All Forum Posts by: Seth Williams

Hi @Kevin Farrell - it's awesome to see you documenting your experience here. After reading what you've experienced so far, I'll share a few thoughts that come to mind...

• If you're looking specifically for a delinquent tax list (not the list of properties already going to auction, but the owners who are currently delinquent and in danger of losing their property), the county is the best place to get this information. Their data will be more current than any other third party data service, because you're getting it directly from the source, with no time gap. As you've already discovered though... some counties (though not all) can be a MAJOR hassle to deal with, and the data can be tricky to sort. This is an important consideration to be aware of, because not everyone has the patience to deal with this. If you can find a handful of counties in an ideal market who will provide the right list, in the right format, for a decent price - I think it's totally worth the effort (because it will ultimately result in A LOT of great deals if you use the data appropriately). These counties are definitely out there, but when you're starting from scratch, it usually takes a bit of time and patience to find them.
• AgentPro247 and ReboGateway can provide tax delinquent data in some (but definitely not all) areas. I've found both services to be good at some aspects of list-pulling (depending on what types of property owners you're looking for, and in which markets you're looking), but they're not a perfect fit in every situation. Their delinquent tax data seems to be fairly reliable in the more populated counties (like Southern California), but in many of the other areas I've tried... this particular filtering option either isn't available, or it isn't reliable (nothing like getting it directly from the county).
• Delinquent tax lists from the county can be very powerful, but they're not the only way to find great deals. I've found this type of list to be a great for finding as many deals as possible without spending thousands of dollars just on mail... but if you have a bigger budget and you're willing to spend more money on data and direct mail, it is possible to get your lists with much less hassle. ListSource (owned by CoreLogic) is one option... they don't offer delinquent tax data, or any way to verify how current the data is in each county, but if you don't care about either of those things - it's a solid platform that many people use with success. RealQuest (also owned by CoreLogic) is another option, and it does allow you to see how current the data is before pulling a list (a very nice feature), but it requires a 12 month commitment, and the cost of the subscription (which isn't cheap) doesn't include the per-lead cost of generating each new list. From what I could see, RealQuest seemed to be a solid option for those who are doing a great deal of volume, and ListSource was better for those who were just doing a few hundred mailers at a time.

 I spent several weeks reviewing AgentPro247, Melissa Data, ReboGateway, RealQuest and ListSource - and it shows how they each stack up against each other. As you might expect, each of them seems to excel in some areas, and not so much in others.

If you go with a more general type of direct mail campaign (to non-delinquent owners), it may take more mailers to find the truly motivated sellers (i.e. - people willing to accept a laughably low offer) because you'll have to sift through more of the "general population" of property owners to find the motivated ones, but they're definitely out there. In some ways, mailing ONLY to delinquent tax owners will actually cause you to ignore some of the legitimately motivated sellers out there (because not every motivated seller is necessarily delinquent). In my experience, the delinquent tax list has been a very effective way of spending less money to reach a more concentrated list of motivated sellers, but it's certainly not the only way to get the job done.

Thanks for the shout out @Jim Perkins! You're in a good place.

Feel free to reach out if you've got questions in the realm of land or rental properties. I'd be happy to point you in the right direction if you get stuck on anything.

Anytime @Michael Mullins!

@Allende Hernandez - the only other service I know of that can filter based on tax delinquency (in some, but not all areas) is ReboGateway. It may be worth giving them a call to see if they have this info available in your area. They also have some other filtering criteria that can be used to find motivated sellers (probates, divorce, empty nesters, etc) which may be of interest to you.

As for AgentPro247, I don't have any experience with their foreclosure filter - I've never bothered to do my searches that way. Sorry!

Hey @Allende Hernandez - nice work with cross-checking the tax delinquent status.

I've heard this issue come up with a few other people over the past few months (specifically regarding the tax delinquent status not actually being up to date in their system, even though the data was pulled from a fairly recent date), but that's the first I've heard of the actual ownership being that far off... that is a little concerning.

I think the accuracy of some counties is somewhat dependent on the county itself (because some counties are very good at providing current data, others are pretty bad). If you've found that the information is this far off in that particular county, I think you can safely conclude that you should find another source of data from that county for your direct mail campaign.

I don't use AgentPro247 for my delinquent tax lists anymore... and it's for this exact reason. Even though their lists can work well for certain types of direct mail efforts (depending on what types of properties and owners you're targeting), they're not always the best fit for everything, and some counties (usually the more rural, sparsely populated ones) have issues like the ones you're seeing.

If current tax delinquent data is part of what you're relying on, I'd say your better option would be to go directly to the county and get it (because the county is always going to have the most current and accurate information on hand).

If you're looking for some other services that provide lists in a similar fashion (though, most of them don't even give the option of tax delinquent data), you can always check out this review I did on 5 of the more well-known services to choose from. You might find it helpful.

@Samantha Cunha - Just to be clear, I don't use this list to target a specific home. I use it to target a specific county. Just because you see a home you like, doesn't mean that owner is going to be a motivated seller... it's more about targeting the market where you want to buy, and then tracking down some of the motivated sellers in that market (and this is where the delinquent tax list is so helpful). You'll never know who those motivated sellers are until you send out your direct mail campaign and start getting responses. Does that make sense?

Hi @Samantha Cunha - I'm referring to the delinquent tax list. In some cases, you can get this list from third party data services... but if you want the information to be as current as possible (which is VERY important when you're relying on this kind of data, because it changes daily), it's best to get it directly from the county. Usually the Treasurer/Tax Collector is the best place to start, but in some cases you can get it from the Assessor or even the IT Administrator as well (it works a little different in every county, so it can take a lot of patience and persistence with many of the county offices out there). I did my best to explain how it works in this blog post. 

Hi @Daniel Parlegreco - there are several different aspects of a county that can make it ideal (or less ideal) for pursuing vacant land. 

This video below doesn't cover every aspect, but it talks about some of the core attributes you'll want to consider when getting started...

@Laine Hadnott - you could give ReboGateway a try. From what I saw of their system, they've got probate data in SOME (but not all) counties in the U.S. If you know which county you're targeting, I'm sure you could give them a call and they could tell you if this data is available in your area.

I got to test drive their service a few months ago and I recorded this video to explain how their system works:

(Note: I'm not affiliated with ReboGateway in any way. This is just a "How to" for anyone who is looking at them as a possibility.)

I've also got a blog post that reviews several other data providers (ReboGateway, AgentPro247, ListSource, Melissa Data and RealQuest). None of them are perfect, but some are certainly better at some aspects than others. You can check it out here: http://retipster.com/real-estate-data/

Hi @Clarissa Ferrell - if you're looking specifically for a delinquent tax data, your best bet is to get your list directly from the county. AgentPro247 provides this data in some areas, but not everywhere - and even in the areas where it is provided, some of the counties don't keep this data as current as it should be.

When it comes to delinquent tax data, this information needs to be current because it changes every day. My primary use for AgentPro247 is property research, but when I need a tax delinquent list, my preferred method is to get these directly from the county office (a process I explain more in the blog post you shared above).

Working directly with the county can definitely bring some other challenges into the mix (it's almost never as easy as ordering your list from a data service), but when the data must be current and accurate (as it does in this case), it's hard to beat the quality of data you'll get from the county.

If you're trying to create more of a generic list (one that doesn't include tax delinquent data), AgentPro247 probably makes more sense to use, because it's relatively cheap and the lists are very easy to work with. It's great for many different list types, but I wouldn't say it's always the best option when you need to filter specifically based on delinquent taxes.