Glossary
Plain-English definitions of the terms behind property-data prospecting: absentee owners, skip tracing, tax rolls, pre-foreclosure, list stacking, and more.
- 1031 Exchange
- A 1031 exchange — named for Section 1031 of the Internal Revenue Code — lets a real estate investor defer capital gains tax by selling an investment property and reinvesting the proceeds into another like-kind property, under strict IRS deadlines and with the funds held by a qualified intermediary. Read more →
- Absentee Owner
- An absentee owner is a property owner who does not live at the property they own. In practice, they're identified by comparing two fields in county records: when the owner's mailing address differs from the property's address, the owner is absentee. Read more →
- Boot (1031 Exchange)
- Boot is anything of value an investor receives in a 1031 exchange that isn't like-kind real estate — most commonly leftover cash, or debt relief when the replacement property carries a smaller mortgage. Boot doesn't disqualify the exchange, but it is taxable up to the amount of the gain. Read more →
- Circle Prospecting
- Circle prospecting is contacting the homeowners surrounding a specific address — typically a just-listed or just-sold property — to turn one transaction into several conversations while the event is still news on that street. Read more →
- County Tax Roll
- A county tax roll is the official public record a county maintains for property taxation: every parcel, its owner of record, the owner's mailing address, assessed value, exemptions, and sale history. It is the primary source that virtually all commercial property data resells. Read more →
- Depreciation Recapture
- Depreciation recapture is the tax the IRS collects, at sale, on the depreciation deductions an investment-property owner took during the holding period. For real estate it's taxed at up to 25% — separate from and on top of capital gains — and it applies even if the owner never actually claimed the deductions they were entitled to. Read more →
- Driving for Dollars
- Driving for dollars is the practice of driving through neighborhoods to spot visibly distressed or neglected properties — overgrown yards, boarded windows, full mailboxes — then looking up each owner in public records to make an off-market offer. Read more →
- Farm Area
- A farm area is a defined geographic territory — a subdivision, condo building, or neighborhood — that a real estate agent markets to consistently over years, aiming to become the first name owners think of when they decide to sell. Read more →
- Like-Kind Property
- Like-kind property is real estate that qualifies to be exchanged tax-deferred under Section 1031: property held for investment or productive business use, traded for other property held the same way. For real estate the standard is broad — raw land, rentals, offices, and warehouses are all like-kind to each other. Read more →
- List Stacking
- List stacking is the practice of overlaying multiple prospecting lists — absentee owners, pre-foreclosures, tax delinquencies, high equity, long tenure — and prioritizing the owners who appear on more than one, on the theory that stacked signals mean stacked motivation. Read more →
- Motivated Seller
- A motivated seller is a property owner with a situational reason to sell soon — financial pressure, a life change, or a property they no longer want to hold — who is therefore more likely to respond to an offer or a listing conversation than a typical owner. Read more →
- Owner-Occupied
- A property is owner-occupied when the person who holds title lives in it as their primary residence. In county records, occupancy shows up as a mailing address that matches the property address — and, in many states, a homestead exemption on the tax roll. Read more →
- Parcel
- A parcel is the unit of land a county tracks for taxation: a defined boundary with its own identification number (APN — assessor's parcel number), owner of record, and assessed value. Every property search, tax bill, and deed ultimately points at a parcel. Read more →
- Pre-Foreclosure
- Pre-foreclosure is the period after a lender records a formal notice of the borrower's default — a Notice of Default or lis pendens, depending on the state — but before the property is sold at foreclosure auction. During this window the owner still holds title and can sell. Read more →
- Qualified Intermediary
- A qualified intermediary (QI) is the independent third party that a 1031 exchange legally requires: it holds the proceeds from the sold property and executes the exchange documents, because if the seller takes possession of the funds — even briefly — the exchange fails and the gain becomes taxable. Read more →
- Skip Tracing
- Skip tracing is the process of finding a person's current contact information — phone numbers, email addresses, and sometimes a better mailing address — by matching their name and known address against public records and proprietary databases. Read more →
- Tax-Delinquent Property
- A tax-delinquent property is one whose owner has not paid the property taxes owed on it. Counties record and publish delinquencies, and prolonged non-payment leads to a tax lien or tax deed sale depending on the state. Read more →