I’ve been spending a lot of time lately working distressed/off-market leads in Florida, especially pre-foreclosure, and I’m curious how other people are handling the workflow.
Getting a list is one thing. Getting from that list to something you can actually work seems to be where a lot of the friction is.
For those actively doing outreach, what causes you the most problems?
Finding the filing early enough before everyone else gets to it?
Matching the filing to the correct property/owner?
Bad or incomplete owner/mailing information?
Too many duplicates or records that aren’t actually worth pursuing?
Having to jump between county sites, property appraisers, court records, etc.?
Getting everything organized/exported into your CRM?
Something else entirely?
Also curious whether you mostly rely on platforms like PropStream/PropertyRadar/BatchLeads, pull directly from county sources, or use some combination.
I’m trying to tighten up my own process, so I’d be interested in hearing what’s actually slowing people down — especially from anyone working Florida regularly.
Coral Springs, FL · Member since 2018 · 486 posts · 106 votes
2d
Ziad, for Florida the step I'd put first is matching every filing to the property appraiser's folio before anything else. Court filings often carry an old owner name, a missing unit number or a typo in the address. Once you have the folio, the clerk's official records, the tax collector and code enforcement all line up on that one number.
Second, check the tax collector for the same folio. If there are multiple years of delinquent taxes, or the parcel already shows up on the clerk's upcoming tax deed sale list, the owner has a hard date that changes the conversation. You'd want to know that before you reach out. It also catches the ones where a homestead flag on the appraiser record means someone is living there.
If you've got one you're stuck on, post the case number or folio and I'll run a free pre-bid check.
that folio-first approach makes a lot of sense, especially when the filing has a messy address or outdated owner info.
curious — for Broward specifically, do you usually treat the folio as the main anchor across clerk/tax/code records, or do you still rely more on case/instrument number for lis pendens?