If you have access to a public website and need to ‘capture’ the data from it to create your database or spreadsheet for your leads (assuming your county doesn’t already offer the information in a spreadsheet format), the keywords you need to learn are “data mining,” “screen scraping”, and “data extraction” (I had never heard of either term to describe capturing info from a website until I went to craigslist and found someone under the ‘services’ section who offered IT services….and explained what I needed.

As with all licensing laws, it is a tool for the government to extract fees.

The MD Register of Wills enables one to view decedents' names, date of passing, interested party.

We're working with a direct mail company that enables us to target by ethnicity within zip codes.

The study uses data extracted from local recorder, courthouse and tax assessment records to determine whether the purchasers buying foreclosed houses from banks, HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are owner-occupants or absentee owners using single family homes as rental or vacation properties.

Thus don't make an offer, instead present solutions that enable the seller to be able to justify and present to you an offer you're willing to accept.

The best advice that I can give is: Don't borrow money that isn't going to make you money or enable you to live cheaper until you can comfortably do so.  

I'm using the MLS to extract the data.

Enabling or not caring them increases this to increase.

=)Getting your real estate license might enable you to learn the business from a different angle.