But, as with everything don't lay all your eggs in 1 basket. try some other forms of advertisement, like Facebook, twitter, Instagram, craigslist, for example I don't have a lot of FB followers on my business page but, it get's me a lot of clicks to my website with a $5.00 boost campaign where I can collect data from buyers and sellers.

I personally like Listsource because they have some of the best, most reliable data out there.There are a number of direct mail options out there if you want to outsource.  

I can't say for sure but the MLS data is just compiled from the public records and that is going to be how most of these list generators will get their data.

At the end of the day, they are taking ZERO risk when you buy that house and frankly you look at the deal totally differently when you're the one at risk...as you should.I would carefully search out all my own comps and wrestle with the data on my own.

someone please correct me if I am wrong)  I am able to search properties by address, owners name, parcel etc and look at recorded data, and I am able to look up tax information and past sales info (to a certain point at which they began electronically recording them I believe).  

Just waiting to get certificate from the State (passed the test) and of course find a property.

From this data, you can utilize a website bestplaces.net that will give you a breakdown of the percentage of homes that sold, in various price ranges, for a given zip code.

@Aj Bowman- in terms of the property's market value, this can be a tricky thing to determine with vacant land (a lot of the appraisers I've talked to don't even have a firm handle on how to do it with much certainty - because in many cases, the data needed to make the determination simply isn't available).That being said, there are several things you can look at to help get you most of the way there.

From this data, you can utilize a website bestplaces.net that will give you a breakdown of the percentage of homes that sold, in various price ranges, for a given zip code.

There are usually many times when there are no new listings in my area, so random checking throughout the year tends to give me better overall data than just waiting until it's coming vacant.