BiggerPockets

I called my local court house looking for a list of absentee home owners.. I asked the clerk to filter a list of just a owners who live abroad. The gentleman said that he was unable to filter any lists by my parameters and that he was only able to look up homes by addresses.

I have read on here about lists that you guys are getting. Where do you find them and how are they filtered? Do you do this at the court house?

Great Question Travis! To answer your questions I get my owners lists from the CITY tax records dept filtered by Sales Amount under $40k within the last year in a target zipcode. I don't think courthouse will have what you need.
However, I need some clarification on what your looking for when you say 'Absentee' owner- if your talking about vacant homes with the Tax and the Mailing address being the same then you're going to have to track the name on record down yourself (in my experience)

However, as you may or may not know, if you're looking for absentee owners who may have a vacant INVESTMENT property, then the tax address and mailing address will be different as the tax bill will be sent to the owner's actual home address (not Renter's/ Subject House Address) In the essence of expediancy, trying to get a list of Tax Addresses and Real Address which are different is the smart approach IF you can create a contact/relationship with someone who will take the time to process your request as opposed to the classic clock-watcher city employee (zinger). The MLS is the alternative but much more time consuming process.

Since the parameters you're giving the person at the courthouse that may be the first pitfall as they may really not have the information you need. In Detroit, I go to the City Tax Records department and ask for the name's/addresses of anyone who bought a home under a wholesale price in a certain zip code for cash only(no mortgages) this is an indicator that the person is an investor and may not live there but even if they do and have paid cash (my parameters) under say, $40k, then I know I have a lead on a potentially motivated seller(is that what it's all about?)

The list I got under those parameters was used to find inactive but motivated sellers- Absentee or Owner Occupied. This is obviously the shot-gun method but you could lazer focus your approach by driving your target 'hood and cherry-picking individual addresses that look vacant/potential deals and search for the owner on the City Tax Record. Hope this helps!

Patrick

You can get lists from:

1.Your local title company
2.Listsource.com
3.Melissadata.com

Mr investor--
So in your experience most title company's are able to filter owners by where they live and house price? Do they charge?

Ed how is it that US Lead List or Click2mail have lists but I cant get one from the court house?

In my county they provide this list via download on the property appraiser's website or by calling them for a mere $60.

Usually they are unwilling to narrow down your search by request. However, once downloaded in excel format, you can break down the list specific to my needs.

This is the cheapest way to get the list. The list services out there will cost hundreds more for the same info and is an expensive alternative.

So I spoke to a title company and they never heard of doing that, I went back to the court house and the guy said he is mailing out tax statements and couldn't help me until February. Some luck I guess. I dont know how a service could get me a list if I cant get is locally

You are probably not talking with the right people. I'm assuming you want Montana.

Get with Land Records at:

Land Records

Phone: (406) 497-6336

Tell him you want a list of properties where the property address does not match the tax mailing address. This is probably the best list you can get from them. Some counties require landlords to state the property is a rental, not sure if they do it in Montana.

Because the courthouse is the official keeper of such public records; all other services gather those public records and offer them to others in a more useful form.

I get my lists directly from the customer service department of my Title Company. I guess this might not be a possibility in all areas of the country. I'm located in Corona, Southern California.

Good Luck.

Chris that is interesting.. I guess my courthouse is behind the times since they cant filter out much.

The one list that I did get is a notice of trustees sale list. Tell me if this sounds correct. I live in an area with thirty five thousand people. The NOTS list only has ninety names on it. Does that sound small to you guys?

Once I filtered out all of the higher dollar houses and went after the ones that are sixty five thousand and below I only had twelve available places to mail to.

One courthouse didn't want to do any filters, they just sold me the list.
It's a real hit or miss game to deal direct with the courthouse.

If you can get a list, but don't know how to use excel to slice and dice to get what you want, I can help you with that off list.