Motivated seller leads in Will County, Illinois, from public records

"Motivated seller" lists are sold everywhere, and most are guesses. A better list starts from what public records actually show about an owner's situation, and ranks properties by how many of those signs line up.

The signs public records can show

• Unpaid property taxes, from the county's tax sale list.
• A foreclosure case or Sheriff's sale scheduled against the property.
• Code violations written up by the town's inspectors, especially repeated ones.
• A vacant building registration or board-up order.
• Liens, such as unpaid water bills a town has placed on the property.
• Probate, when an owner has died and the estate must decide what to do with the house.
• An owner who lives elsewhere, out of the area or out of state, who may be tired of managing it.

Stacking beats any single sign

Lots of owners pay their taxes late and catch up. Few are late on taxes and facing a foreclosure sale and living out of state. Deal Finder counts the live signs on each property and puts those with two or more in its top tier, so the first calls go to the owners most likely to want a way out.

Approach with care

These are people in hard situations. The investors who do well with distress leads are the ones who make a fair, plain offer and take no for an answer. Illinois and federal rules also apply to how you contact owners, especially by phone and text, so check them before you start a campaign.

What we hold today in Will County

Properties with each sign in records we can share:

• Unpaid taxes: 6,848
• Foreclosure: 132
• Unpaid water bill: 62
• Vacant: 21
• Code violation: 5

24 properties show two or more signs at once.

Signs we don't list above aren't collected for Will County yet; the coverage map shows what each town has. Start with Joliet's distressed properties or the Will County page.