How to Use Propstream to Find Motivated Sellers [2021]

Business & Real Estate

? ​I’m going to show you EXACTLY which motivated sellers lists I’m pulling off Propstream in September 2021.

I’ve been using Propstream since March of 21 and so far, we’ve landed two wholesale deals that should net $50,000 in assignment fees and two listings that should net another $10,000 in referral commissions.

In the past 7 months, we’ve spent just under $10,000 on our marketing efforts so our return on investment has been roughly 500%.

Today I’m going to share my list-pulling process with you so you can start finding off-market deals from motivated sellers.

The first you’re going to need is a membership to an online software called Propstream.

Propstream is a nationwide data aggregator of property information.

Full-disclosure: They charge $100 bucks per month.

I personally pull about 1,500 leads per month, which means each lead costs me about 7 cents.

OK let’s dive in!

The first thing I’m going to show you is my prerequisite filter for almost all of my motivated sellers lists.

No matter which list I’m pulling, I currently have these pre-reqs checked off.

1️⃣The first pre-req. is off-market property.

I want to avoid marketing to any homes that are already on the MLS. To only pull off-market properties you have to click filter → then MLS Status. In the On Market section, click the button for “No”.

2️⃣ The second pre-req is high equity.

I look for properties with 40% equity or more. The reason I use 40% as my minimum is because I’m looking for a 25-30% discount to market value, and I also want the seller to be able to walk away with some cash at close. To apply an equity threshold you have to click filter → then valuation & equity. In the Estimated Equity % section, put 40 in the min field and 100 in the max field.

3️⃣The third pre-req I apply is the length of ownership.

While it’s possible for people to firesale their homes after living in them for a short amount of time, I just don’t think it’s probable. I look for homes that haven’t changed ownership in the past 7 years. To apply a length of ownership threshold you have to click filter → then ownership info. In the Years of Ownership section, put 7 in the min field.

4️⃣The fourth and final pre-req is property type.

I’m looking for small multifamily properties that I can potentially BRRRR. If I can’t BRRRR them, I flip them. If I can’t flip them, I wholetail them. If I can’t wholetail them, I wholesale them.

You don’t have to use the same numbers as me. I know a few investors that use a 30% equity minimum and I’m sure there are investors out there that don’t filter for equity at all.

As far as the length of ownership filter, according to the US Census Bureau, as of Q2-2021 the average homeownership tenure is 8 years. The reason I look for 7 years of minimum ownership is because that’s right around the time the average homeowner is considering a move.

OK So now that we have the prerequisites out of the way, let’s jump into which lists I’m actually pulling right now.

There are 6 of them so pay attention.

⌛The first is expired listings.

These are people who raised their hands and said, “I want to sell my house”. Except, for whatever reason, they couldn’t sell. To find expired listings, you open MLS Status and in the MLS Status section you click on “Fail”. Then in the Listing Date section you want to filter for the last year or so. Right now I’m filtering for January 1st, 2020 to the current date.

Once you have your results, you click on the box to the left of Unique Properties and then click Add to List.

I usually create a new list for each category every month. So I’ll label this one 9.21 – Expired Listings.

Before moving to the next list of motivated sellers, make sure you uncheck the filters for the previous list. So in this case we have to remove the filters for Expired Listing.

?The final question of the Deal Deep Dive is What major lessons were learned?

In the Lien/Bankruptcy/Divorce Status open the dropdown for Quick Target Status and click the box for “Has Active Lien”. Then the next thing you want to do is put a minimum lien amount. I typically start at $1,000 and depending on how many results come, I’ll go up from there.

Once I’m happy with the number of leads, I’ll click the box next to Unique Properties and then Add them to a new list called 9.21 – Active Lien.

? After I remove the Active Lien filters, the next list I’m going to pull is Bankruptcy.

Bankruptcy is in the same section as Active Liens.

This time you’ll open the dropdown for Quick Target Status and click the box for Has Active Bankruptcy and Bankruptcy Dismissed.

I like pulling both because I feel like people who are lucky enough to get their Bankruptcy Dismissed will eventually end up in bankruptcy again. That’s kind of a mean thing to say, but whatever.

? After Bankruptcy, I like to pull properties in pre-foreclosure.

There are two ways to pull this list. The first way is by using the quick list drop down and simply selecting pre-foreclosures. The second way is to click on Pre-Foreclosures and Bank Liens then in the Status dropdown menu select the box next to Notice of Default / Lis Pendens.

I don’t know what the difference is, but in my markets, the notice of default and lis pendens tends to yield LESS results than the Pre-Foreclosure quick list. So I’m guessing the smaller list has a narrower filter, which makes me feel like it’s more motivated.

Now we’re getting to the last two lists that I pull. We have to make some adjustments before pulling these.

?The second to last list I pull is Vacant property with Out of State Owners.

To pull this list you have to select “Vacant” for Occupancy Status. Finally, open the Ownership Info box and scroll down to the Absentee Owner Location dropdown. Check the out of state box. I think this is a great list to market to because there is a lot of motivation, especially given the current climate where many people are afraid to travel.

?? The last list I pull is inherited property.

For this list, I REMOVE the 7 years of minimum ownership because I want to include property that was inherited as recently as yesterday. To apply the inheritance filter you have to open the Ownership Info box. Towards the bottom you want to click “Include” under Intra-Family Transfer.

Once I’ve saved all of my properties, I export the list to a .csv file and send it to the mailhouse for printing. I get the mailers in about 2 weeks and then drop them off at the post office. From there, they get delivered to the owner’s address on file and I wait for the phone to ring.

In the past 7 months we’ve received about 70 calls and monetized about 4 of those.

As of today, our funnel looks like this.

We’ve sent roughly 7,000 pieces of mail. That’s the top of our funnel.

70 of those have turned into leads. That’s about a 1% conversion rate.

Of those 70 leads, we’ve monetized 4 of them. That’s about a 5% conversion rate.

I think there’s room to improve in both sections.