Water shut off lists from town water departments?

Question

Hi everyone!

I just had a quick question about something I did today and would love to hear your experience! So I have heard from podcasts and other investors that calling a town/city water department and asking for a list of all of the residences that have had water shut off in the past 6 months can be a nice list to market to off market.

So I called the water dept. in 2 towns I am interested in, and did not get very far at all. The first market transferred me to the treasury office/ collections and they didn’t really know what I was asking for, and in the second, the woman on the phone said she “didnt feel comfortable giving me that information because I am going to call distressed people and she didn’t like that” and I feel that she was not being helpful at all and didn’t understand that I was offering a potential solution rather than harassing them.

Should I be looking in a different place for these lists? Aren’t they public record?

Thank you,

Kyle Curtin

Kenneth Garrett · Answer

@Kyle Curtin

You can fill out a FOIA Freedom of Information Request) request and ask for the information.  I don’t know if that information is protected.  You might only get the address.  Some information through this process gets redacted where it only gives certain information.  That is the formal process.

Good Luck.

Kenneth Garrett · Answer

@Kyle Curtin

Yes, the FOIA request is generally on the city or county website.

Kyle Curtin · Answer

@Kenneth Garrett

Thank you so much Kenneth! I really appreciate it, are those documents usually on like a towns/city’s site?