Wholesale real estate leads should come with a reason to look closer

A public record is a starting point

An open code case can make a property worth investigating. It does not tell you that the owner wants to sell. It may also have an incomplete address, refer to a case that has since closed, or appear in more than one file.

LotLine Leads works through those questions using supported public sources. It identifies the property, checks the requested criteria, combines matching records and tries to resolve the owner and mailing address. The source history stays attached.

A finished Standard lead needs more than a qualifying event: a confidently resolved owner and complete owner mailing address. A property that has a fresh signal but still lacks those owner details is a Qualified Opportunity, not a finished Standard lead.

Downloaded today does not mean it happened today

Keep three dates separate. The event date tells you when the case or notice happened. The dataset update tells you when the agency refreshed its file. The retrieval date tells you when LotLine read it.

In the example above, the code case opened September 27, the agency updated the dataset October 4, and LotLine retrieved it October 5. Calling it a one-day-old violation because it was just downloaded would be misleading.

A request for records from the last 30 days should be tested against the relevant event. If the source does not provide enough information to establish that, the limitation matters. A recent download cannot fill in a missing date.

Start with the county and the available records

Coverage varies by place and record type. One city may publish code cases through an open-data API. Another may offer a spreadsheet. A neighboring county may require a records request or a manual portal export.

LotLine uses a Source Registry and supported discovery routes to identify official sources. These can include government open-data catalogs, ArcGIS, Socrata, data.gov, official APIs and supported files such as CSV or spreadsheets.

Check the build plan before committing to a batch. The relevant questions are which sources are available, what time period they cover, and whether any source needs a separate action or fee. No platform can make every county publish the same information in the same format.

Keep the reason behind the lead

A label like "distressed" is hard to verify by itself. An agency name, case reference, event date and retrieval date give you something specific to investigate.

That history also helps when you come back to the property later. Has the case closed? Is the notice still current? Was the owner match based on a parcel record or a weaker address match? Those details are more useful than a score without an explanation.

The provenance view above follows the source-history illustration in our Leads film. It explains the evidence behind a lead; it is not a promise that every data field appears in every source or every workspace view.

Do not count the same property three times

Address normalization and property matching help bring related records together. A code violation, tax delinquency and municipal lien may all point to the same house.

LotLine can preserve those separate signals against one resolved property. You get more context for the decision without treating every source row as a different lead. Existing duplicates do not incur a new-delivery charge just because another source mentions the same property.

Several signals may make a property worth prioritizing. They still do not establish seller intent. Contact and qualification remain separate steps.

What qualifies for a Standard lead credit

A Standard LotLine Lead meets your filters, has a fresh qualifying public-record signal, and includes a confidently resolved owner with a complete mailing address. Unresolved ownership conflicts do not pass the current definition.

The mailing address must be structurally complete. That is different from guaranteeing postal delivery. The preserved source information lets you review how the result was reached.

Builds reserve credits and reconcile them against newly delivered leads. Unused reservations are released. A source row that fails qualification or owner resolution is not charged as a Standard lead just because it was found.

Ask for the number you would like, but expect the delivered count to follow the available evidence. A request for 300 is a target, not a reason to pad the list with properties that fail your criteria.

Contact-Ready adds a channel

A Contact-Ready lead must first meet the Standard definition. It then needs at least one usable phone number or email that passes the applicable contact checks.

For phones, current checks include a normalized US number, a fresh clear DNC result and no blocking opt-out, TCPA-risk, litigator or deceased flags. Unknown screening status does not count as clear. These checks reduce data risk; they do not establish consent to call or text.

Email checks currently cover syntax and placeholder values, not mailbox deliverability or marketing consent. Do not treat an email match as a verified inbox or permission to contact its owner.

Standard and Contact-Ready use separate wallets. Contact-Ready enrichment is accounted for in that product rather than also consuming your ordinary owner-lookup allowance. A failed Contact-Ready result does not silently spend a Standard credit instead. Contact-Ready sales require separate enablement after live validation.

When a source needs a person

A PDF-only tax list or restricted portal may need an authorized export, a records request or a source fee. The useful result is a clear required action: what is missing and what you would need to obtain.

LotLine does not bypass access controls or promise that every PDF and portal can be automated. A county fee is separate from LotLine lead credits. You can decide whether that source is worth the time and cost before proceeding.

Leads builds the pipeline. Agent works it.

You can use LotLine Leads in the web workspace where it is enabled. Active paid Starter, Founder Cloud, Growth Cloud and Team Cloud customers can buy enabled lead packs; trials cannot purchase those packs.

LotLine Agent is optional. It lets an eligible customer ask a connected AI to coordinate a supported build and then work the resulting leads: run analysis, inspect the results and prepare the next steps. Agent has its own plan requirements and does not include Leads credits.

You can also keep a lead source you already like and bring those records into LotLine. The wholesaling software stack guide explains where sourcing, prospecting and deal work fit together.

Start small enough to judge the results

Choose a market you know and a narrow request. Review the sources, dates and owner details on the first batch. That gives you a much better basis for deciding than a headline about how many records a platform has.

If your county is unsupported, you only need a one-off search, or you already have a source you trust, collecting records yourself may still make sense. Public records are not exclusive. The value is in how well the data is resolved, qualified and made useful.

Compare the workspace and lead credits separately when reviewing software costs. A public-record row, an owner lookup and a delivered lead are different units.

Frequently asked questions

Sources and further reading

Product details reviewed October 6, 2026. Check your workspace for current access and allowances.

• Data.govOfficial US government open-data catalog
• ArcGIS feature service queriesOfficial documentation for one supported public-data route
• LotLine pricingWorkspace plans, add-ons and current availability