Before you can close deals, you need leads. And before you get leads, you need the right list.
List building or pulling is one of the most important parts of successful real estate investing. Whether you are wholesaling, flipping, or buying rentals, your seller list is the foundation of your marketing. But pulling random lists is a waste of time and money.
This guide walks you through how to pull motivated seller lists that actually convert, how to use filters strategically, and how REsimpli’s list-pulling tool can save you hours of manual work.
What Is List Building?
List building is the process of sourcing property records based on specific filters that indicate a property owner may be motivated to sell. These lists are used in cold calling, direct mail, SMS campaigns, and other forms of lead generation.
A well-pulled list increases your contact rate and your deal close rate. A bad list just fills your CRM with noise.
What Makes a Good Seller List?
Not all data is equal. A good seller list meets three criteria:
- It targets owners with signs of motivation
- It excludes people unlikely to respond
- It matches your buying criteria and exit strategy
The best lists are not the biggest. They are the most refined.
Most Common Motivated Seller Filters
When pulling lists, you can filter based on public data. Here are the most powerful filters to combine:
- Absentee Owner: Owners who do not live in the property are more likely to sell
- High Equity: Sellers with 50 percent or more equity are easier to negotiate with
- Vacant Properties: Empty homes are often a financial burden
- Long-Term Ownership: Owners who have held the property for 10 or more years are statistically more likely to sell
- Pre-Foreclosure: Indicates active financial distress
- Tax Delinquent: Property taxes unpaid, a sign of distress
- Probate or Inherited: Owners who recently inherited a property may not want to keep it
- Code Violations: Signals of deferred maintenance or municipal pressure
These filters can be stacked for better targeting.
What Is List Stacking?
List stacking means combining multiple lead types to find owners who appear on more than one list.
Example:
- Absentee owner
- Probate
- Also on the tax delinquent list
This triple-stacked lead is likely far more motivated than someone on only one of those lists. It is quality over quantity.
REsimpli’s list stacking system allows you to see overlaps instantly and prioritize the most motivated contacts.
How to Pull Seller Lists: Step-by-Step
Step 1: Define Your Criteria
Know what kind of deals you want. For example:
- Zip code or county
- Property type (single-family, duplex, etc.)
- Owner type (individual vs. LLC)
- Price range or square footage
Step 2: Choose Your Filters
Use combinations like:
- Absentee + 50 percent equity + 10 year ownership
- Vacant + absentee + no recent sale
- Out-of-state owner + high equity
Step 3: Pull the List
Use a list provider or a tool like REsimpli’s list pulling feature. You can:
- Set your filters
- Preview your data
- Export or save directly to your CRM
Step 4: Clean and Organize
Before marketing, remove:
- Duplicates
- Undeliverable addresses
- LLCs if you only want individual owners
Tag by source and filter combination so you can track performance later.
How REsimpli Makes List Building Easy
With REsimpli, you can:
- Pull high-quality seller lists nationwide without needing third-party tools
- Apply filters like absentee, equity, property type, and ownership length
- Save custom lists directly into your CRM
- Stack and prioritize based on how many lists a lead appears in
- Track which lists produce the most deals
There is no need to export, reformat, or manage dozens of spreadsheets. Everything stays in one system.
Conclusion
If you want better deals, start with better data. Pulling targeted seller lists is not just about selecting filters. It is about being intentional, strategic, and consistent.
Using REsimpli’s list pulling and stacking tools, you can simplify the process, increase your marketing ROI, and find the leads that actually convert.
FAQS
List pulling is the process of sourcing property data using filters to identify owners likely to sell. It’s used in cold calling, SMS, direct mail, and more.
Investors typically use list-building tools that allow filtering based on the owner's mailing address being in a different state than the property itself. In REsimpli, you can easily apply the “Out-of-State Owner” filter to find these motivated seller leads.
Most list stacking tools, like REsimpli’s List Builder, let you filter properties based on how long the current owner has held the property. This can be found as a filter within the list-builder, among the other filters.
Tools like REsimpli allow you to segment by owner-occupied status (absentee vs. owner-occupied) and filter by property type, such as single-family, multi-family, or vacant land. This is so you can tailor your outreach for higher conversion.
Yes. With REsimpli’s built-in free skip tracing, you can export lists that include up to 3 phone numbers and emails per record, helping you reach out to sellers faster and more effectively.
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Sharad Mehta