Absentee Owners List Accuracy

[George Cox]

I buy AO lists from Melissa Data and of late have been wondering about the accuracy of theses lists. One parameter that I check off is that the house be "vacant". Many owners call saying that the property has never been vacant, some say it was but is now being rented. These lists don't come cheap and money is money so I wonder what anyone has to say about this. I hate to think I am wasting money..

Example - in one Philly zip code they state there are 25k VACANT homes! In ONE zip code? That number sounds high, even for a big city.