear to be historical. The recorder's office is responsible for overseeing the recording of deeds, encumbrances, and liens on those deeds. This differs from Court records like probate, divorce, civil, and criminal cases. 

After viewing your screenshot, it looks like you're focusing on Federal Tax Liens from the 1970's. I recommend finding more recently-filed liens to avoid running into a ton of outdated liens that are no longer relevant. Unless you have a specific project in mind for looking at historical Federal Tax Lien trends from the 1970's, these are not going to be very useful for you if you are trying to wholesale or invest.

It may be a good idea to call Tarrant County's Recorder's office and see if you can get recently-filed Tax Liens, Death Certificates, Divorce Judgments, etc and see what they can do. They may charge you a hefty fee to aggregate that list for you. If they do, then ask them if you can search their database in person for free. Many times you can do the work yourself to avoid paying these fees.

 I think thats a good Idea. One question, when you usually pull list from courts house to get the information you need to skip trace and market etc. How much do you usually pay when pulling list?

User Stats

2,237
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2,450
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Eric James
  • Malakoff, TX
2,450
Votes |
2,237
Posts
Eric James
  • Malakoff, TX
Replied
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:

@Eric James Pricing varies a lot per county. You can sign up for a free account for a lot of counties in Florida and get literally all of their records for free.

The entire state of Oregon can be searched on a uniform court system search for $40/mo no cap and you get access to thousands of records.

Maricopa county, Arizona (Phoenix), you can pay them $30/week and they will give you all probate, divorce, and civil records...which comes out usually to hundreds or even thousands of records per week or less than a penny per case.

Denver county, Colorado charges about $5/record for probate leads only but other records are $7/search and you must know the party name.

There isn't a one-size-fits-all price tag for every county unfortunately. What may be true for your county is not necessarily true for others.

In most cases above, $150 would be a terrible deal..the only one where it might be good is Denver...however, Colorado has aggressive laws on selling court data. You're not even allowed to keep a database of court records in the state.

Now it seems like the OP is talking about recorder's docs which differs from the Probate and Civil courts. The recorder's docs handles deeds, encumbrances, liens, etc...and these are very frequently free online for many areas and in the areas where you can't access them online, you can often go into the recorder's office and look them up on their kiosk for free.

 He's talking about TX.

User Stats

59
Posts
30
Votes
Cody Lee
  • Specialist
  • Denver, CO
30
Votes |
59
Posts
Cody Lee
  • Specialist
  • Denver, CO
Replied
Originally posted by @Eric James:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:

@Eric James Pricing varies a lot per county. You can sign up for a free account for a lot of counties in Florida and get literally all of their records for free.

The entire state of Oregon can be searched on a uniform court system search for $40/mo no cap and you get access to thousands of records.

Maricopa county, Arizona (Phoenix), you can pay them $30/week and they will give you all probate, divorce, and civil records...which comes out usually to hundreds or even thousands of records per week or less than a penny per case.

Denver county, Colorado charges about $5/record for probate leads only but other records are $7/search and you must know the party name.

There isn't a one-size-fits-all price tag for every county unfortunately. What may be true for your county is not necessarily true for others.

In most cases above, $150 would be a terrible deal..the only one where it might be good is Denver...however, Colorado has aggressive laws on selling court data. You're not even allowed to keep a database of court records in the state.

Now it seems like the OP is talking about recorder's docs which differs from the Probate and Civil courts. The recorder's docs handles deeds, encumbrances, liens, etc...and these are very frequently free online for many areas and in the areas where you can't access them online, you can often go into the recorder's office and look them up on their kiosk for free.

 He's talking about TX.

Correct. In Texas, Brazoria, El Paso, Fort Bend, McLennan, Montgomery, and Williamson counties all have recently-filed Recorder's docs that you can search online for free without paying a fee whatsoever. I bet there are other counties too in Texas that have methods where you can get these records for less than $1/pg.

User Stats

59
Posts
30
Votes
Cody Lee
  • Specialist
  • Denver, CO
30
Votes |
59
Posts
Cody Lee
  • Specialist
  • Denver, CO
Replied
Originally posted by @Roosevelt Carter Jr:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:
Originally posted by @Roosevelt Carter Jr:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:

Hi Roosevelt,

I have pulled court records and recorder's records from many counties across the country, including counties in Texas. $30 as a cap is not a good rule of thumb. 

What may be a good cap for one county holds no bearing on what caps should be for other counties.

I would say $155 for 50 records is pretty steep.

You may be better off pulling these records yourself or learning how to do it and then training a VA or someone you work with to do it for you.

What county are you trying to pull from? 

I may be able to give you instruction if I've already pulled from that county in the past!

Hey Cody, I have been pulling List from Tarrent county and dallas county so far. 

That is what Tarrant county looks like. I'm not sure if that is correct what I have been advised from courts office them selves. 

If you can help that would be awesome!


Hi Roosevelt, these are actually records from the recorder's office and appear to be historical. The recorder's office is responsible for overseeing the recording of deeds, encumbrances, and liens on those deeds. This differs from Court records like probate, divorce, civil, and criminal cases. 

After viewing your screenshot, it looks like you're focusing on Federal Tax Liens from the 1970's. I recommend finding more recently-filed liens to avoid running into a ton of outdated liens that are no longer relevant. Unless you have a specific project in mind for looking at historical Federal Tax Lien trends from the 1970's, these are not going to be very useful for you if you are trying to wholesale or invest.

It may be a good idea to call Tarrant County's Recorder's office and see if you can get recently-filed Tax Liens, Death Certificates, Divorce Judgments, etc and see what they can do. They may charge you a hefty fee to aggregate that list for you. If they do, then ask them if you can search their database in person for free. Many times you can do the work yourself to avoid paying these fees.

 I think thats a good Idea. One question, when you usually pull list from courts house to get the information you need to skip trace and market etc. How much do you usually pay when pulling list?

 For court records, and to clarify, I'm talking about probate, divorce, eviction, criminal, etc. here (not recorder's docs), I can usually access these for free or for a relatively low monthly rate directly from the courthouse...some states are better than others. 

Texas happens to be a pretty good state for accessibility.

Pricing really does depend on the county.

Here's what I know about Tarrant county from pulling records in the past: 

1. Probate and Eviction records are stored using Odyssey's court record filing system and they are free to look up yourself.

2. Divorce and Criminal records require a subscription including a $120 up front free, and then $35/mo on the District Clerk's record search.

Sometimes, the court docs will be viewable and they may have phone numbers and mailing addresses of the parties on the actual documents or in the court dockets. So sometimes I don't even need to skip trace them.

In the event that I do need to skip trace these records, ~$0.14/hit is pretty common in the industry for good-quality skip tracing..although I can usually get it for less.

----ABOUT RECORDER'S DOCS----

If you're looking EXCLUSIVELY for recorder's docs in Tarrant county, I have in my notes that Tarrant county is actually a pretty tough county to get recent records from. I'd recommend calling the recorder's office first to see what your options are. And then, depending on what they say, go into the recorder's office to look them up yourself or submit an open records request.

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21
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Replied
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:
Originally posted by @Roosevelt Carter Jr:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:
Originally posted by @Roosevelt Carter Jr:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:

Hi Roosevelt,



I have pulled court records and recorder's records from many counties across the country, including counties in Texas. $30 as a cap is not a good rule of thumb. 

What may be a good cap for one county holds no bearing on what caps should be for other counties.

I would say $155 for 50 records is pretty steep.

You may be better off pulling these records yourself or learning how to do it and then training a VA or someone you work with to do it for you.

What county are you trying to pull from? 

I may be able to give you instruction if I've already pulled from that county in the past!

Hey Cody, I have been pulling List from Tarrent county and dallas county so far. 

That is what Tarrant county looks like. I'm not sure if that is correct what I have been advised from courts office them selves. 

If you can help that would be awesome!


Hi Roosevelt, these are actually records from the recorder's office and appear to be historical. The recorder's office is responsible for overseeing the recording of deeds, encumbrances, and liens on those deeds. This differs from Court records like probate, divorce, civil, and criminal cases. 

After viewing your screenshot, it looks like you're focusing on Federal Tax Liens from the 1970's. I recommend finding more recently-filed liens to avoid running into a ton of outdated liens that are no longer relevant. Unless you have a specific project in mind for looking at historical Federal Tax Lien trends from the 1970's, these are not going to be very useful for you if you are trying to wholesale or invest.

It may be a good idea to call Tarrant County's Recorder's office and see if you can get recently-filed Tax Liens, Death Certificates, Divorce Judgments, etc and see what they can do. They may charge you a hefty fee to aggregate that list for you. If they do, then ask them if you can search their database in person for free. Many times you can do the work yourself to avoid paying these fees.

 I think thats a good Idea. One question, when you usually pull list from courts house to get the information you need to skip trace and market etc. How much do you usually pay when pulling list?

 For court records, and to clarify, I'm talking about probate, divorce, eviction, criminal, etc. here (not recorder's docs), I can usually access these for free or for a relatively low monthly rate directly from the courthouse...some states are better than others. 

Texas happens to be a pretty good state for accessibility.

Pricing really does depend on the county.

Here's what I know about Tarrant county from pulling records in the past: 

1. Probate and Eviction records are stored using Odyssey's court record filing system and they are free to look up yourself.

2. Divorce and Criminal records require a subscription including a $120 up front free, and then $35/mo on the District Clerk's record search.

Sometimes, the court docs will be viewable and they may have phone numbers and mailing addresses of the parties on the actual documents or in the court dockets. So sometimes I don't even need to skip trace them.

In the event that I do need to skip trace these records, ~$0.14/hit is pretty common in the industry for good-quality skip tracing..although I can usually get it for less.

----ABOUT RECORDER'S DOCS----

If you're looking EXCLUSIVELY for recorder's docs in Tarrant county, I have in my notes that Tarrant county is actually a pretty tough county to get recent records from. I'd recommend calling the recorder's office first to see what your options are. And then, depending on what they say, go into the recorder's office to look them up yourself or submit an open records request.

So these are the fees I was able to find on Tarrant county.

Now the only thing I would want to look for is a name and a address so I could skip trace. Now the problem is, The way I have been told by the courts office is if I want to look up information on a specific property, they can do it one by one. BUT I want a full list and they were not able to do that and they advised me to go to the Tarrant public search but I'm not sure if that's where I need to be because the prices just seems unreal. I am really looking for probates and tax liens and divorce etc. Those 3 are really what I am looking for and the money is not the issue. The issue is I just don't think the prices that are being provided to be are right based off what I'm seeing from you guys. Another example on here is I tried lookin up divorce and i came with this pricing amount.

One thing i did notice with the 86 records on the example below, It comes with 1960 pages and I believe that is where this take a turn. I only need a name and a property address and i would think that only requires one page. This is where confusion comes in for me. Any thoughts @Cody Lee @Eric James

User Stats

59
Posts
30
Votes
Cody Lee
  • Specialist
  • Denver, CO
30
Votes |
59
Posts
Cody Lee
  • Specialist
  • Denver, CO
Replied
Originally posted by @Roosevelt Carter Jr:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:
Originally posted by @Roosevelt Carter Jr:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:
Originally posted by @Roosevelt Carter Jr:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:

Hi Roosevelt,



I have pulled court records and recorder's records from many counties across the country, including counties in Texas. $30 as a cap is not a good rule of thumb. 

What may be a good cap for one county holds no bearing on what caps should be for other counties.

I would say $155 for 50 records is pretty steep.

You may be better off pulling these records yourself or learning how to do it and then training a VA or someone you work with to do it for you.

What county are you trying to pull from? 

I may be able to give you instruction if I've already pulled from that county in the past!

Hey Cody, I have been pulling List from Tarrent county and dallas county so far. 

That is what Tarrant county looks like. I'm not sure if that is correct what I have been advised from courts office them selves. 

If you can help that would be awesome!


Hi Roosevelt, these are actually records from the recorder's office and appear to be historical. The recorder's office is responsible for overseeing the recording of deeds, encumbrances, and liens on those deeds. This differs from Court records like probate, divorce, civil, and criminal cases. 

After viewing your screenshot, it looks like you're focusing on Federal Tax Liens from the 1970's. I recommend finding more recently-filed liens to avoid running into a ton of outdated liens that are no longer relevant. Unless you have a specific project in mind for looking at historical Federal Tax Lien trends from the 1970's, these are not going to be very useful for you if you are trying to wholesale or invest.

It may be a good idea to call Tarrant County's Recorder's office and see if you can get recently-filed Tax Liens, Death Certificates, Divorce Judgments, etc and see what they can do. They may charge you a hefty fee to aggregate that list for you. If they do, then ask them if you can search their database in person for free. Many times you can do the work yourself to avoid paying these fees.

 I think thats a good Idea. One question, when you usually pull list from courts house to get the information you need to skip trace and market etc. How much do you usually pay when pulling list?

 For court records, and to clarify, I'm talking about probate, divorce, eviction, criminal, etc. here (not recorder's docs), I can usually access these for free or for a relatively low monthly rate directly from the courthouse...some states are better than others. 

Texas happens to be a pretty good state for accessibility.

Pricing really does depend on the county.

Here's what I know about Tarrant county from pulling records in the past: 

1. Probate and Eviction records are stored using Odyssey's court record filing system and they are free to look up yourself.

2. Divorce and Criminal records require a subscription including a $120 up front free, and then $35/mo on the District Clerk's record search.

Sometimes, the court docs will be viewable and they may have phone numbers and mailing addresses of the parties on the actual documents or in the court dockets. So sometimes I don't even need to skip trace them.

In the event that I do need to skip trace these records, ~$0.14/hit is pretty common in the industry for good-quality skip tracing..although I can usually get it for less.

----ABOUT RECORDER'S DOCS----

If you're looking EXCLUSIVELY for recorder's docs in Tarrant county, I have in my notes that Tarrant county is actually a pretty tough county to get recent records from. I'd recommend calling the recorder's office first to see what your options are. And then, depending on what they say, go into the recorder's office to look them up yourself or submit an open records request.

So these are the fees I was able to find on Tarrant county.

Now the only thing I would want to look for is a name and a address so I could skip trace. Now the problem is, The way I have been told by the courts office is if I want to look up information on a specific property, they can do it one by one. BUT I want a full list and they were not able to do that and they advised me to go to the Tarrant public search but I'm not sure if that's where I need to be because the prices just seems unreal. I am really looking for probates and tax liens and divorce etc. Those 3 are really what I am looking for and the money is not the issue. The issue is I just don't think the prices that are being provided to be are right based off what I'm seeing from you guys. Another example on here is I tried lookin up divorce and i came with this pricing amount.

One thing i did notice with the 86 records on the example below, It comes with 1960 pages and I believe that is where this take a turn. I only need a name and a property address and i would think that only requires one page. This is where confusion comes in for me. Any thoughts @Cody Lee @Eric James

 The recording fee schedule you posted is the fee required to FILE documents....this is not the fee to search EXISTING documents. It's important to be very clear and concise with what you are trying to do. The clerk is only human and may give you wrong information if they misunderstand your question.

It sounds like your goal is simply to search records or obtain a list of party names/mailing addresses of certain court record types. So when you call and ask, this may be how you want to word it. 

In Tarrant County, probate and divorce cases are NOT handled by the recorder's office. 

Probate court records are handled by Tarrant County's Probate court.

Divorce court records are handled by Tarrant County's District court.

If money is not an issue and you do not want to pull these records yourself, then you can contact the Probate court for probate records and the District court for divorce records and see what options they have for you to get a list of all of the case records from your desired date range (i.e. all court records from May 1st, 2021 to May 31st, 2021).

The clerk should be able to instruct you on how to view these records.

For Tax Liens, you can call Tarrant County's Recorder's office and ask them how much it would be to get a list of all Tax Liens from your desired date range.

User Stats

21
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3
Votes
Replied
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:
Originally posted by @Roosevelt Carter Jr:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:
Originally posted by @Roosevelt Carter Jr:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:
Originally posted by @Roosevelt Carter Jr:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:

Hi Roosevelt,



I have pulled court records and recorder's records from many counties across the country, including counties in Texas. $30 as a cap is not a good rule of thumb. 

What may be a good cap for one county holds no bearing on what caps should be for other counties.

I would say $155 for 50 records is pretty steep.

You may be better off pulling these records yourself or learning how to do it and then training a VA or someone you work with to do it for you.

What county are you trying to pull from? 

I may be able to give you instruction if I've already pulled from that county in the past!

Hey Cody, I have been pulling List from Tarrent county and dallas county so far. 

That is what Tarrant county looks like. I'm not sure if that is correct what I have been advised from courts office them selves. 

If you can help that would be awesome!


Hi Roosevelt, these are actually records from the recorder's office and appear to be historical. The recorder's office is responsible for overseeing the recording of deeds, encumbrances, and liens on those deeds. This differs from Court records like probate, divorce, civil, and criminal cases. 

After viewing your screenshot, it looks like you're focusing on Federal Tax Liens from the 1970's. I recommend finding more recently-filed liens to avoid running into a ton of outdated liens that are no longer relevant. Unless you have a specific project in mind for looking at historical Federal Tax Lien trends from the 1970's, these are not going to be very useful for you if you are trying to wholesale or invest.

It may be a good idea to call Tarrant County's Recorder's office and see if you can get recently-filed Tax Liens, Death Certificates, Divorce Judgments, etc and see what they can do. They may charge you a hefty fee to aggregate that list for you. If they do, then ask them if you can search their database in person for free. Many times you can do the work yourself to avoid paying these fees.

 I think thats a good Idea. One question, when you usually pull list from courts house to get the information you need to skip trace and market etc. How much do you usually pay when pulling list?

 For court records, and to clarify, I'm talking about probate, divorce, eviction, criminal, etc. here (not recorder's docs), I can usually access these for free or for a relatively low monthly rate directly from the courthouse...some states are better than others. 

Texas happens to be a pretty good state for accessibility.

Pricing really does depend on the county.

Here's what I know about Tarrant county from pulling records in the past: 

1. Probate and Eviction records are stored using Odyssey's court record filing system and they are free to look up yourself.

2. Divorce and Criminal records require a subscription including a $120 up front free, and then $35/mo on the District Clerk's record search.

Sometimes, the court docs will be viewable and they may have phone numbers and mailing addresses of the parties on the actual documents or in the court dockets. So sometimes I don't even need to skip trace them.

In the event that I do need to skip trace these records, ~$0.14/hit is pretty common in the industry for good-quality skip tracing..although I can usually get it for less.

----ABOUT RECORDER'S DOCS----

If you're looking EXCLUSIVELY for recorder's docs in Tarrant county, I have in my notes that Tarrant county is actually a pretty tough county to get recent records from. I'd recommend calling the recorder's office first to see what your options are. And then, depending on what they say, go into the recorder's office to look them up yourself or submit an open records request.

So these are the fees I was able to find on Tarrant county.

Now the only thing I would want to look for is a name and a address so I could skip trace. Now the problem is, The way I have been told by the courts office is if I want to look up information on a specific property, they can do it one by one. BUT I want a full list and they were not able to do that and they advised me to go to the Tarrant public search but I'm not sure if that's where I need to be because the prices just seems unreal. I am really looking for probates and tax liens and divorce etc. Those 3 are really what I am looking for and the money is not the issue. The issue is I just don't think the prices that are being provided to be are right based off what I'm seeing from you guys. Another example on here is I tried lookin up divorce and i came with this pricing amount.

One thing i did notice with the 86 records on the example below, It comes with 1960 pages and I believe that is where this take a turn. I only need a name and a property address and i would think that only requires one page. This is where confusion comes in for me. Any thoughts @Cody Lee @Eric James

 The recording fee schedule you posted is the fee required to FILE documents....this is not the fee to search EXISTING documents. It's important to be very clear and concise with what you are trying to do. The clerk is only human and may give you wrong information if they misunderstand your question.

It sounds like your goal is simply to search records or obtain a list of party names/mailing addresses of certain court record types. So when you call and ask, this may be how you want to word it. 

In Tarrant County, probate and divorce cases are NOT handled by the recorder's office. 

Probate court records are handled by Tarrant County's Probate court.

Divorce court records are handled by Tarrant County's District court.

If money is not an issue and you do not want to pull these records yourself, then you can contact the Probate court for probate records and the District court for divorce records and see what options they have for you to get a list of all of the case records from your desired date range (i.e. all court records from May 1st, 2021 to May 31st, 2021).

The clerk should be able to instruct you on how to view these records.

For Tax Liens, you can call Tarrant County's Recorder's office and ask them how much it would be to get a list of all Tax Liens from your desired date range.

Thank you. This helps a bunch! :)

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Cody Lee
  • Specialist
  • Denver, CO
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Cody Lee
  • Specialist
  • Denver, CO
Replied
Originally posted by @Roosevelt Carter Jr:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:
Originally posted by @Roosevelt Carter Jr:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:
Originally posted by @Roosevelt Carter Jr:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:
Originally posted by @Roosevelt Carter Jr:
Originally posted by @Cody Lee:

Hi Roosevelt,



I have pulled court records and recorder's records from many counties across the country, including counties in Texas. $30 as a cap is not a good rule of thumb. 

What may be a good cap for one county holds no bearing on what caps should be for other counties.

I would say $155 for 50 records is pretty steep.

You may be better off pulling these records yourself or learning how to do it and then training a VA or someone you work with to do it for you.

What county are you trying to pull from? 

I may be able to give you instruction if I've already pulled from that county in the past!

Hey Cody, I have been pulling List from Tarrent county and dallas county so far. 

That is what Tarrant county looks like. I'm not sure if that is correct what I have been advised from courts office them selves. 

If you can help that would be awesome!


Hi Roosevelt, these are actually records from the recorder's office and appear to be historical. The recorder's office is responsible for overseeing the recording of deeds, encumbrances, and liens on those deeds. This differs from Court records like probate, divorce, civil, and criminal cases. 

After viewing your screenshot, it looks like you're focusing on Federal Tax Liens from the 1970's. I recommend finding more recently-filed liens to avoid running into a ton of outdated liens that are no longer relevant. Unless you have a specific project in mind for looking at historical Federal Tax Lien trends from the 1970's, these are not going to be very useful for you if you are trying to wholesale or invest.

It may be a good idea to call Tarrant County's Recorder's office and see if you can get recently-filed Tax Liens, Death Certificates, Divorce Judgments, etc and see what they can do. They may charge you a hefty fee to aggregate that list for you. If they do, then ask them if you can search their database in person for free. Many times you can do the work yourself to avoid paying these fees.

 I think thats a good Idea. One question, when you usually pull list from courts house to get the information you need to skip trace and market etc. How much do you usually pay when pulling list?

 For court records, and to clarify, I'm talking about probate, divorce, eviction, criminal, etc. here (not recorder's docs), I can usually access these for free or for a relatively low monthly rate directly from the courthouse...some states are better than others. 

Texas happens to be a pretty good state for accessibility.

Pricing really does depend on the county.

Here's what I know about Tarrant county from pulling records in the past: 

1. Probate and Eviction records are stored using Odyssey's court record filing system and they are free to look up yourself.

2. Divorce and Criminal records require a subscription including a $120 up front free, and then $35/mo on the District Clerk's record search.

Sometimes, the court docs will be viewable and they may have phone numbers and mailing addresses of the parties on the actual documents or in the court dockets. So sometimes I don't even need to skip trace them.

In the event that I do need to skip trace these records, ~$0.14/hit is pretty common in the industry for good-quality skip tracing..although I can usually get it for less.

----ABOUT RECORDER'S DOCS----

If you're looking EXCLUSIVELY for recorder's docs in Tarrant county, I have in my notes that Tarrant county is actually a pretty tough county to get recent records from. I'd recommend calling the recorder's office first to see what your options are. And then, depending on what they say, go into the recorder's office to look them up yourself or submit an open records request.

So these are the fees I was able to find on Tarrant county.

Now the only thing I would want to look for is a name and a address so I could skip trace. Now the problem is, The way I have been told by the courts office is if I want to look up information on a specific property, they can do it one by one. BUT I want a full list and they were not able to do that and they advised me to go to the Tarrant public search but I'm not sure if that's where I need to be because the prices just seems unreal. I am really looking for probates and tax liens and divorce etc. Those 3 are really what I am looking for and the money is not the issue. The issue is I just don't think the prices that are being provided to be are right based off what I'm seeing from you guys. Another example on here is I tried lookin up divorce and i came with this pricing amount.

One thing i did notice with the 86 records on the example below, It comes with 1960 pages and I believe that is where this take a turn. I only need a name and a property address and i would think that only requires one page. This is where confusion comes in for me. Any thoughts @Cody Lee @Eric James

 The recording fee schedule you posted is the fee required to FILE documents....this is not the fee to search EXISTING documents. It's important to be very clear and concise with what you are trying to do. The clerk is only human and may give you wrong information if they misunderstand your question.

It sounds like your goal is simply to search records or obtain a list of party names/mailing addresses of certain court record types. So when you call and ask, this may be how you want to word it. 

In Tarrant County, probate and divorce cases are NOT handled by the recorder's office. 

Probate court records are handled by Tarrant County's Probate court.

Divorce court records are handled by Tarrant County's District court.

If money is not an issue and you do not want to pull these records yourself, then you can contact the Probate court for probate records and the District court for divorce records and see what options they have for you to get a list of all of the case records from your desired date range (i.e. all court records from May 1st, 2021 to May 31st, 2021).

The clerk should be able to instruct you on how to view these records.

For Tax Liens, you can call Tarrant County's Recorder's office and ask them how much it would be to get a list of all Tax Liens from your desired date range.

Thank you. This helps a bunch! :)

It's my pleasure, Roosevelt! I'm happy to help. Feel free to message me if you have any other court record questions!

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Jerel Ehlert
Pro Member
  • Attorney
  • Austin, TX
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Jerel Ehlert
Pro Member
  • Attorney
  • Austin, TX
Replied

EVERY county is different as far as what is free for unofficial copies (Harris County, mostly) and what is pay-per-view (lots) to SOL for web access (many more).

  • Jerel Ehlert
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    Jessie Cruz
    • Specialist
    • Raymore, MO
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    Jessie Cruz
    • Specialist
    • Raymore, MO
    Replied

    @Roosevelt Carter Jr You might do a free trial on prostream.com. I think they have Texas records there regularly$100/mo though.