Watch the 5-min walkthrough above, then follow along — by the end you'll have a sharpened list of 200-500 properties worth your time, instead of the 50,000 a wide search hands back.
Pick a market
Lists work best when the market is narrow enough that the rules of the game are consistent. A single MSA, a county, a ZIP cluster, or a polygon you draw on the map are all valid. Avoid "all of Texas" — the data is fine, but your script changes too much between Austin and Lubbock.
From /app/property-search:
- Type a city, county, or ZIP into the address bar, or hit Draw to lasso a polygon
- Set a radius if you're working from a known point (e.g. 5 miles around a closed comp)
- Confirm the result count in the corner — over 50k usually means tighten
Apply filters
Most lists collapse to the same five filters — start here, add more only if the count is still too wide:
- Absentee owner — mailing address ≠ property address (the bread-and-butter wholesale filter)
- Equity % — 50%+ for cash flow, 70%+ for creative finance, 100% (free and clear) for the warmest leads
- Last sale date — 5+ years ago means the owner is past the "still excited about it" honeymoon
- Property type — SFR, duplex, land, mobile-on-land — each one needs a different script
- Market status — off-market only, unless you specifically want competing with retail buyers
Layer them one at a time and watch the count drop. Aim for 200-500 properties — that's a working list. 50 is too thin, 2,000 is too noisy for one person.
Inspect a sample before committing
Before saving 400 properties to a list, eyeball 5-10. Open random ones from the results panel and check: do they look like the kind of house your strategy is built for? Right neighborhood? Right condition (from the photos / street view)?
If half your sample is "yeah, but not really," your filters need another pass. Tighten equity, narrow the polygon, or add a year-built floor. Better to spend 5 minutes here than 5 hours dialing the wrong list.
Save the search
Once the filters are dialed, hit Save search. Two things happen:
- The search re-runs every night and badges your dashboard when new properties match
- You can convert any saved search to a list with one click — the difference is a list is a frozen set of properties you're actively working, a search is a live query
Saved searches are free. Lists are free. You only burn credits when you skip-trace, pull a full report, or send a contract.
Tagging and notes on the list
Once a list exists, you can tag and annotate properties without leaving the list view. Right-click any row for Add tag (e.g. "called", "no-answer", "interested") and Quick note (free text, saves to the contact).
Tags filter the list view, so "show me everyone tagged 'interested, no-answer in 7 days'" is one click. Notes also flow into the contact's activity timeline — useful when you hand a lead to a teammate and they need the context.
Export
When the list is ready to hit the dialer or mail house, open it and hit Export:
- CSV — full data, drop into anything (Excel, Google Sheets, your CRM)
- REISimple / BatchLeads schema — column names match so a re-import is one click
- Dialer-ready — phones only, DNC-suppressed, deceased-suppressed, deduped (only includes properties you've already skip-traced)
- Mail merge — owner names + mailing addresses, formatted for your print vendor
Exports are unlimited on Pro and Enterprise. The CSV is a snapshot — if the underlying data updates next week, the original file doesn't change. Re-export for a fresh cut.
Working a list with the dialer
Open any list and hit Start dialing to launch the dialer pointed at the list's traced phones. The dialer cycles through in DNC-suppressed, dedupe order — you focus on talking, not picking who's next.
Dispositioning (Answered / No answer / VM / DNC / Wrong number) flows back to the list automatically as tags, so your next pass through the list can filter to just the no-answers. Most users see a 12-18% contact rate on a fresh traced list — set expectations there.
Organize with folders
Once you have more than a handful of lists, group them with folders. Right-click any list in the sidebar to move it. Common patterns we see:
- By market —
Tulsa OK / Austin TX / Phoenix AZ - By strategy —
Wholesale / BRRRR / Flip / Land - By status —
Cold / Mailing / Calling / Under contract / Dead
Folders are local to your account, not shared — unless you're on Enterprise with a shared workspace, in which case any teammate can move and rename lists in the shared folder.
What to do next
- Skip-trace the list so you have phone numbers and emails for the next step
- Run a property report on the first 5-10 to sanity-check the filters caught the right kind of house
- Save a duplicate search with one filter relaxed — gives you a B-list to fall back to when the A-list cools off
- Wire one automation to the list (e.g. "tag: interested → send LOI 24h later") so working the list compounds without manual follow-up