Zero Risk Real Estate: Creating Wealth Through Tax Liens and Tax Deeds

Filtering Your Data

So you have a list—now what do you do with it? You need to sift through it quickly. Multiple lists with hundreds of properties, with thousands of pieces of information, can very quickly become overwhelming. So the first step is to cut through the clutter right away, and focus on the gems that are in there.

First, narrow your criteria and searches by:

• Property type
• Estimated market value or assessed value
• Sale date
• County

Don’t get sidetracked, and keep your focus on deals that are within your geographic area. You might want to limit the number of properties you track if you are a new investor, in order to keep things manageable until you get the hang of the whole process.

Have an organized system for filing the lists, or use tracking software such as Excel. To make it simple, you may just want to concentrate on one list to start out. You will know when you are ready to expand your area or take on more information as you get the hang of it and get quicker at sifting through the data. To give you a better idea, I am able to cut down a list of 1,000 properties to 100 in less than 30 minutes.

Start by eliminating everything outside your target area, then cut out all the properties that do not fit your profile type or budget. Also eliminate the dogs in the list, such as teardowns, condemned homes, or inner-city properties. This way you avoid wasting time by focusing only on the necessary and relevant information for qualified properties. Let’s take a look at how ...