Distressed Property Scraper — Tax Delinquent & Pre-Foreclosure

Distressed Property AI Scraper turns every public distress signal into clean motivated seller leads — a tax delinquent properties list, pre-foreclosure list, sheriff sale list, code violations, and probate leads — fused per property, scored, and enriched to a callable owner.

Pull a tax delinquent properties list, a pre-foreclosure list, a sheriff sale list, a tax lien properties list, code violations, vacant property registries, and probate filings from official county and city sources across 17+ US metros. The Actor deduplicates every signal onto one property, computes a DISTRESS-SCORE, and optionally does skip tracing to find the owner's phone — giving real estate wholesalers and fix-and-flip investors a motivated seller lead list that rivals PropStream credits at a fraction of the cost.

It's a real PropStream alternative / API for the automation buyer: pulled direct from county and city open data (Socrata SODA, ArcGIS REST, county recorder feeds), not a reseller feed that can vanish or raise prices.

What does Distressed Property AI Scraper do?

It scrapes pre-public distress triggers, fuses them per property, and scores motivation. Pick the mode that matches the list you want:

Lead list you want	Mode to start with	What you get
Tax delinquent properties list / tax lien properties list	tax_delinquent	Unpaid-tax & tax-lien parcel rows by county
Pre-foreclosure list	pre_foreclosure	Notice-of-default rows from the county recorder
Sheriff sale list / trustee sale list / foreclosure auction list	foreclosure_auctions	Sheriff & trustee sale dates and parcels
Code violation property list	code_violations	Address + violation type, 13–17 metros
Vacant property list / condemned property list	vacant_registry	Registered vacant / blighted / condemned parcels
Probate leads (real estate)	probate_filings	Decedent + parcel from county probate
Absentee owner list	absentee_owner	Deed-vs-mailing mismatch owners
High equity property list	high_equity	Assessment-vs-mortgage equity headroom
Fused distress score	distress_match	One row per property, all stacked signals, scored
Enriched callable lead	enriched_lead	Distress match + owner name, mailing, phone

All data is pulled direct from free public sources — Socrata SODA, ArcGIS REST, county recorder feeds — not from a reseller that can vanish or raise prices.

Why use this motivated seller leads scraper?

• Beat the market. Catch motivated sellers before they list publicly. Tax-delinquent, pre-foreclosure, and sheriff-sale owners are weeks to months ahead of the MLS.
• One API, every trigger. Tax delinquent list + tax liens + code violations + vacant property list + pre-foreclosure + probate, all in one run. No juggling five subscriptions.
• The fusion moat. Other tools dump raw events. This Actor deduplicates signals onto a single parcel key and hands you a ranked distress score — so your dialer works the hottest leads first.
• Built-in skip tracing for real estate. Optionally enrich any distress match to a callable owner phone and mailing address — no separate skip-trace subscription.
• Price vs incumbents. $0.06 per enriched lead (owner + phone) vs $0.12+ per PropStream credit. First 20 result rows per run are always free.
• AI-first output. Clean structured JSON with a distress score, ready for a wholesaler's dialer, an LLM workflow, or a spreadsheet.
• No reseller dependency. Data is fetched directly from official city/county open-data portals — a true source-direct PropStream alternative, not a third-party feed that can vanish.

Who is this for?

Persona	Best modes
P1 — Real estate wholesalers (wholesale real estate leads)	enriched_lead, distress_match, pre_foreclosure, tax_delinquent, probate_filings
P2 — Fix-and-flip / buy-and-hold investors	distress_match, code_violations, vacant_registry, high_equity, absentee_owner

How to use Distressed Property AI Scraper

1. Open the Actor on Apify and click Try for free.
2. Pick a mode: start with code_violations or tax_delinquent for the fastest signal.
3. Set cities (e.g. ["Chicago", "Philadelphia"]) or counties for county-based modes.
4. For enriched_lead, provide a skip-trace Actor ID or API key in the input.
5. Click Save & Start and download results from the Output tab.

Quickest first test: leave the default mode as code_violations, set cities to ["Chicago"], and run. You'll get signal rows in under 2 minutes.

Input example

{
  "mode": "distress_match",
  "cities": ["Chicago", "Philadelphia"],
  "signals": ["code_violations", "tax_delinquent", "vacant_registry"],
  "output_format": "json"
}

For enriched leads with skip tracing:

{
  "mode": "enriched_lead",
  "cities": ["Chicago"],
  "skip_trace_actor_id": "YOUR_SKIP_TRACE_ACTOR_ID",
  "output_format": "json"
}

Output

signal_record (raw distress signal)

{
  "sha256": "a3f9c1...",
  "mode": "code_violations",
  "parcel_key": "1420-N-CLARK-ST-CHICAGO-IL-60610",
  "address": "1420 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60610",
  "signal_date": "2026-05-01",
  "payload": {
    "violation_type": "FAILED EXTERIOR",
    "status": "OPEN",
    "source": "chicago_socrata",
    "dataset_id": "wvhk-k5uv"
  }
}

distress_match (fused + scored)

{
  "sha256": "b7d2e8...",
  "mode": "distress_match",
  "parcel_key": "1420-N-CLARK-ST-CHICAGO-IL-60610",
  "address": "1420 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60610",
  "signal_date": "2026-05-01",
  "payload": {
    "distress_score": 7.4,
    "signal_count": 3,
    "signals": ["code_violations", "tax_delinquent", "vacant_registry"],
    "absentee_owner": true,
    "days_since_oldest_signal": 42
  }
}

enriched_lead (callable owner)

{
  "sha256": "c9a4f2...",
  "mode": "enriched_lead",
  "parcel_key": "1420-N-CLARK-ST-CHICAGO-IL-60610",
  "address": "1420 N Clark St, Chicago, IL 60610",
  "signal_date": "2026-05-01",
  "payload": {
    "distress_score": 7.4,
    "signal_count": 3,
    "signals": ["code_violations", "tax_delinquent", "vacant_registry"],
    "owner_name": "JAMES R EXAMPLE",
    "owner_mailing": "500 W Madison St, Chicago, IL 60661",
    "phone": "+13125550123",
    "absentee_owner": true
  }
}

You can download results as JSON, CSV, Excel, or NDJSON. JSON streams to the Apify dataset; other formats are saved as files in the key-value store.

Data fields

Field	Meaning
sha256	Stable fingerprint per record — use for change detection between runs
mode	The signal or composite mode that produced this row
parcel_key	Normalized USPS Pub-28 address key — stable dedup identifier across sources
address	Raw address string from the source
signal_date	Date the signal was recorded at the source
payload.distress_score	Computed DISTRESS-SCORE (see explainer below) — only on distress_match / enriched_lead
payload.signal_count	Number of distinct distress signals stacked on this parcel
payload.signals	List of signal modes that fired on this parcel
payload.owner_name	Skip-traced owner name — only on enriched_lead
payload.phone	Skip-traced phone number — only on enriched_lead

DISTRESS-SCORE explainer

The DISTRESS-SCORE is a weighted sum of all signals stacked on one parcel, with owner-state multipliers.

Signal weights (additive):

Signal	Base weight	Why
tax_delinquent	3.0	Financial default — highest urgency
pre_foreclosure	3.0	Active foreclosure timeline — time-critical
foreclosure_auctions	2.5	Sheriff/trustee sale date set — near-term forced sale
probate_filings	2.0	Estate/heir — motivated to liquidate
code_violations	1.5	Deferred maintenance — can't or won't fix
vacant_registry	1.5	Abandoned / blighted — owner disengaged
demolition_permits	1.0	City has given up — owner likely motivated

Owner-state multipliers:

Condition	Multiplier
absentee_owner (deed vs mailing mismatch)	×1.3
high_equity (assessment vs mortgage headroom)	×1.2

Score = sum of signal weights × applicable multipliers. A Chicago property with tax_delinquent + code_violations + vacant_registry and an absentee owner scores (3.0 + 1.5 + 1.5) × 1.3 = 7.8.

Scores above 5 are strong leads for a wholesaler's dialer. Scores above 8 suggest multiple financial defaults — prioritize these.

PropStream alternative: vs PropStream, BatchLeads & DealMachine

Looking for a PropStream alternative, a PropStream API, or a BatchLeads / DealMachine alternative you can automate? This Actor steals the enterprise vocabulary — motivated seller, distress signals, skip trace, absentee owner, high equity — and undercuts on per-lead price with a pure API.

	This Actor	PropStream	BatchLeads	DealMachine
Access	API-first (Apify)	Web app + limited API	Web app + API	App (driving for dollars)
Pricing	$0.06 / enriched lead, 20 free/run	~$100/mo seat + credits	~$100/mo + skip credits	~$60–120/mo + credits
Data source	Source-direct county/city open data	Aggregated third-party feed	Aggregated feed	Aggregated feed
Cross-signal fusion	Yes — scored distress match	No (filter flags)	No	No
Pre-public triggers	Yes (tax, NOD, probate, sheriff sale)	Partial	Partial	Limited

Why it wins: PropStream charges $0.12+ per phone-enriched lead on credits; this Actor delivers the same callable lead for $0.06, source-direct, on your own schedule and format. No seat fee, no monthly minimum.

How much does it cost to pull motivated seller leads?

This Actor uses pay-per-event pricing. The first 20 result rows per run are free.

Output type	Price per row	What you get
Raw signal record	$0.002	One address + signal event
Owner attribute	$0.003	Absentee owner / high-equity flag
Distress match (fused)	$0.02	One property, all signals stacked, scored
Enriched lead (callable)	$0.06	Distress match + owner name, mailing, phone

vs PropStream credits: PropStream charges $0.12+ per phone-enriched lead. This Actor delivers the same callable lead for $0.06 — and you control the data source, schedule, and format.

For full pricing, check the Pricing tab on the Actor page.

Tips for best results

• Start with code_violations in Chicago — dense, daily-updated, fast to verify.
• Run distress_match before enriched_lead — filter by distress_score > 4 before paying for skip tracing.
• For county modes (pre_foreclosure, tax_delinquent, foreclosure_auctions), the quality varies by county. NYC, Cook County (Chicago), and Philadelphia are the most reliable starting points.
• Use output_format: "csv" to open results directly in Excel or import to your dialer.

Use from Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("dominvo/distressed-property-ai-scraper").call(run_input={
    "mode": "distress_match",
    "cities": ["Chicago"],
    "signals": ["code_violations", "tax_delinquent"],
})

for row in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(row["payload"]["distress_score"], row["address"])

FCRA Disclaimer

This Actor is intended for making real estate purchase offers and investment research only.

Data from this Actor may NOT be used for:

• Tenant screening or rental decisions
• Credit decisions or creditworthiness evaluation
• Employment screening or background checks
• Any other purpose regulated by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq.

Using this data for FCRA-regulated purposes without complying with FCRA requirements is illegal. You are solely responsible for your use of the output.

FAQ and support

Is this a PropStream alternative?

Yes — it's a source-direct, API-first PropStream alternative for the automation buyer. Instead of a monthly seat plus credits, you pay per result ($0.06 per enriched lead) and pull data straight from county/city open-data portals. It also serves as a PropStream API, BatchLeads API, or DealMachine alternative for anyone who wants motivated seller leads inside their own workflow.

Is this legal to use?

The source data is pulled from official public government portals (city open-data APIs, county recorder sites). Accessing public records for investment research is legal in the US. You are responsible for how you use the results — see the FCRA disclaimer above.

Does this scrape PropStream or BatchLeads?

No. Data is pulled directly from official city/county open-data sources (Socrata, ArcGIS, county recorder feeds). No third-party reseller is involved.

Which cities and counties are covered?

Socrata cities: NYC, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth, San Francisco, Seattle. ArcGIS cities: San Jose, Columbus, Charlotte, Indianapolis, Washington DC, Philadelphia. County modes (pre_foreclosure, tax_delinquent, foreclosure_auctions, probate_filings) coverage varies — NYC, Cook County (Chicago), and Philadelphia are the gold tier with most reliable data.

What is skip tracing and why is it separate?

Skip tracing is the process of finding a property owner's phone number and mailing address from public deed/assessment records. It requires a paid third-party API. This Actor isolates skip tracing behind the enriched_lead mode — you only pay for it when you need a callable number, not for every raw signal.

Can I schedule a daily tax delinquent or pre-foreclosure list?

Yes. Use Apify schedules to run the Actor daily, weekly, or on any cron. Each record carries a stable SHA-256 fingerprint, so you can dedupe against your prior pulls on your side.

Where do I get help?

Open the Issues tab on the Actor page for bugs, missing cities, or feature requests.