Best source for fresh NOD data in SoCal: ATTOM vs DataTree vs PropertyRadar?

Question

I'm trying to nail down which data provider has the most current Notice of Default (NOD) data for San Diego. I've tested a few of these providers, and have a hunch that DataTree may have an edge in California due to First American's title plant presence here. But I'm not sure how that translates to actual NOD latency in practice.

Curious if anyone has done a head-to-head comparison or has a go-to source they trust for this.

Carson Nordmann · Answer

DataTree pulling from First American's title plant is the usual reason people prefer it in CA, but NOD latency comes down to how fast each county recorder posts and how fast the aggregator ingests. San Diego recorder is one of the faster CA counties to post, so the bottleneck is usually ingest cadence on the vendor side, not the county.

David Rong · Answer

On the DataTree hunch: DataTree pulls from First American's title plant, which is strong for title history, but NOD freshness is decided at the county recorder, not the aggregator. San Diego's recorder (ARCC) posts notices the day they're recorded - the bottleneck is how fast each vendor ingests, and that varies.

For a clean side-by-side: pull 20-30 newly recorded NODs directly from ARCC, then track when the same instrument numbers first appear in each tool. First-seen timing beats any marketing page. Worth noting NODs get cured or withdrawn, so also re-check status before you spend money on outreach.

Chris Seveney · Answer

Honestly, I find the best is publicnotices.com. As many times, the information must also be posted in the newspaper.

Jacob Camhi · Answer

Yeah, that's is basically right.

If you are really trying to figure out who is best in San Diego, I would test three things separately: NOD latency, NTS latency, and completeness / matching accuracy. A lot of people just check whether a record eventually shows up, but operationally what matters is how fast it appears and whether it is matched cleanly to the right property and owner.

I would probably pull 20 to 30 newly recorded NODs and another 20 to 30 NTSs, then compare first-seen timing side by side across the tools you are considering. That usually tells you a lot more than the marketing copy does.

My rough take is DataTree is fine, but I would not assume the title-plant angle automatically makes it the freshest in practice. ATTOM is decent too and broad enough that I would use it more as a baseline check than a clear winner or keep your radar on for other tools.

PropStream feels more like a broad list-pulling tool to me than something I would trust as my first choice for fresh San Diego NODs. DealMachine would be even lower on my list for this specific use case. It feels much more built around driving for dollars than foreclosure freshness.

Would be interested to hear if anyone here has actually tracked first-seen timing side by side in San Diego.

Best source for fresh NOD data in SoCal: ATTOM vs DataTree vs PropertyRadar?

Best source for fresh NOD data in SoCal: ATTOM vs DataTree vs PropertyRadar?

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