How DeedFlex sources, scores, and flags every deal
This page is the plain-language explanation of where our data comes from, how we score it, what the verdict labels mean, and what we don't yet do. If anything here is unclear, email hello@deedflex.com and we'll fix the page.
County-direct, never aggregated through a broker
Every listing on DeedFlex is pulled from the county or state agency that runs the auction or sells the certificate. We do not buy bulk feeds from a third-party data broker and re-sell them. The reason: brokered data is often weeks stale and contains rows the seller never re-verifies.
Concrete categories of sources we use today:
- County tax collector / sheriff sites — official auction calendars and certificate registries.
- Auction platforms — Bid4Assets, RealAuction, GovEase, Zeus Auction, SRI, CivicSource, LGBS. These are the public-facing platforms counties contract to run the actual sale.
- State-level inventory pages — e.g. Arkansas COSL OTC list, Maryland tax sale schedule.
- Public GIS / ArcGIS feeds — county landbank inventory and tax-foreclosure registries.
Every listing carries a source tag identifying which feed it came from. That tag is visible on the deal detail page; you can verify it against the source URL yourself.
Where a value comes from, and what we do when there isn't one
A deal page shows a dollar value only alongside the source of that value, and there are exactly three sources. A comparable-sales estimate is built from homes that actually sold nearby; the page states how many sold comps stand behind it. The county's own assessment or appraisal is a real record for that exact parcel — it lags the market and it is not a sale price, but it belongs to that parcel. A Census county-wide median is one number for a whole county that sits on every listing in it; where we show one, the line beneath it says so and tells you not to bid against it.
Where we hold none of those, the field reads “Not on file” and stays empty, with a sentence saying what is missing and where to get it. On 2 September 2026 we removed 207,300 assessed values that could not be traced to a county record; those parcels now read “Not on file”. We do not impute, interpolate or default a customer-visible number.
Mississippi does not require sale prices to be made public. No recorded sale price exists in that state, so no comparable-sales value can be built there by anyone; deal pages in that state say so, and their values come from the county assessment or from a model.
Every row carries the timestamp we last checked it
Our scrapers re-run on a per-state cadence. About half of all active listings are re-checked within 24 hours, and the rest on a slower cadence that varies by how often the county publishes. A minority of quiet counties can go weeks between refreshes. Each listing stores the time it was last checked and we show "checked N hours ago" on the deal page. That timestamp records when our scraper last wrote the row from the source — it is not a re-confirmation of every field against the county that hour. If a listing's auction date has passed, it is normally marked inactive within an hour of the date rolling over.
If you ever see a deal page without a verified-N-hours-ago chip, that row is stale — report it and we'll re-check the source.
What the Strong / Review / Skip verdicts actually mean
Each listing is scored from 0 to 100 based on three independent signals:
- Equity gap — the spread between opening bid and estimated market value or ARV. Bigger spread = more upside.
- Risk flags — known hazards: floodplain, environmental contamination, IRS / HOA / mechanic lien attachments, bankruptcy history, vacant or condemned status.
- Data confidence — how complete the row is. A listing missing the address or assessed value gets a lower confidence rating; we do not give a Strong verdict to thin data.
Verdict bands:
- Strong — deep equity, no major risk flags, high data confidence.
- Review — at least one factor flagged. Worth investigating, not green-lit.
- Skip — either thin equity, a serious flag (active bankruptcy, IRS lien), or data so incomplete we won't surface it as a strong lead.
Every Strong and Review listing carries a one-sentence "why this surfaced" explanation on the deal page. There is no hidden score logic — if you disagree with a verdict, the breakdown will tell you exactly which factor drove it.
What we check before showing a deal as Strong
- FEMA floodplain — every parcel is checked against the current FEMA NFHL dataset.
- EPA environmental concerns — parcels within range of NPL / RCRA sites are flagged.
- Existing liens — IRS, HOA, mechanic, judgment liens at the county recorder when the feed exposes them.
- Vacancy / condemnation — when the county publishes a vacancy or blight list, we cross-reference parcel IDs.
- Bankruptcy — county-level filings flagged when available; surveillance is best-effort.
- Bid anomalies — opening bids significantly above county assessed value get flagged as data-suspect, not as deals.
Statute-cited redemption windows, per state
Every state defines a different right-of-redemption window. We surface the operative statute citation on each state page and deal detail. Examples we cite directly in product:
- Alabama — Ala. Code § 40-10-120: 3-year redemption from sale date.
- Louisiana — La. Const. Art. VII § 25(B)(1): 3-year redemption (standard).
- South Carolina — S.C. Code § 12-51-90: 1-year redemption window.
- Florida — Fla. Stat. § 197.472: the owner can redeem a tax certificate until the tax deed is issued; the holder can apply for that deed two years after the certificate (§ 197.502).
- Texas — Tex. Tax Code § 34.21: 6-month or 2-year, depending on property type.
If the state's redemption rule has a conditional carve-out (e.g. owner-occupied vs vacant), we surface the carve-out next to the rule, not buried in fine print.
What DeedFlex is not and what we don't yet cover
Being honest about gaps is part of the methodology:
- We are not your lawyer. Statute citations are starting points. For any deal you plan to bid on, hire a local attorney who has handled tax deed redemptions in that county.
- We are not your title company. A clean deed-of-trust report can only come from a local title search, not from our scoring engine. Always order one before closing.
- Title-stripping quiet-title actions vary by state. Our scoring assumes a standard redemption period closes cleanly. Some jurisdictions require a separate quiet-title action; budget for it.
- We don't cover every county. The coverage map on /states shows where we have data today. Counties with no listings have no scheduled inventory today or no public auction.
- Risk flags are best-effort. Recorded liens, bankruptcies, and environmental datasets have publication lags. Treat our flags as "flag for follow-up", not as "no flag means no risk".
- We don't predict winning bid prices. We surface opening bids and equity gaps. Live auction bidding behavior is competitive and not something a static score can forecast.
How serious investors use DeedFlex
- Start with /states. Pick a state with a redemption rule you understand.
- Filter to Strong + add at least one personal due-diligence step. County title search is the universal one; for occupied properties also a drive-by or street-view check.
- Verify the auction date and registration deadline on the county's own page. We surface the county URL on every deal page for exactly this reason.
- Save a watchlist before auction day. Deal scores can move as new enrichment lands; the watchlist tracks score changes per parcel.
- Never bid above your underwriting. The platform shows opening bids — your ceiling is yours to set.
If a property looks good in our system but your local research uncovers something we missed (an unrecorded judgment, an open code violation, a heated zoning fight), we want to hear about it. hello@deedflex.com — every report improves the scoring engine for everyone.
The legal one-liner
DeedFlex is a data and intelligence platform for tax deed and tax lien investing. We are not licensed to give legal, tax, or investment advice, and nothing on the site or in our emails constitutes such advice. The data we publish is sourced from public records and third-party feeds and may contain errors, omissions, or staleness. Always verify against the official county source before bidding. By using DeedFlex you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge that all investment decisions are your own.