All Forum Posts by: Chris Magma

@Lance Johnson sometimes you might have to get multiple files/folders from the county. You could use @Bryce DeCora method. Some counties have the transfer deed date and update weekly. I usually store most of those large files over at Amazon. The only place I've found to have a legit API for this is Maricopa County AZ. But if you can get it from oh lets say.. Richmond Association of Realtors MLS database in JSON format then you are in good.

@Rodger Wilson You can use @Ehsan Rishat and @Jose Batista Abikarram advice I personally think Listsource has limited information sometimes. I like to get mine from the county. A picture below show how much information I get from my target market county. I wasn't able to display it all. I usually get data such as zoning, property type, transfer deed date  etc... I would suggest you get comfortable with your county records and you too can have unlimited and sometimes free leads.

@Christopher Cole I recommend what @Account Closed said but it can kinda be tricky in some counties but I usually get every property in the county. The county has SFH, apartment complexes, lots, land, Mobile homes, etc.. Sometimes I get Business Personal Property (BPP) like boats, trailers and airplanes because that's what's in the county records. I'm not sure of your county but most times its on their website. You might have to get multiple files/folders or even a server.

I get the database of properties which has the transfer of deed, tax amount, property exemptions, etc.. 

Let me know if you need any help finding and locating that information.

@Latrina Crumbley I try to shy away from these products because they are too pricey and there is no need to pay for any service when the information is freely available. For the record, I am a computer programmer and I know some of the technology out there isn't worth the money people are paying for it. 

I recommend going to the county or the county website you are trying to market to and get the information also get list from the cities as well. If this is too much then I would suggest experimenting around until you find an application that you are comfortable with. You might have to do a bit of surfing the web to find one that you are comfortable with.

@Ryan Janssen To avoid being like everyone else who gets their list from Listsource or by finding what third party offers the best list by getting the same limited list that the last person purchased. Why don't you go to the county records and get ALL of it? You county most likely have every single thing that you can imagine, trust me I've looked at countless of records in 6+ different states. I rarely pay any money for list and if I do it is worth every penny.

You can go to your county and ask for the entire database of properties. Let me know if you need any help.
 

@Brandon Mix That is my method. We use a database to store all the data that the county has in the reverse way the county stores it. Then we sort, filter and query to get what we are looking for. Then we use the city information to get the rest of the information from the county in bulk.

It's hard to give you a full answer to your question because if you can imagine cleaning 40+ cities of different types of formats/data/junk from a city so that the database can read the cities data and get the rest of the information out can be difficult. 

If you really want to know my thousands of methods of cleaning data from cities, storing it and then getting the rest of the information this would be an extremely long post. 

Is the city information correctly formatted? Is the property address in one column like this?  

Or does it look like this?

Or maybe this?

Is there missing information that you would have to filled in. Is the city list in png, txt, pdf or csv format? I've dealt with pictures taken from a cell phone of city addresses and then emailed to me. Sometimes I use high-tech to get the information and sometimes I don't.

Let me know. I'm here to help. Feel free to send me a message in my inbox.

@Matt Nettles I recommend using the county records. It has every property in the county and all you have to do is filter the information if it's in the correct file format. If it's not it could be a little technical. I like to get all of the data and then display it on mapping software to get a birds eye view of all the properties that I want to market to. The best part about it is that everything is free. Unless you have to pay for it at the county level. I've been able to locate commercial land, apartment buildings, Lots, Residential, boats etc... with the owners and property information.

Let me know if you need any help. If it's too technical because it can be with certain data formats. Hope this helps!

Yes it a list in your state called " Your state real estate commission". It's a great way to get every Agent, Broker, Broker LLC etc in the entire state. Let me know if you need help locating it.

I would suggest going to the county and asking for the entire database of properties. You would then be able to find every buyer in the county. Look for LLC's with the same owner/mailing address. This will get you every buyer who invest in the county, the cities in the county and some that invest in the state. Good luck and I hope this helps. Let me know if you need any help.

@Brandon Mix No, I don't use excel. Excel won't open a file the size I mentioned above. You will have to use a database and be a software engineer or computer programmer. But you can use @Account Closed method and talk to a title company I guess. I personally don't like dealing with a bunch of spreadsheets and limited information.