What does he have to loose if he rips me off for my deposit?

The carpets are not worn or loose.

If you pull that money out, you may have to pay taxes on it and loose some of the value. 

Risk might not be worth loosing $3k.I’m in New Jersey and don’t have any reliable probate Investor’s as I’m still networking and meeting rei’s.

Whereas private sellers of notes may be able to offer non-recorded private information in some circumstances.I believe @Sam Shueh and @Christopher Winkler think you are asking for the later non-recorded data, and if so, it is likely you'll never build a good data set on which to turn ai loose, and whatever data you do acquire will be through hard earned relationships with note sellers, as they mention.If you are, however, just looking for public records data, then all the sources your mentioned will offer roughly the same data.

Really good ones are so rare that if an investor has one they don't want to take the risk of loosing them to another investor.

Only a small fraction of human communication is the words themselves, you just loose too much with written word sometimes. 

Sacramento is a loose description too which usually includes the eastern suburbs.Bay Area: The local fundamentals create a unique market unlike no other.Oceanside, CA: West of the 5 for the most part means north of the 8, $800k that is.

It the appreciation which I believe is loosing steam worth it in the long run?

Goal = "go to the gym five days a week" rather than "loose 20 pounds".