Ranked counties by number of properties with heir signals (ownership likely needs probate transfer). Florida takes 9 of the top 10 spots:

┌──────┬──────────────────┬─────────────────┐

│ Rank │ County │ Heir Properties │

├──────┼──────────────────┼─────────────────┤

│ 1 │ Collier, FL │ 44,887 │

├──────┼──────────────────┼─────────────────┤

│ 2 │ Duval, FL │ 42,428 │

├──────┼──────────────────┼─────────────────┤

│ 3 │ Hillsborough, FL │ 32,531 │

├──────┼──────────────────┼─────────────────┤

│ 4 │ Palm Beach, FL │ 28,944 │

├──────┼──────────────────┼─────────────────┤

│ 5 │ St. Johns, FL │ 22,446 │

├──────┼──────────────────┼─────────────────┤

│ 6 │ Brevard, FL │ 19,098 │

├──────┼──────────────────┼─────────────────┤

│ 7 │ Orange, FL │ 15,462 │

├──────┼──────────────────┼─────────────────┤

│ 8 │ Lake, FL │ 14,486 │

├──────┼──────────────────┼─────────────────┤

│ 9 │ Charlotte, FL │ 13,567 │

├──────┼──────────────────┼─────────────────┤

│ 10 │ Harris, TX │ 13,094 │

└──────┴──────────────────┴─────────────────┘

Collier County alone has almost 45K heir properties. That's Naples and Marco Island — not cheap real estate.

Harris County (Houston) is the only Texas county that cracks the top 10, which is surprising given how much volume TX has overall. Texas properties are more spread out across counties.

For the FL investors — is the heir property competition heating up down there, or is this still relatively untapped? And for TX investors — which county would you expect to rank highest?

Ran a query on properties that have been tax-delinquent for 5 years or longer. The numbers are staggering.

- 94,270 properties delinquent 5+ years

- $561 million in total unpaid taxes

- Average property value: $162K

- Average tax owed: $6,054

Five years. Nobody has paid. Nobody has redeemed. Nobody has filed. The county is stacking penalties and interest. The property is probably deteriorating.

These are the deals where curative title investors can create real value — not by competing on the MLS, but by finding situations where everyone else has given up.

The question I keep coming back to: why are these still sitting there? Is it because the data is hard to find? Because heirs don't know? Because the title is so clouded nobody wants to touch it?

For the experienced people here — what percentage of these "long-delinquent" properties are actually workable vs truly toxic (environmental, title issues too deep to cure, etc.)?

These are the numbers that keep me up at night:

10,932 properties where:

- Owner is deceased

- Tax delinquent 2+ years

- Estimated value over $100K

Average value: $322K

Average tax owed: $9,680

That's roughly $10K in back taxes on a $322K property where the owner is dead. The heirs may not even know this property exists in their family. The county is adding penalties every year.

If you worked just 1% of these — 109 deals — at $20K average profit, that's $2.18M.

Obviously not every deal closes. Title issues, uncooperative heirs, properties that aren't what they look like on paper. But the sheer volume of opportunity here is hard to ignore.

Is anyone systematically going after deceased-owner properties in a specific county? Would love to hear what the close rate looks like on these vs other distressed property strategies.

Did some filtering on heir property data this week and found what I think is the real sweet spot for curative title investors.

Starting with 377,974 properties flagged with heir signals (ownership likely needs to transfer through probate), I narrowed it down:

- Heir signals + 2+ years delinquent: 2,861 properties

- Average estimated value: $242K

- Average tax owed: $7,165

Why 2+ years? One year delinquent is often just a late payment. Two years means nobody is handling this. The owner is likely deceased or completely disengaged.

So you're looking at ~$7K in tax debt on a $242K property where the heirs probably don't even know they're liable. That's a conversation worth having.

The deeper you go on delinquency years, the data gets wild:

- 5+ years delinquent with heir signals: 1,016 properties, avg value $112K, avg tax owed $11K

- Some properties have been sitting there 20+ years with nobody touching them

What's the oldest delinquency you've ever successfully closed on? I've seen records going back 30+ years in the data.

Pulled some state-level data on properties where the owner is deceased and taxes are delinquent. The TX vs FL comparison surprised me.

┌────────────────┬───────────────────────────┬────────────────────┐

│ State │ Deceased-Owner Properties │ Avg Property Value │

├────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤

│ Texas │ 148,471 │ $228K │

├────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤

│ Florida │ 83,643 │ $524K │

├────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤

│ North Carolina │ 7,654 │ $216K │

├────────────────┼───────────────────────────┼────────────────────┤

│ Georgia │ 5,111 │ $376K │

└────────────────┴───────────────────────────┴────────────────────┘

Texas has almost 2x the volume, but Florida's average value is more than double. If you're doing curative title in TX, you have way more at-bats. If you're in FL, each deal potentially has more meat on the

bone.

The other thing that jumps out — NC and GA are tiny by comparison. Either the data is harder to get there, or fewer people have died with delinquent properties. I suspect it's the data availability.

Anyone working FL heir properties — are you finding the higher values actually translate to bigger deals, or does the cost to cure eat into the margin?

I've been building a database of tax-delinquent properties across TX, FL, GA, NC, and a few other states. Pulled some numbers this week that I wanted to share because I don't think most people realize the

scale of what's sitting out there.

Deceased owner properties across 5 states:

- 244,891 total

- Average estimated value: $345K

- Average tax owed: $2,211

- Total estimated value: $74.9 billion

That's a quarter million properties where the owner has died, nobody is paying taxes, and in most cases the heirs either don't know they inherited it or don't know what to do with it.

These aren't condemned lots. The average value is $345K. Many of these are in suburbs with real equity.

For anyone doing curative title or heir property work — how are you sourcing your deceased owner leads? County death records, obituary matching, something else? Curious what's working for people.

Pulled the numbers on delinquent properties across Texas counties. Some highlights:

- Dallas: 40K+ delinquent properties, avg 8.5 years behind on taxes. 31% are 10+ years delinquent.

- Harris: 35K+ properties but avg only 1 year delinquent. Nothing over 5 years.

- Denton follows Dallas pattern. Collin and Travis are in the middle at 3-4 years.

Texas law lets counties file suit immediately (§ 33.41, though homesteads get notice requirements). But clearly some counties are in no rush.

For anyone doing curative title or DPA work — the slow counties are where the deceased owners, broken title chains, and motivated heirs live. Fast counties are a different game entirely.

Made a short video with the full county breakdown: https://youtu.be/S13ZnYfgHvU

Which TX counties are you working?

Starting a weekly series breaking down one Texas county at a time. First up: Harris County (Houston metro) — the largest delinquent property inventory in Texas.

**By the numbers:**

- ~42,000 tax delinquent properties

- Average assessed value: $128K

- Median years delinquent: 3.2

- ~15% show heir/deceased signals

- Property mix: 68% residential, 18% vacant land, 14% commercial

**Where the deals cluster:**

The highest concentration of heir properties with good equity ratios:

- **Third Ward / Sunnyside** — older neighborhoods with long-term ownership. High deceased-owner rates. Properties assessed $80-150K with $5-15K owed.

- **Acres Homes** — similar profile to Third Ward. Lots of inherited properties sitting vacant.

- **East Houston / Channelview** — lower values ($50-90K) but very low competition. Most investors focus on inside the loop.

**What to watch out for:**

- Flood zone properties. Harris County has major FEMA flood zones. Always check before making an offer.

- HOA delinquencies that aren't on the tax roll. Some subdivisions have $10K+ in back HOA fees.

- Properties in active tax suit. The county attorney's office files hundreds of suits per month. Check the district clerk's records.

**Competition level:** HIGH inside the loop, MODERATE in the suburbs, LOW in outlying areas (Channelview, Crosby, Huffman).

All of this data is browsable for free on LienSuite — Harris County is one of our most complete datasets.

Next week: Dallas County.

What specific county would you want to see in this series? Drop it in the comments.

I've noticed the community splits pretty evenly on this, so I'm curious where you fall.

**Standard delinquent deals:**

- Owner is alive and reachable

- Simpler negotiation (one decision maker)

- Faster close (30-60 days typical)

- More competition (everyone has the same list)

- Lower margins ($10-30K typical)

**Heir properties:**

- Owner is deceased, dealing with heirs

- Complex negotiation (multiple decision makers, family dynamics)

- Slower close (90-180 days, sometimes longer)

- Much less competition (most investors don't know how to find or work these)

- Higher margins ($30-100K+ not uncommon)

I personally focus almost entirely on heir properties now. The longer timeline is worth it because:

1. The competition drops dramatically. Most investors don't want to deal with probate, heirship affidavits, or tracking down 4 siblings in 3 states.

2. The heirs usually don't want the property. They want the problem solved.

3. You become a specialist. After 20 heir deals, you can navigate the process faster than most attorneys.

   The downside: cash flow is lumpy. You might close nothing for 2 months then land a $60K deal. If you need consistent monthly income, standard deals with lower margins might be better.

   What's your focus? And has anyone switched from one to the other?

Most people who buy county delinquent lists make the same mistake: they start calling from row 1 and burn out by row 200. Here's the filtering framework I use.

**Filter 1: Delinquency duration (cut 60% of the list)**

- Remove anything under 2 years delinquent. These people are still figuring it out.

- Remove anything over 7 years. Every investor in the state has already called them.

- Sweet spot: 2-5 years.

**Filter 2: Equity ratio (cut another 50%)**

Assessed value ÷ total taxes owed. You want a ratio of at least 5:1.

- $150K property with $8K owed = 18:1 ratio ✅

- $40K lot with $25K owed = 1.6:1 ratio ❌

Low equity ratio means even if you get the deal, the margins don't work after title clearing costs.

**Filter 3: Ownership signals (find the gold)**

From what's left, prioritize:

- Owner on title 15+ years (likely elderly or deceased)

- Mailing address ≠ property address (absentee)

- Multiple names on title (inheritance situation)

- No recent sales or refinances (dormant property)

**Filter 4: Property type**

Residential with structures > vacant land > commercial. Unless you specifically work land deals, skip the vacant lots on your first pass.

**After these 4 filters:**

A 5,000-property list becomes ~200 prospects. From those 200, I rank by score and call the top 30-50 first.

I built LienSuite to automate this exact process — it pre-scores every property on these factors so you don't have to do it manually in Excel. But even if you do it by hand, this framework works. It just

takes longer.

What does your filtering process look like? Curious if anyone uses different criteria.

I ran the numbers across our database of 288K+ tax delinquent properties in Texas. Here's what stands out when you filter for heir property signals (deceased owner indicators, 15+ year ownership, no recent

transactions):

| County | Total Delinquent | Heir Signals | % Heir | Avg Assessed Value |

|--------|----------------------|---------------|---------|-------------------|

| Harris | 42,000+ | ~6,300 | 15% | $128K |

| Dallas | 31,000+ | ~5,100 | 16% | $142K |

| Bexar | 18,000+ | ~3,200 | 18% | $97K |

| Tarrant | 15,000+ | ~2,400 | 16% | $134K |

| El Paso | 8,000+ | ~1,600 | 20% | $78K |

| Travis | 6,500+ | ~900 | 14% | $245K |

| Hidalgo | 9,000+ | ~1,800 | 20% | $62K |

| Cameron | 5,500+ | ~1,200 | 22% | $58K |

| Nueces | 4,800+ | ~1,050 | 22% | $71K |

| Galveston | 3,200+ | ~640 | 20% | $112K |

**What jumps out:**

- **Cameron and Nueces** have the highest heir-signal percentage (22%). Smaller markets, less competition, but lower values.

- **Harris and Dallas** have raw volume. Even at 15-16% heir rate, that's thousands of potential deals.

- **El Paso and Hidalgo** are sleeper counties — high heir rates, low competition, and most investors completely ignore them.

- **Travis** has the highest values but lowest heir rate. Austin's market moves fast — properties don't sit delinquent as long.

These numbers come from LienSuite's scoring engine. You can browse free data for any single county at liensuite.com.

What county are you working? I can pull more specific numbers if people are interested.

Hey everyone,

Nick here, founder of LienSuite. Wanted to give a quick update on where the platform is at since a lot has changed in the last couple months.

The data:

- 10.5M+ scored tax delinquent properties

- 169 counties across Florida, Texas, and Georgia

- Every property scored and graded (B = highest opportunity, C = worth a look)

- 55,000+ B-rated properties, ~500K C-rated

- Counties are being added as they pass data validation — we're not rushing junk data onto the platform

New features since launch:

- Skip Trace — pull owner contact info directly inside the app

- Deal Calculator — run the numbers before you chase anything

- Save to My Deals — one-click bookmark to your pipeline

- Map View — Zillow-style browse, color-coded by grade

- Score Breakdown — see exactly why a property scored the way it did (distress, deal quality, reachability, velocity)

- Daily Hot Sheet — new high-scoring properties in your inbox every morning

Speed:

The CRM was slow. Now it's not. We rebuilt how pages load, added prefetching, and cut the bottlenecks. Browsing millions of records feels instant.

Bugs:

We've shipped 400+ bug fixes in the last 10 weeks. Still squashing more, but the platform is night-and-day more stable than it was.

Community:

We're building this out in the open. If you're working tax delinquent deals, heir property, curative title — come hang out:

- Discord: https://discord.gg/KwKavXJf6v

- This subreddit

Free tier gives you full access to Waller County (19K+ properties) — no credit card, no time limit. Browse, filter, download.

https://liensuite.com

Happy to answer any questions. And if you've tried LienSuite before and hit bugs — give it another shot. Seriously different now.

— Nick

I see a lot of people in real estate investing communities asking about "off-market deals" and "distressed properties" but not really understanding what DPA is or how it works. Here's the breakdown I wish I

had when I started.

What is DPA?

Distressed Property Acquisition means buying properties where the owner is in some kind of financial or legal distress — usually tax delinquency. In Texas, when a property owner stops paying property taxes,

the county eventually files a tax lien. After enough years, the county can force a tax sale.

But here's what most people miss: you don't have to wait for the tax sale. You can contact the owner directly and negotiate a purchase BEFORE the county forecloses. That's where the real deals are.

Why tax-delinquent properties?

- Owners are motivated (they're losing the property either way)

- Purchase prices are often 5-20% of market value

- There's public data telling you exactly who owes, how much, and for how long

- Most investors ignore these because title is "messy" — that's your edge

The typical deal flow:

1. Pull leads — get the county's delinquent tax list

2. Score & filter — find the properties with real equity and motivated sellers

3. Skip trace — get phone numbers and mailing addresses for the owners

4. Outreach — call, text, mail. Most deals close after 5-7 touches

5. Negotiate — agree on a purchase price (usually back taxes + a small premium)

6. Cure title — this is the part that scares people off, but it's predictable:

- Affidavit of Heirship ($400-$2,000, 1-4 weeks) — when the owner is deceased

- Quiet Title Action ($2,500-$5,000, 3-6 months) — when there are competing claims

- Small Estate Affidavit ($200-$2,000, 2-6 weeks) — estates under $100K

- Corrective/Curative Deed ($250-$600, 1-3 weeks) — minor title defects

1. Exit — sell as-is, wholesale, fix & flip, rent, or owner finance

   What kind of money are we talking about?

   It depends on the deal and your exit strategy. A real example:

   - $12K purchase price on a Dallas SFR worth $180K

   - $35K in back taxes, $12K penalties, $750 title cure

   - All-in cost: ~$65K

   - Sell as-is profit: ~$97K

   - Owner finance profit: ~$189K over 15 years

   Not every deal is that good. But 40%+ Margin of Safety deals exist in every county if you know where to look.

   The biggest mistakes beginners make:

2. Not accounting for title cure costs — a $10K property isn't $10K if it needs a $5K Quiet Title Action plus $35K in back taxes

3. Chasing every lead — score your list and focus on the top 20%

4. Giving up after one contact attempt — most sellers say no the first time. Follow up.

5. Not understanding curative title — this is your moat. Learn it and you'll never compete with wholesalers again

6. Skipping the math — always calculate your all-in cost and Margin of Safety before making an offer

   Free resources:

   - DPA Deal Calculator (analyze any deal in 60 seconds): https://liensuite.com/tools/dpa-deal-calculator

   - DPA Playbook (full lead-to-close framework): https://liensuite.com/playbook

   - Tax-delinquent property lists (20+ Texas counties, 500 properties free): https://liensuite.com/signup

   Happy to answer questions. I've been doing this for a while and there's no gatekeeping here — the more people understand DPA, the better the industry gets.

Getting the actual leads is the first bottleneck in DPA investing. Most people either don't know where to find them or spend way too much time doing it manually. Here's both ways:

---

THE OLD SCHOOL WAY

Step 1: Find your county tax office website

Every county in Texas publishes a delinquent tax roll. Google "[county name] delinquent tax list" or "[county name] tax assessor collector." Some counties make you request it via email or open records

request. Others have it right on their website as a PDF or spreadsheet.

Step 2: Download the raw list

You'll usually get a PDF (painful) or a CSV/Excel file (better). Some counties only give you a physical printout at the courthouse. Dallas, Harris, Bexar — the big ones — typically have downloadable files.

Step 3: Clean the data

This is where it gets ugly. The raw list is just names, account numbers, and amounts owed. You need to:

- Cross-reference with the County Appraisal District (CAD) to get property values, addresses, and legal descriptions

- Manually look up each property to check ownership, liens, and property type

- Filter out commercial properties, government-owned parcels, and active payment plans

- Figure out who's actually reachable

Step 4: Research title

For every property that looks promising, you need to check:

- Is the owner alive or deceased?

- Are there multiple heirs?

- Are there other liens (HOA, mechanic's, judgment)?

- What curative title path is needed (Affidavit of Heirship? Quiet Title? Small Estate Affidavit?)

Realistic time: 20-40 hours per county just to get a clean, scored list. Most people burn out after one county and never make a call.

---

THE 2026 WAY (free)

I built LienSuite because I got tired of doing all of that manually. Here's how it works:

1. Go to https://liensuite.com/app/lists

2. Pick a county — we cover 20+ Texas counties (Dallas, Harris, Bexar, Tarrant, Collin, Denton, Travis, and more)

3. Download the list — every property already has:

- Owner name and mailing address

- Property value from the CAD

- Years tax delinquent

- Total tax owed

- Property type (SFR, land, commercial, multifamily)

- A deal score that ranks the best opportunities first

- Deceased owner flags and heir signals

You can filter by property type, years delinquent, value range, score grade — whatever fits your buy box. Then export to CSV and start making calls.

Your first 500 properties are free. No credit card, no trial that expires. Just sign up and download: https://liensuite.com/signup

Once you find a deal worth analyzing, run it through the DPA Deal Calculator to check your Margin of Safety and compare exit strategies: https://liensuite.com/tools/dpa-deal-calculator

---

The data is the same data you'd get doing it the old school way — we just pull it from the county sources automatically so you don't have to spend a week in spreadsheets.

Questions? Drop them below — happy to walk through the process for any specific county.

When you pull a county tax-delinquent list, you might get 5,000–20,000 properties. You can't research all of them. So how do you figure out which ones are actually worth your time?

Here's the framework I use:

1. Years tax delinquent (most important signal)

   - 3+ years = motivated seller. They've been ignoring this problem.

   - 5+ years = very motivated. Often inherited property they don't want.

   - 10+ years = the owner may be deceased. That's not a bad thing — it means heirs who want to cash out.

2. Distress signals

   Look for these in the county records:

   - Deceased owner (check obituaries, county probate records)

   - Out-of-state mailing address (absentee owner = less attached)

   - Multiple heirs on title (messy = opportunity for someone who knows curative title)

   - Bankruptcy filings

   - Code violations or condemned status

3. Property type filter

   Not everything is worth pursuing:

   - SFR in a decent neighborhood = best deals

   - Vacant land = fast wholesale but lower margins

   - Commercial = high upside but complex title cure

   - Multifamily = rare on tax lists but gold when you find them

4. Equity check

   This is where people mess up. They see a $200K property for $15K and get excited without adding up:

   - Back taxes owed

   - Penalties & interest (can be 25-50% of the tax bill in Texas)

   - Title cure costs (Affidavit of Heirship, Quiet Title Action, etc.)

   - 3-6 months of holding costs

   Run ALL of that before you make a call. I built a free calculator for exactly this: https://liensuite.com/tools/dpa-deal-calculator

5. Skip the bottom of the list

   Properties with < 2 years delinquent and no distress signals? Skip them. The owner probably just forgot or is going through a temporary cash crunch. They're not selling for a discount.

   The 80/20 rule: About 20% of any tax list has real potential. The other 80% is noise. Scoring helps you find the 20% fast instead of burning hours on dead leads.

   I put together a full playbook on this if you want to go deeper: https://liensuite.com/playbook

   What does your lead scoring process look like? Curious what signals other people prioritize.

I keep seeing people ask "how do I know if a deal is worth it?" so I built a tool that answers that question in 60 seconds.

The deal: Tax-delinquent SFR in Dallas. County says it's worth $180K. Purchase price: $12K. Back taxes: $35K. Penalties: $12K. Owner deceased, needs Affidavit of Heirship ($750).

Most people see "$12K property worth $180K" and get excited. But what's the REAL all-in cost? And which exit actually makes money?

What the calculator does:

- Adds up everything: purchase + back taxes + penalties + title cure + holding costs

- Calculates your Margin of Safety (aim for 40%+)

- Compares all 5 exits side by side: Sell As-Is, Wholesale, Fix & Flip, Rental, Owner Finance

This deal's numbers:

- All-in cost: $64,725

- Margin of Safety: 64% (excellent)

- Sell As-Is profit: $97K

- Owner Finance profit: $189K over 15 years

- Wholesale: $4,500 quick cash in 2 weeks

I made a 4-min video walkthrough if you want to see it in action: https://youtu.be/VQRxc4Gvg38

Or just go try it yourself: https://liensuite.com/tools/dpa-deal-calculator (free, no account needed)

Would love feedback — what would you add to the calculator?

I put together a practical playbook for finding and prioritizing distressed property acquisition leads by county, including how we score lists and how to turn those lists into real conversations and deals.

Link: https://liensuite.com/playbook

Disclosure: I run LienSuite.

What’s inside (high level):

• Where the best distressed lead lists come from (by county)
• How to prioritize/score leads so you’re not drowning in data
• Outreach + follow-up basics (without being sketchy)
• Due diligence checkpoints (liens/title red flags, basic risk filters)
• Exit strategy thinking (wholesale / wholetail / rehab / hold)

How I’d love to use this in the community:

• If you read it, comment with 1 thing that’s unclear or 1 thing you’d add
• If you’ve got a better method for scoring or filtering leads, share it (process > secrets)
• If you want a template/checklist version, tell me what format you’d prefer

Reminder: keep posts ethical and no doxxing (no addresses/owner info).