u/CtrlAltDowntime

Florida here.

I can find and pre-vet distressed properties through public records, liens, code enforcement and tax history, ownership/mailing address checks, and in-person verification. I’ve also been driving neighborhoods and talking with people locally to get context that records don’t show.

But I have not been contacting sellers directly or getting properties under contract myself yet.

I understand that without a contract, I’m probably closer to a bird dog than a true JV partner, so my real question is about structure.

For those of you who have worked with someone who was strong on finding and vetting distressed leads, but not yet experienced with seller contact or contracts, what did the arrangement actually look like?

Was it a flat fee per usable lead, some kind of fee only if the deal closed, a reduced JV split, or was the answer basically “it’s not real until you get it under contract yourself”?

I’m trying to figure out whether the research and fieldwork side has standalone value, or whether I just need to start making seller calls and learning how to get the contract signed.

Not asking anyone here to JV. I’m just trying to understand how people in the business actually view this part of the process.

For those who buy wholesale deals, do you invest in smaller, lower-income towns, or do you mainly stick to larger cities?

If you do buy in smaller markets:
What makes a town worth investing in?

At what point is the population just too small?
Is it harder to find buyers, or are there simply fewer good deals?

Is driving for dollars still a good strategy in those markets?

Just curious what your real-world experience has been. I’d rather hear from people actually buying deals than general advice.

For those who’ve been wholesaling for a while…
What are some real-life stories of sellers you’ve bought from?

I’m trying to understand what was actually going on in their lives that made them decide to sell to a wholesaler instead of listing with an agent.
What situations come up over and over?

What surprised you the most when you first started?
I’d appreciate hearing some real experiences.

I’ve been spending a lot of time working with local public records lately, including code enforcement cases, tax delinquent properties, liens, ownership research, mailing addresses and appraiser data.

A lot of people say, “Just build your own bot.” In my experience, getting something to work once isn’t the hard part. Getting it to work consistently is a completely different challenge.

Every county and city seems to have a different system. Portals get updated, websites change layouts, exports break, fields move around, and suddenly you’re spending time fixing things instead of talking to sellers.

Then there’s the cleanup side. Matching records, finding owner and mailing information, checking parcel details, and turning raw public records into something actually usable for outreach takes a lot more time than I expected.

I’m curious how other investors are handling it.
Are you still pulling and cleaning your own local lists, using a VA, buying lists from a provider, or paying someone to handle the research?

What made you decide to keep doing it yourself or outsource it?

I’ve been going through a lot of off-market and distress leads lately, and I’m realizing I spend a decent amount of time looking at property details before deciding whether something is worth digging into further.

Beyond the obvious stuff like location, equity, asking price, and motivation, I’m curious what everyone else is actually paying attention to.

Some of the things I’ve been looking at:
Concrete block/stucco vs wood frame
City water & sewer vs well/septic
Year built
Flood zone
Roof age
Property size
Code violations
Tax delinquency

For example, does a wood-frame house make you think twice, or is it irrelevant if the numbers work?
Same with well/septic. Do you see that as a minor inconvenience, or does it move a lead lower on your list compared to a similar property on city utilities?
If you had a spreadsheet of 500+ leads and could only spend time researching a small percentage of them, what property characteristics would you use to narrow the list down?

Interested to hear what factors have actually mattered in your experience versus things that look important on paper but don’t really affect whether a deal gets done.

I’ve been revisiting my lead gen process for Hillsborough/Tampa and was curious how other investors are working code enforcement data.

Right now I’m pulling records directly from city/county sources, but the time spent filtering through noise is getting a little ridiculous. A lot of what I’m seeing is minor stuff that probably doesn’t mean much from a seller motivation standpoint.

A few things I’m curious about:

• Are you pulling the data yourself or using a third-party service?
• Which violations have actually produced real leads for you?
• Are you stacking code violations with tax delinquency, liens, etc?
• Do you mention the specific violation when reaching out, or keep the marketing more general?

Trying to figure out where the balance is between spending time scrubbing data and actually talking to motivated sellers.

Would love to hear what’s working for others in this market.