Where the data comes from, field by field

Which page do you need?

Most people arrive with one of four questions. This page explains the sourcing and the honest limits, and works the equity question through in full further down. No number here appears without saying where it comes from.

• If you want the county-level picture, start with nationwide property search.
• If you want to know how equity is worked out, read how the estimates are calculated further down this page.
• If you want the raw field list, start with what's in a property record.
• For owner phone numbers, start with real estate skip tracing.

What data does SCOUTRE actually run on?

Two datasets, and they count different things. The property dataset holds 160 million U.S. properties — parcels, owners, deeds, loans, assessments and characteristics — at around 95% coverage. The owner-contact dataset behind skip tracing holds 150M+ US residential records in the skip-trace source. Neither number is a version of the other.

The distinction matters in practice. A property can carry a full deed and loan history and still return nothing when you trace its owner, because the person behind the parcel is a different record in a different source. Equally, a trace can return four phone numbers for an owner whose county publishes a thin record.

The two behave differently over time. Property records are, so they move at the speed of the county. Traces run against live sources at the moment you request them, so a trace on Tuesday and a re-trace in March are two lookups, not one cached answer.

On match rates, the published figure is a 70–95% provider-reported match range; input quality matters. That is the provider's reported range, not a SCOUTRE-measured result, and the range is wide because a clean owner name and a good mailing address behave very differently from a trust, an initial and a PO box. [CONFIRM: name and date of the provider source behind the 70–95% range, so the claim is defensible if challenged.]

What does a property record contain?

One SCOUTRE record holds the house, the owner and the money in a single view. The complete field list is below, grouped by source.

Ownership, from recorded documents

• Owner name, owner mailing address, and whether the owner lives there

Valuation and loan position, derived

• Estimated value, estimated equity, estimated equity percentage, estimated mortgage balance
• Lender, lien position, loan type, original amount, loan term, maturity date, and full loan history

Transaction history, from recorded documents

• Sale history, last sale price and date, down payment at last sale, deeds, taxes and assessments

The house itself, from assessor and MLS-participating-board data

• Beds, baths, square footage, lot size, year built, zoning, land use, MLS status, rental information, Street View and nearby comparable sales

MLS status comes from participating boards only: a listing on a board outside that set will not appear.

How are the 37 property signals derived?

Signals come from recorded, ownership, mortgage, listing, property and tax data, plus calculated values such as equity and down payment. A Tax lien display can come from a recorded lien; an Absentee owner display comes from occupancy and mailing-address data.

See all 37 property signal display labels.

Signal availability varies by property, county and source. Not every signal is available on every property.

What in this data identifies a motivated seller?

Three groups of fields carry it. Property signals can name a circumstance: Preforeclosure, Inherited, Tax lien or Vacant. Valuation and loan fields show estimated equity and mortgage position. Ownership fields show occupancy. SCOUTRE returns all three on one property at a time. Availability varies by property, county and source.

Where does the data come from, and how often does it refresh?

Property data originates with counties. Deeds and mortgages are recorded with a county recorder, register of deeds or county clerk. Values, characteristics and exemptions come from the assessor, property appraiser or board of assessors. SCOUTRE licenses that material.

You can read the same primary sources. Philadelphia publishes assessments at property.phila.gov, Cook County at cookcountyassessor.com, and Massachusetts publishes recorded land documents at masslandrecords.com. Those are the documents underneath the record.

Daily processing is a ceiling, not a guarantee. If a county posts recordings weekly, a deed signed on Monday reaches the record when that county posts it. Nothing here is real-time, and describing it as live would be false. [CONFIRM: is there any published refresh commitment or SLA per data type? None is documented, so none is stated here.]

How are the estimates calculated?

Estimated value, estimated equity, estimated equity percentage and estimated mortgage balance are derived figures, not reported ones. They are built from recorded loan history and assessed values — what was borrowed, when, on what terms, against what the assessor says the property is worth. No lender sends a payoff statement to a data provider.

Equity and mortgage figures are estimates derived from recorded loan history and assessed values. They are not statements of account balance. Read them as a screening tool: a property showing free and clear is worth a conversation, and a property showing 40% estimated equity is worth checking, but neither is a number to put in a contract. [CONFIRM: is the specific derivation method for estimated mortgage balance cleared for publication?]

Where is coverage thin, and why?

Coverage varies by county. Some counties publish more, and more often, than others. SCOUTRE prints that sentence on every page carrying a coverage number because the variance is structural: the United States has more than 3,000 county or county-equivalent jurisdictions, each publishing on its own schedule, in its own format, under its own state's disclosure rules. The U.S. Census Bureau keeps the authoritative list.

Six situations produce a thinner record, and it is worth knowing which one you are looking at before concluding the data is wrong.

• Non-disclosure states. Several states do not require sale prices to be recorded publicly, so last sale price can be absent even where the deed is present.
• Recording lag. A sale reaches the record when the county publishes it. Recent transfers are the field most likely to be behind.
• Entity owners. When the owner of record is an LLC or a trust, the record names the entity, because that is who owns it. Resolving the person behind it is not a documented capability.
• Manufactured homes and split parcels. Where home and land are titled separately, or a parcel was recently split or merged, the assessor and deed records can disagree.
• MLS gaps. MLS status comes from participating boards. A market whose board does not participate returns no MLS status and no MLS activity signal.
• Address confidentiality. Some states operate programs that suppress the addresses of protected individuals. Those records are intentionally incomplete and should stay that way.

None of this is unique to SCOUTRE. It is what county data is. Any product claiming a complete, uniform national record is describing something that does not exist. [CONFIRM: are per-county or per-field completeness rates cleared for publication? No accuracy percentage is stated here because none is confirmed.]

Can you get this data for free?

Most of it, yes. Property ownership in the United States is public record, and nearly every county publishes a free online search of its assessor or recorder data. What you get is accurate to that county's record and costs nothing beyond a few dollars per document. The three links above are working examples.

What the free route does not give you is one interface across county lines, an owner's phone number, or a way to keep any of it. If you need one owner name once, you do not need software — use the county site. What $79 per month buys is the rest.

What is not in the data

Six categories of data that people regularly ask for are absent from the record, and no page on this site implies otherwise. Reading the list below is faster than a support ticket.

• Roof age, roof condition, permit history, storm or hail data. Year built is the closest fact, and it is not roof age.
• Utility usage, energy data, solar suitability, roof orientation or shading. None of it exists in the record.
• Rent roll, net operating income, cap rate or tenant data. Rental information is a field; investment metrics are not.
• Title work. Deeds and lien signals sit on the record. That is not a title search, a chain of title, or a legal description to an insurable standard.
• Foreclosure auction or trustee-sale calendars. Preforeclosure and auction are signals, not dates.
• No API, automated feed or CSV import. CSV export is available. Each account supports one user, with no teams, seats or shared pipelines.

Frequently asked questions

Where does SCOUTRE's property data come from?

SCOUTRE's property data is licensed county and public-record data, gathered and. The underlying documents are the same deeds, mortgages, assessments and tax rolls a county recorder or assessor publishes. MLS status comes from participating boards only. Coverage varies by county.

Why are there two numbers, 160M properties and the skip-trace source?

Two different things are being counted. 160 million counts U.S. properties in the property dataset. 150M+ counts US residential records in the skip-trace source, the separate owner-contact dataset a trace runs against. Neither figure is a version of the other.

How current is the data on a property record?

Records are, so the ceiling on freshness is whatever the county itself publishes. A deed recorded this morning in a county that posts weekly will not appear in SCOUTRE until that county posts it. Coverage varies by county.

Are the equity and mortgage numbers real balances?

No. A recorded loan shows an original amount, a term and a rate structure, not the payoff figure today, so estimated equity is a screening number rather than a settlement number. Equity and mortgage figures are estimates derived from recorded loan history and assessed values.

Does SCOUTRE sell or resell the data it returns to me?

Results attach to your account's lead. They are not compiled into lists sold to other subscribers. A trace you paid for with your subscription belongs to your pipeline alone.

Can I export this data or access it through an API?

CSV export is available. SCOUTRE does not provide a public API, automatic data feed or CSV import. Each account supports one user, with no teams, seats or shared pipelines.

Can this data tell you an owner is a motivated seller?

Not on its own. Recorded documents describe circumstance, never intention: a probate filing says an estate is being settled, not that the heirs will sell. SCOUTRE surfaces 37 property signal display types on a property you have opened, and the conversation still decides it. Availability varies by property, county and source.