All Forum Posts by: Sean OToole

@Don Crandell Driving for dollars is a great way to get started. No better way to learn a market or to figure out what should be on you list. While driving for dollars you should use a tool that allows you to save the properties to a list, and will then give you insights into what those properties have in common, so you can target those things when you build a lit. The right tool will also give you instant access from a mobile device to property information, owner contact info, the ability to take and store photos , etc all while you are out front of the property. Feel free to PM me for recommendations.

I'd recommend getting your license. It is a pretty easy process and will give you access to the MLS and a lockbox key which helps a lot when getting to know an area, comparable properties, etc. I know a lot of successful investors, and most have their license. I've been an agent since 2003, and broker since 2005. I've taken less than 5 listings over that time, and have represented buyers twice. But I've used the license many, many times to purchase and sell my own investments. Totally worthwhile.

@Michael Pilolla For free sites you'll be limited to the county. Unfortunately you'll find little info there. The SLO assessors website has little more than tax assessment and basic characteristics like beds and baths, despite lots more info being public record. To get the rest you'll have to go in person. Similarly for the county recorder, you won't find more than document number, document type, date, grantor and grantee information online. For the rest of the details (purchase details, mortgages, foreclosures, etc), you'll either have to buy the documents from their website or go to their office to review for free. Even from there, you'll have to hand enter the info into a spreadsheet or document if you want to use it for much of anything.

Bottom line, if you value your time at all, you'll end up using a paid service. Listsource and Mellisa are great for pulling lists but if you also want to lookup individual properties, get phone numbers, etc there are better options.

@Walter Roby jr 6 of 8 would be 75%, not 6%, right? That others didn’t pick up is a different issue altogether. Does not mean data is wrong at all. Thanks to robocalling most people don’t pick up calls from unknown numbers.

Glad to hear you are having success!!

Hi Greg, please reach out to our support team with examples. Also, be sure to try each number when we provide multiple. Sometimes we do get old numbers for folks, but wrong numbers (in the sense they never belonged to the person) are pretty rare.

Regardless, I'm confident you won't find better data from other skip trace vendors, and certainly none in REI space. You could try (and spend a lot more money on) one of the skip trace services that credit agencies and law enforcement uses like Accurint or TLO. They offer some additional info we can't make widely available, though you'll need to have an acceptable use to get access.

Oh, and let's stop bugging these folks. Start a new thread... SEO Challenge and tag me.

@Jerryll Noorden On the steak, let's pick a market we agree on and see if you can do the same there. I'm a man of my word and will send a porterhouse your way. https://www.omahasteaks.com/product/Private-Reserve%AE-Porterhouse-Steaks-%2B-Seasoning-58972.

@Jerryll Noorden You're welcome for the opportunity to make your pitch. ;-) Caveat emptor.

@Jerryll Noorden I agree that SEO can work if you are really good at it (sounds like you are - congrats), can find relevant keywords that sellers actually use in searches, and you have no strong competition for those keywords in your market. Plus you have to be in a market where lots of sellers are actively searching for your keywords in order for it to be worthwhile.

I'd bet you a steak dinner this is working for you because you are in a large market with enough market distress to create the search volume you show.

For most, I'm confident in my statement that it is a hope and prey, "message in a bottle" upon a sea of billions of websites, approach compared to simply using public records to find the name, address and property details for any property owner you want. The SEO approach, no matter how good you are, is always limited to whether people search for your keywords or not, and whether google shows them your message or someone else's based on their algorithm of the day.

@Ryan Car - Unlike what people have said above, what you can find at county websites varies tremendously by state and by county. Some are great, some are terrible, but none are very efficient at helping you build a marketing list. If you value your time you'll end up using a 3rd party service that collects, collates, cleans, appends, etc the base public records data into something usable.

Ownership and characteristics (beds, baths, etc) are sourced from county assessor offices. Sales, mortgages and foreclosure data is sourced from the county recorder office. Some of us also append other data like demographics (age, gender, etc), phone, email or even social media profiles.

While it certainly doesn't hurt to do SEO and cast your message in a bottle onto the sea of a billion websites, the VERY BEST THING about this business is that, thanks to public records, you can know the owner of every potential deal by name, and you can target them directly. How successful you'll be at that, depends mostly on what you have to offer. Reaching them is not the problem