Real Estate Industry Solutions: Your List of Property Research Resources
If you work in the real estate industry, you know how time consuming property research can be. Not only do you have to find properties, but you also have to find a way to get in contact with owners.
Fortunately, there are a number of tools you can use to ease the property research process. Whether you are searching for new properties to invest in or new clients to assist with their own real estate goals, we’ve compiled a list of property research resources you can use to help get the information you need quickly.
How Searchbug can Help with Property Research
From building a list of leads to researching properties, there are tools you can use to both locate and validate data. Save time, prevent errors, and increase your sales volume.
First, if you’re a new agent, you need to establish a list of leads. Once you exhaust the list of all the people you know, you need to start finding names and numbers of people and businesses to add to your real estate lead database.
If you already have a list of properties, you need to know who owns the property and how to get in contact with the owner. Then, you need to keep up with that information as it may change from year to year.
Real estate investors, wholesalers, brokers, and agents can all benefit from generating new leads and locating property owner information. Build a lead database, validate leads, develop a customer database, locate important data, and validate data. Use the following tools to help.
1. USPS Address Lookup Tool
Searchbug’s USPS address lookup tool can help you build a prospecting list of addresses. The list building feature generates a list of valid USPS addresses. By entering a street name and zip code, you can get a list of all addresses on that street.
You can also use this tool to verify addresses. Just enter as much of the address as you have and search to verify that the address is valid and deliverable.
2. Reverse Address Lookup Tool
If you already have a list of addresses and want contact information for the owners or residents, you can use a reverse address lookup tool. This helps you get leads from addresses by providing you with the most recent name and phone number associated with an address.
You can also get complete contact details for previous residents. Or, you can search by the old address to find the new one. This tool works for individuals as well as businesses, so you aren’t limited to residential or commercial addresses.
3. Verify Phone Numbers in Bulk
If you already have a list of phone numbers for leads, you might need to verify them to make sure they are active. This will save you making calls to disconnected numbers.
Searchbug’s local number porting (LNP) tool allows you to upload an entire list of numbers to see which ones are active, which ones are cell phones or landlines, and which ones are on the Do-Not-Call (DNC) list. This lets you know which numbers you can text and which numbers you need to avoid calling. Calling numbers registered on the DNC list could cost you TCPA fines.
For individual numbers here and there, you can use a phone validator. Rather than upload an entire list, simply enter the phone number in question. Results include line type (landline, cell, VoIP), active status, carrier, and DNC list check.
4. Batch Append
Searchbug’s batch append tool adds contact data that might be missing from your list of leads. It also verifies your leads by identifying and adjusting invalid or incomplete data.
This way, you know for sure whether or not the phone numbers and email addresses on your list are active and usable. This can save you time by not having to manually comb through your contact lists or reach out to inactive numbers and email addresses. By verifying your list beforehand, you can be sure that the information you have is active and usable.
5. Reverse Phone Lookup
If you have phone numbers for potential clients and leads, you can use those numbers to get names and addresses for the owners. There are two service types:
The first service provides you with the most recent name and address for the phone number. In some cases, even an email address might be available. The second service provides a detailed history report. Results include details of current and previous phone owners. You can also use this service to search an old phone number and locate the current number.
If you have a list of phone numbers that you need names and details for, you can save yourself some time by uploading the entire list to do reverse phone lookup in a batch.
These tools are useful for completing contact profiles for phone numbers in your contact list, updating CRM data to maintain accurate lead information, and verifying that names and numbers submitted to you via web forms are correct.
6. SMS Text Messaging
Searchbug also offers SMS text messaging service. Enter the recipient’s phone number, type your message, and send! This allows you to quickly and easily send SMS messages to interested customers and/or leads. And recipients aren’t able to reply.
So if you want to send out updates, reminders, special events, deals, etc., SMS is more reliable than email or phone call. Emails can easily be overlooked and phone calls can be ignored. SMS messages are much more easily consumed and therefore more likely to be opened and read.
7. Municipal Lien Search
A municipal lien search can help you with your property research by finding out how badly leads need to sell their properties. This tool finds any reported bankruptcies, foreclosures, tax liens (city, county, state and federal), tax warrants, civil and federal judgments, notices of default, small claims, or suit filed against someone.
Just enter the information you have. You at least need the lead’s last name. Results include any reported bankruptcies or foreclosures; city, county, state and federal tax liens; civil and federal judgments, tax warrants, notice of defaults, small claims, or suit filed; debtor full name and addresses, filling type, judgement date and amount, county name and location.
Records are available after only two days of filing, so you get the most current information.
8. People Search
Use Searchbug’s people search tool to find someone or cross-reference information to verify a property owner and assist you with your property research. This tool allows you to quickly and easily find people by name.
Enter at least the subject’s last name to search. Results typically include full name, address, phone number, age or date of birth, marital status, relatives, and/or length of residence.
9. Property Records Search
Conducting a reverse address search for property records helps you evaluate properties and get owner information on potential inventory. Get all the record data for any real property including sale history for the property, title company and loan details, owner, buyer, and seller names, property size and type, assessed value, and tax and delinquency information.
Just enter the address and search to get a list of matching properties with current owner name and mailing address. Then, you can click “Order Details” to get the comprehensive property record details.
10. Zip Code Lookups
With a zip code lookup tool, you can search a city and a state to get house value information for entire zip codes. This allows you to identify areas with the most wholesale potential. You can gather information about any zip code including city, county, population, average house value, income per household, median age, and number of businesses in the area.
If you want to see all of the zip codes within the distance of a specific zip code, you can use the zip codes in a radius search. Just enter a zip code and a distance.
Finally, you can get a list of all of the zip codes within a county. All you need is the state and the county in question to search zip codes by county. Results include zip codes and associated cities.
11. Area Code Lookup
An area code lookup provides you with the area code for a certain city or the city associated with a certain area code. Enter an area code to see where that area code is used, or enter a city to see which area codes cover that city.
12. Verify Email Address Tool
Like phone numbers, email addresses need to be validated too. Email addresses can be mistyped, faked, or abandoned. Before you risk your sending reputation by sending messages to addresses that may or may not be valid, use an email address lookup.
You can enter the address in question, click verify, and get the status of the email address in seconds. This way you can be sure that the emails you send hit your recipients’ inboxes.
If you have an entire list of email addresses you need verified, don’t search them one by one. Upload the list using a bulk email verifier.
13. Email and Zip Code Verification APIs
XML or JSON APIs allow you to integrate search tools into your own website or application. This can save you time and money. You can choose from an email verification API, zip code to time zone API, zip code in radius API, or a combination. If you have other data needs, you can have a custom API developed for you.
Conclusion
By using one or more of these tools, you can discover information about specific properties, target areas, and even owners. Property research has never been easier. With so much technology at our fingertips, almost no information is undiscoverable. Take advantage of the tools and resources available to you so that you can spend your time and money on other areas. Leave the tedious details of property research to the internet. Click here to get names and numbers now.
