Montana Distressed Rental Finder: Motivated Seller Leads

Find duplexes, fourplexes and apartment buildings in Montana whose owners show signs they may want to sell: delinquent property taxes including tax liens sold under assignment (scaled to the size of the property), trustee or sheriff sales, recorded trustee-sale notices and lis pendens, open city code cases, long ownership, and absentee or out-of-state owners. Each lead gets a motivation score and the record ids behind its signals (parcel geocode, tax id, recorder document numbers, code case numbers), so you can verify it yourself in a few minutes.

Built for multifamily investors, wholesalers, acquisition analysts and lenders working Billings and Laurel (Yellowstone), Bozeman, Belgrade, Big Sky, Manhattan, Three Forks and West Yellowstone (Gallatin), and Livingston and Gardiner (Park).

• Parcel-centric and privacy-first. The output has no owner names and no mailing addresses. You get owner-type flags (individual / LLC-corp / trust-estate), absentee yes/no/unknown and out-of-state yes/no/unknown, plus the record ids to look each parcel up yourself. Rows never link to a page that shows owner names, mailing addresses or document parties: the only links are the Yellowstone treasurer tax page (no owner shown) and the public trustee and sheriff sale lists.
• One building, one lead. Parcels on the same street with the same owner, unit count and year built (for example two identical 6-plexes side by side) are merged into one lead, listed in merged_parcel_ids, and billed once. minUnits is applied after merging.
• Only official public sources: the Montana Department of Revenue CAMA database (ORION), Montana Cadastral, county treasurer delinquency lists, Billings code enforcement GIS, the county sheriff sale list, a foreclosure trustee's public sale list, and the Yellowstone Clerk & Recorder index. No listing sites.
• No blanks. If a value can't be determined from the public record, the field says unknown (with the reason where there is one) instead of being empty.
• Pay only for scored leads. Empty runs, filtered-out parcels and merged duplicates are free.

Try it free in 1 click

The input form is prefilled with a small, working example. Press Start without changing anything: the run returns the 20 highest-scoring distressed 2+ unit rentals in Yellowstone County (Billings and Laurel). Our test runs of this input finish in about 2 minutes. At $0.015 per lead that is $0.30, which fits inside the free monthly credit of Apify's free plan. Then pick another county, set Minimum units to 5 for apartment buildings only, or raise the score.

Prefilled input:

{
  "county": "Yellowstone",
  "minScore": 4,
  "maxResults": 20,
  "minUnits": 2
}

Sample output

Selected rows from cloud run R9lXDoACplEUx56Rf on build 1.0.15 (prefilled input, 2026-10-19); that run returned 20 leads, and these rows are a selection of them. Owner names are never output. "≥" means a minimum (see Years owned below).

Score	Address	City	Units	Built	Assessed $	Possibly mixed-use	Owner type	Absentee	Out of state	Yrs owned	Signals
8	720 N 25th St	Billings	2	1910	82,232	n/a (only assessed for 5+ units)	individual	yes	yes	16.2	Tax delinquent 2025 ($639 = 0.78% of value, high); open code case CE-24-03327; closed code case (24 mo, 0 points) CE20263265
7	213 S 30th St	Billings	3	1935	74,472	n/a (only assessed for 5+ units)	individual	yes	no	6.4	Tax delinquent 2024-2025 ($1,223 = 1.64% of value, severe); open code case CE-26-00132; closed code case (24 mo, 0 points) CE20261028, CE20262657
6	620 W Main St	Laurel	12	1949	640,300	no	individual	yes	no	10.7	Tax delinquent 2024-2025 ($6,235 = 0.97% of value, high)
5	315 S 29th St	Billings	16	1910	415,913	yes	individual	yes	no	4.9	Tax delinquent 2025 ($2,903 = 0.70% of value, high); incl. a tax lien sold under assignment; open code case CE-24-01542
5	1431 & 1441 Sourdough Ln	Billings	12	1977	1,215,600	no	individual	yes	no	≥19	Tax delinquent 2023-2024 ($16,067 = 1.32% of value, high); closed code case (24 mo, 0 points) CE-24-03482; 2 parcels merged, billed once
5	114 3rd Ave	Laurel	6	2020	991,900	yes	llc_corp	unknown	no	5.3	Tax delinquent 2023-2025 ($24,240 = 2.44% of value, severe)
4	936 Terry Ave	Billings	2	1925	252,306	n/a (only assessed for 5+ units)	individual	yes	no	4.9	trustee sale listed for 12/30/2026 (Halliday, Watkins & Mann file MT23184); trustee sale notice recorded 2026-08-25 (doc 4144306, legal-description match)

One full item (JSON, a merged two-parcel lead):

{
  "parcel_id": "03-1033-21-1-19-01-0000",
  "property_id": 212473,
  "tax_id": "A20893",
  "county": "Yellowstone",
  "state": "MT",
  "address": "1431 & 1441 Sourdough Ln",
  "address_raw": "1431 SOURDOUGH LN | 1441 SOURDOUGH LN",
  "city": "Billings",
  "units": 12,
  "size_class": "5+",
  "year_built": 1977,
  "assessed_value": 1215600,
  "property_type": "Apartment",
  "possible_mixed_use": "no",
  "owner_type": "individual",
  "absentee_owner": "yes",
  "out_of_state_owner": "no",
  "years_owned": 19,
  "years_owned_basis": "minimum: no deed on file with MT DOR; owner of record unchanged since the state's 2007 system conversion",
  "last_deed_date": "unknown (no deed on file; owner unchanged since 2007-11-06)",
  "last_deed_type": "unknown",
  "tax_delinquent": "yes",
  "tax_delinquent_years": [
    2023,
    2024
  ],
  "tax_delinquent_amount": 16067.09,
  "tax_delinquent_pct_of_value": 1.322,
  "tax_delinquency_tier": "high (0.5-1.5% of assessed value)",
  "code_case": "closed (24 mo)",
  "code_cases": [
    {
      "case_number": "CE-24-03482",
      "status": "closed",
      "case_status_detail": "Legacy Closed",
      "type": "Parking",
      "date_cited": "2024-12-10",
      "dangerous": false
    }
  ],
  "foreclosure_sale": "none",
  "recorded_distress_docs": [],
  "score": 5,
  "score_breakdown": {
    "tax_delinquent": 3,
    "tax_delinquent_multi_year": 1,
    "owned_10y": 1
  },
  "signals": [
    "TAX DELINQUENT 2023, 2024 $16,067 across 2 parcels = 1.32% of combined assessed value, high tier (excl. penalty & interest)",
    "closed code case (24 mo), display only, not scored: CE-24-03482 Parking",
    "long ownership at least 19 yrs",
    "merged 2 parcels on the same street with the same owner, units and year built into this one lead (charged once)"
  ],
  "source_links": [
    "https://www.yellowstonecountymt.gov/treasurer/propertysearch/csadelin.asp?propid=A20893",
    "https://www.yellowstonecountymt.gov/treasurer/propertysearch/csadelin.asp?propid=A20892"
  ],
  "verification_notes": [
    "parcel record: search geocode 03-1033-21-1-19-01-0000 on Montana Cadastral (Montana State Library); not linked because the parcel page shows the owner's name and mailing address",
    "code case: look up case CE-24-03482 with the City of Billings Code Enforcement Division (no link: the city's case pages show owner details)",
    "parcel record: search geocode 03-1033-21-1-19-02-0000 on Montana Cadastral (Montana State Library); not linked because the parcel page shows the owner's name and mailing address"
  ],
  "merged_parcel_ids": [
    "03-1033-21-1-19-01-0000",
    "03-1033-21-1-19-02-0000"
  ],
  "merged_parcels": [
    {
      "parcel_id": "03-1033-21-1-19-01-0000",
      "tax_id": "A20893",
      "address": "1431 Sourdough Ln",
      "units": 6,
      "assessed_value": 607800,
      "tax_delinquent_amount": 7906.86,
      "score": 5
    },
    {
      "parcel_id": "03-1033-21-1-19-02-0000",
      "tax_id": "A20892",
      "address": "1441 Sourdough Ln",
      "units": 6,
      "assessed_value": 607800,
      "tax_delinquent_amount": 8160.23,
      "score": 5
    }
  ],
  "parcel_count": 2,
  "data_as_of": {
    "orion_extract": "2026-10-15",
    "treasurer_list": "10/19/2026",
    "recorder_index": "2026-10-17",
    "tax_lien_assignments": "point-in-time snapshot taken 2026-10-18 (not refreshed automatically)",
    "run_date": "2026-10-19"
  }
}

Input

Field	Default	What it does
county	Yellowstone	Yellowstone (Billings, Laurel), Gallatin (Bozeman, Belgrade, Big Sky, Manhattan, Three Forks, West Yellowstone) or Park (Livingston, Gardiner).
minScore	4	Minimum motivation score (see Scoring). 7+ is a short, hot list. A live trustee or sheriff sale listing is returned at any score, and the run's status message says how many such leads came back below your minimum.
maxResults	20	Cap on returned leads, highest score first. 0 = all.
minUnits	2	2 = duplexes and up. 5 = apartment buildings with 5+ units only.
requireDistressSignal	true	Every lead has at least one hard signal: tax delinquency of at least 0.1% of assessed value, a foreclosure / sale listing, a recorded trustee notice / lis pendens / tax deed application, or an open code case. Closed code cases score 0 (display only) and token delinquencies (<0.1% of value) add 1 point but are not hard signals. A live trustee or sheriff sale qualifies a lead on its own. Turn it off to include soft-only leads (for example long-held + out-of-state).
onlyNewSinceLastRun	false	Skip parcels you already received for this county. Good for a weekly schedule, because you pay only for new leads.

Scoring

Points add up. A lead needs minScore points or more.

Signal	Points	Hard signal?	Counties
Delinquent tax ≥ 1.5% of assessed value (severe)	+4	yes	all 3
Delinquent tax 0.5–1.5% of assessed value (high)	+3	yes	all 3
Delinquent tax 0.1–0.5% of assessed value (moderate)	+2	yes	all 3
Delinquent tax under 0.1% of assessed value (token)	+1	no	all 3
Delinquent tax, assessed value unknown	+2	yes	all 3
More than one delinquent tax year (hard tiers only)	+1	–	all 3
Trustee or sheriff sale listed: only sales dated today or later (Montana time) and not marked cancelled, postponed, bankruptcy, completed or sold (qualifies on its own, whatever minScore)	+4	yes	all 3 (trustee list); Yellowstone sheriff list
Trustee sale notice, lis pendens or tax deed application recorded in the last 180 days, matched by legal description	+2 (not added on top of a sale listing)	yes	Yellowstone
Open code-enforcement case (+1 if flagged dangerous)	+2	yes	Billings city limits
Closed code case (24 mo): closed, cited in the last 24 months	0 (display only)	no	Billings city limits
Owned 20+ years / 10+ years	+2 / +1	no	all 3
Out-of-state owner / non-local Montana owner	+2 / +1	no	all 3
Estate or deceased indicator / trust owner	+2 / +1	no	all 3
Death, PR or distribution deed within 5 years	+1	no	all 3

Why tax tiers? Montana property tax runs roughly 0.8–1.2% of value a year, so a delinquency of 1.5% of value is more than a full year behind, while $498 owed on a $7.7M building is a rounding error. Balances under $250 are ignored. Tiers use the amount excluding penalty and interest, and match the treasurer's own totals (each tax year counted once). Tax liens the county has sold to a third party (assignments) are still unpaid taxes and are included; the signal says so. For merged leads the combined amount is compared with the combined assessed value.

Output fields

Field	Meaning
parcel_id, merged_parcel_ids, parcel_count, merged_parcels	Montana geocode of the lead; all parcels merged into it (with per-parcel units, value and delinquency)
address, address_raw	Readable address (e.g. 1512, 1542 & 1584 Governors Blvd) and the address exactly as on the state record (1512,42,84 GOVERNORS BLVD)
city, county, state, tax_id, property_id, property_type	Location and record ids. Where Montana Cadastral lists no city for an address, city is taken from the parcel's levy district (the city nearly all other parcels in that district name) and verification_notes says so
possible_mixed_use	Assessed only for leads with 5+ units (after merging). yes when Montana Cadastral classes the parcel as generic Improved Property rather than Apartment, so the building may be mixed-use (for example shops below apartments); no for Apartment and other residential types; unknown when Cadastral has no type. 2–4 unit leads read n/a (only assessed for 5+ units), because Improved Property is the normal type for small rentals
units, size_class, year_built, assessed_value	Building profile (summed across merged parcels)
owner_type, absentee_owner, out_of_state_owner	individual / llc_corp / trust_estate / unknown; yes / no / unknown
years_owned, years_owned_basis, last_deed_date, last_deed_type	Ownership length and how it was determined. When the state deed table has a deed date but no document type, last_deed_type says so and verification_notes gives the deed's document number or book/page
tax_delinquent, tax_delinquent_years, tax_delinquent_amount, tax_delinquent_pct_of_value, tax_delinquency_tier	Delinquency and its tier
code_case, code_cases	open / open-dangerous / closed (24 mo) / none; each case with number, status, type and date cited. Not linked, because the city's case pages show owner names and mailing addresses
foreclosure_sale	Sheriff or trustee sale listing, or none
recorded_distress_docs	Type, document number, recording date and a lookup note. Not linked, because recorded documents name the parties
score, score_breakdown, signals	Score, points per signal, readable signal list
source_links, verification_notes	Links only to official pages that show no owner names (Yellowstone treasurer tax page, trustee / sheriff sale lists); everything else as a plain-text lookup reference: the geocode for Montana Cadastral, the tax id for the county treasurer, document numbers for the recorder, case numbers for the city
data_as_of	Freshness of each source: ORION snapshot, treasurer list date (treasurer_list; for Gallatin and Park the date printed on the county's latest published list), whether the listed delinquency was re-checked on the county tax page (treasurer_current_status, Gallatin and Park), and the date of the tax-lien assignment snapshot (tax_lien_assignments)

The STATS record in the key-value store shows each source's status and row count for the run.

Verifying a lead

• Code cases are not linked: the City of Billings case pages show the owner's name and mailing address. verification_notes lists the case numbers; look them up with the City of Billings Code Enforcement Division.
• Recorded documents are attached only when the document's recorded legal description (subdivision + block + lot) names the parcel. Documents with a truncated or unit-only legal description are left out rather than guessed. They are not linked, because recorded documents name the parties. Each entry gives the document number and recording date with a lookup note: search that number in the Yellowstone County Clerk & Recorder's free guest search (Public/Guest Login).
• Parcel record: verification_notes gives the parcel geocode to search on Montana Cadastral (Montana State Library). Not linked, because the parcel page shows the owner's name and mailing address.
• Treasurer: Yellowstone rows link to the county's parcel tax page, which shows taxes due but no owner. Gallatin and Park rows are not linked, because the county iTax page shows the owner's name and mailing address; verification_notes gives the tax id to look up on the county treasurer's online tax search.
• Sale listings (sheriff and trustee) link to the public list, where you find the address; the sheriff's per-sale notices name the parties and are not linked. We never link a homepage in place of a record.

unknown values and years owned

• years_owned is the time since the last recorded deed (years_owned_basis: "since last recorded deed").
• Some long-held parcels have no deed in the state database at all, because the owner of record hasn't changed since Montana's 2007 system conversion. For these, years_owned is a minimum (time since 2007-11-06), the basis says so, and last_deed_date reads unknown (no deed on file; owner unchanged since 2007-11-06). The real ownership is usually longer.
• Where neither is available, the field is unknown. The same applies to absentee / out-of-state (missing mailing address), year built, assessed value and city.

Pricing

Pay per event: $0.015 per scored lead. A lead is one de-duplicated building (one parcel, or several merged same-owner parcels on one street) that passes your filters. Runs that return nothing cost nothing. Use Max results or Apify's maximum charge per run to cap your spend; the run stops cleanly at your limit.

Data sources, freshness and terms

Source	Used for	Refreshed
MT Dept. of Revenue ORION CAMA database (public download)	Units, year built, last deed date and type	Snapshot as of 2026-10-15 (the state's ORION refresh date, all 3 counties), built into the Actor; rebuilt by hand, not on a schedule
Montana Cadastral (ArcGIS REST, public)	Property address, assessed value, owner-type, absentee and out-of-state flags	Live, every run
Yellowstone Co. Treasurer delinquent lists	Tax delinquency (years and amount)	Live, every run (the list's own date is in data_as_of.treasurer_list)
Yellowstone Co. Treasurer parcel tax pages	Tax liens sold under assignment (not on the delinquent lists)	Point-in-time snapshot taken 2026-10-18 (608 parcels checked, paced at 10 s per page), built into the Actor and not refreshed automatically; the date is in each row's data_as_of.tax_lien_assignments
Gallatin Co. Treasurer delinquent list (lien-attachment PDF)	Tax delinquency	The county's latest published list, downloaded every run; Gallatin publishes it about once a year. The date of the list used is shown on every row in data_as_of.treasurer_list. The current tax year is re-checked per parcel on the county's iTax page (see Limitations)
Park Co. Treasurer delinquent tax list (PDF)	Tax delinquency	The county's latest published list, downloaded every run. The date of the list used is shown on every row in data_as_of.treasurer_list. The current tax year is re-checked per parcel on the county's iTax page (see Limitations)
Halliday, Watkins & Mann public sale list (MT)	Trustee and foreclosure sales	Live; only sales dated today or later (Montana time) and not marked cancelled / postponed / sold / bankruptcy count
Yellowstone Co. Sheriff sales	Sheriff sales	Live; cancelled, postponed, bankruptcy-stayed, completed (sold) and past sales are skipped (dates in Montana time)
City of Billings code enforcement GIS	Open code cases and cases closed in the last 24 months	Live
Yellowstone Clerk & Recorder guest index	Trustee sale notices, lis pendens, tax deed applications (index with legal descriptions)	Snapshot of the index as of 2026-10-17 (one guest search), built into the Actor; not refreshed automatically. This Actor never queries the recorder itself.

Every source is free and public. We pace requests: 10 seconds between county website requests, per the county's robots.txt. No listing sites (Zillow, LoopNet, Crexi) are used.

Limitations

• Years owned resets on any recorded deed, including a family quitclaim or a transfer into an LLC.
• Recorded documents are matched by legal description only, so a notice whose index entry is truncated or lists only condo units is not attached even when it concerns the building.
• Tax-lien assignments (Yellowstone) come from a point-in-time snapshot taken 2026-10-18 (not refreshed automatically) covering every 5+ unit parcel, plus 2–4 unit parcels with an open Billings code case, a sale listing or a recorded notice. A 2–4 unit parcel whose only distress is an assigned lien can be missed, and a lien redeemed since the snapshot can still show.
• Mobile home / RV parks and non-valued or exempt parcels are excluded: this is a list of rental buildings.
• Parcels without a property address (Montana Cadastral has no situs address for them) are never returned or billed, even when they qualify; the run's STATS record counts them under skipped_no_address and the status message mentions them.
• Possible mixed-use is assessed for 5+ unit leads only. Montana Cadastral uses the generic type Improved Property for most small rentals and for mixed-use buildings alike, so on a 5+ unit lead possible_mixed_use: yes means "check the building", not "is commercial". Unit counts are residential units from the state database.
• Deed type: for some deeds (mostly before 2008) the state deed table has a date but no document type; last_deed_type then reads unknown (...).
• Code cases are available only inside Billings city limits. Recorded documents are available only for Yellowstone County.
• Gallatin and Park lists are dated (Gallatin: the August lien list; Park: the latest list the county has posted; the date is on every row in data_as_of.treasurer_list). During the run each lead is re-checked on the county's per-parcel iTax page, which shows only the current tax year:
  • The current tax year, if it is on the list, is confirmed or corrected from the county page: paid → removed; re-billed lower or part paid → reduced, and the signal states the page's bill, any payment and the list amount (for example "2025 bill on county page is $X (list showed $Y), nothing paid"). The lead is then re-scored. A lead is dropped (not returned, not billed) when nothing scorable is left owing (counted as dropped_paid in STATS), or when it still owes but falls below minScore after the correction (counted separately as dropped_below_min_score_after_recheck).
  • Earlier years on the list can't be seen on that page. They are kept at the list amount and labelled not checked (as of the list date) in the signal and in data_as_of.treasurer_current_status.
  • If the page's tax year is not on the list at all (for example after the county page rolls over to the next tax year, before the county posts a new list), nothing can be confirmed: the row keeps the list amounts and is labelled current status not checked.
  • Leads past maxResults are never re-checked, returned or billed; the status message reports them as "N more past maxResults, not checked or billed" rather than as matches.
  • Rows that could not be re-checked (page unreachable, check budget used, or the page's year not on the list) are still returned and billed, labelled current status not checked. They are real listed delinquencies, just not re-confirmed; use data_as_of.treasurer_current_status to filter them out if you only want re-checked rows.
• This is research data. Follow federal and state rules (including do-not-call and do-not-mail obligations) before you contact anyone.

FAQ

Why are there no owner names? By design. Each row gives the parcel geocode and tax id, so you can look up the current owner of record yourself on Montana Cadastral or the county treasurer. The Yellowstone treasurer page linked from a row shows taxes only, not the owner. That keeps this dataset parcel-focused while pointing you to the authoritative record.

Why did two addresses come back as one lead? They are parcels on the same street with the same owner, units and year built, i.e. one property in practice. You are billed once; every parcel id is in merged_parcel_ids.

More counties? Missoula, Flathead, Cascade and Lewis & Clark are next. Each needs a public treasurer delinquency source; see the Issues tab to request one.

Support: open an issue on the Actor's Issues tab. GM Labs replies within 48 hours.