Investor · Cedar Park, TX · Member since 2014 · 317 posts · 74 votes
Hello,
The current listing service I am using is about to double their rates for their monthly pre-foreclosure listings and I have not been happy with the quality or accuracy of their bankruptcy lists lately either. I would like to explore what other listing services that are out their for the Austin, Texas area. I am specifically looking at the Travis and Williamson county areas for pre-foreclosure listings. I am also searching for a listing service for the Texas Western Bankruptcy Court.
Any assistance you can give me is greatly appreciated.
I have noticed county sites updating and making it more difficult to pull data. Each time the destination site changes something with security or layout the script used to scrape that site data has to be fixed. Sometimes its a simple fix and other times it is a complete rebuild.
Could be one reason they are raising prices. I've paid developers 3x as much to pull the same data from 2 different sites based on difficulty. (using captcha breakers, captcha cost, proxies/vpn)
Can you explain "quality or accuracy"? Did you compare their list data to the court records or did the people you contact say they were not in pre foreclosure?
@Nettles Mason Concerning the price increase, a person was on a yearly contract like I am, as the early postings for foreclosures came out for the following month after the current months foreclosure they provided those early listings to you free of charge. If you were a month to month client you did not receive that benefit. Now if you want to receive this benefit they are charging you double of what you would pay for a single month no matter if you are on a yearly plan or a monthly plan and they no longer give you a price break for purchasing multiple counties.
As far as the bankruptcy list goes, they do not provide you with the case number so you can search the federal system with ease. You have to do a name search in the federal system. Also, I have found about 1/4 to 1/2 of the records the listing service has provided me to be inaccurate. I have to call the bankruptcy court to confirm my findings because I was unable to locate the record (s) the listing service provided me. (I made friends with a nice girl that works with the bankruptcy court) they normally will not do this for you over the phone or in person.
So this is why I am looking for a new service. They were purchased by new owners and they are raising prices, not honoring current contracts (will let you cancel without a penalty) and their accuracy has gone way down.