Consistent $100K+ spreads from courthouse files
Consistently lands $100K+ spreads by doing fewer deals with deeper research on each one.
About
Avi Rasowsky transitioned from lead gen for investors to owning a unique niche in real estate, focusing on owner financing. By shifting away from expensive PPC, Avi now closes 10-15 high-value deals yearly with DataSift, exploring opportunities others overlook.
Operating market
North Carolina.
Favorite features
The Challenge
Avi came out of lead generation. He ran nationwide Google pay per click for other investors, then went local in Charlotte and kept Google as his own engine. Almost half his portfolio came from those leads. The problem was the meter. His cost per deal crept from the $2,000 to $2,500 range up over $3,000 and $3,500. Every dollar of cashflow went straight back into marketing.
Worse, he had no say in when leads showed up. One lead today, three tomorrow, then four days of nothing, which made projections impossible to manage. He had signed up for the software back in 2020 and let it sit. In August 2021 he shut Google off entirely to test a different idea: free courthouse data and the deals nobody else would finish.
What They Built
Free courthouse data instead of paid leads
Two sources feed everything. Tax delinquent files from county tax collectors, filtered to owners at least three years behind, because earlier than that nobody is motivated. And deed of trust foreclosure files from the courthouse, pulled week by week once a hearing is on the calendar. People he works with upload the cleaned files, so a fresh list is waiting when he opens DataSift.
The data costs are free because I'm getting it from the courthouse.
A few hundred files, worked to the end
There is no bulk dialing and no ten thousand record list. He filters down to deceased, tax delinquent owners in one county, removes the opt outs, and picks the day's targets from what remains.
I don't deal with a lot of data. I'm dealing with a few hundred files and I will go into those few hundred files for as long as I need to.
Deep research where everyone else quits
The work is estate files from 1979, Ancestry lookups, every skip tracing angle, and sometimes calling the shop across the street. One neighbor left a note in a mailbox and the owner called back the next day. Every note lands in the record, so he never starts a file dumber than he left it. Some properties take months or years, on purpose.
I wanna spend time where I know I'm gonna hit a brick wall.
Buying at wholesale, selling at market value
He still buys at wholesale prices, but he stopped selling at them. Deals exit with owner financing at full market value, which turns each file into equity plus monthly cashflow. Ten to fifteen deals a year is the whole plan.
Before and After
Before DataSift
- Achieved Data Clarity
- Consistent Deal Flow
- Inconsistent Deal Flow
- Poor Marketing Flow
- Little Data Clarity
- Relied On Google Sheets
- Consistent Deal Flow
- Data Clarity / Organization
- Wholesales, Flips And Does Retail
- Strong Marketing Flow
- Didn't Understand Data Management
- Strong Real Estate Agent
- Wanted To Break Into Wholesaling But Didn't Know How
- Healthy Scale
- Data Driven Decisions
- Consistent Deals
- Strong Marketing Flow
- Inconsistent
- Little Data Insight
- Unorganized Bulk Marketing
- Strategic Focus on Niches
- Enhanced Lead Flow and Certainty
- Streamlined Marketing Process
- Efficient Use of Data
- Direct Mail & Deep Prospecting
- Broad, Unfocused Strategy
- Inconsistency in Results
- Dependency on Luck
- Marketing Clarity
- 6 Figure Months
- High Deal Volume
- Strong Marketing Flow
- Proper Data Management
- Weak Marketing Flow
- Poor Data Management
- Lack of Focus
- Manual Efforts
- Successful Scale
- Total Data Clarity
- Clear Marketing Approach
- Large Deal Spreads
- Improper Data Management
- Poor Marketing Method
- Inconsistent Deal Flow
- Strong Marketing Flow
- Clear Data Management
- Clear Data Management
- Successful Scale
- Many ways to close deals
- Large deal spreads
- Poor data management
- Unable to scale properly
- Poor marketing flow
- Smaller Deal Spreads
- Increased Deal Volume
- Platform Utilization
- Realtor Collaboration
- Funding Efforts
- Lots Of Deals
- Data Driven Decisions
- Strong Marketing Flow
- Sales And Marketing Clarity
- Poor Data Management
- Poor Marketing Flow
- Relied On Bulk Marketing
- Lack of Clarity
- Automated Acquisition
- Strong Marketing Flow
- Data Driven Decisions
- Structured Follow-ups
- Increased Lead Generation
- Achieved Sales And Marketing Clarity
- Manual Acquisition Processes
- Ineffective Marketing Flow
- Minimal Lead Insights
- Poor Follow Up Flow
- Inconsistent Lead Generation
- Lacked Sales And Marketing Clarity
After DataSift
- A VA Works Every No-Contact Lead in DataSift
- Daily Follow-Ups Run From the Sift Line Tasks
- Nine Deals Under Contract After the Stacked Niche Switch
- Cold Callers Sent KPIs by Hand Outside the System
- Expensive PPC Spend With No Return
- Follow-Up Leads Vanished Into an Abyss in the Old CRM
- 60,000 Records a Quarter Feeding His Bulk Callers
- Four Contracts Signed in 10 Days
- Three Deals a Week, Two Weeks Running
- First Direct to Seller Push in 30 Years of Business
- A $10,000 Mail Campaign That Produced Nothing
- 15 Years Buying Only From the MLS and Wholesalers
- New lender agreed 12 days after the first collapsed
- $105,696 net profit after closing costs
- Nine properties contracted at $360K, sold at $450K
- Hard money lenders would not lend on rural portfolios
- Local title companies refused assignments and passthroughs
- Seller would only sell one house, priced far over appraisal
- Still Runs on a $500 Monthly Budget
- An $85K Deal Off a 50-Name Stacked List
- 13 Contracts in Six Weeks From 250 Prospects
- About $40K Spread Across Six Months, Still Behind
- Five Contracts in a Row Fell Through
- Shotgun Lists Across Too Many Zip Codes
- One Contract Per 25-35 Leads, Half the Typical Ratio
- Each Caller Brings 16-18 Leads a Week
- 50,000 Free County Records Called on a Four-Month Cycle
- Two Partners Dialing Everything Themselves From 2017 to 2019
- VA Cleaned Every County Download by Hand in Excel
- Another Blanket ListSource Pull Whenever the Pipeline Ran Dry
- Same county-data system expanding into Texas and Miami
- $800K in revenue from six or seven deep-research deals
- About 20 people across data, calling, research, and sales
- PropStream tax delinquent lists arrived after owners had already paid
- Two years hunting a golden list that did not exist
- Bandit signs at intersections, cold calling all day from a coffee shop
- Four deals closed faster than his first three
- 8,200 dials and 25 leads in one November
- Four VAs running one calling and texting protocol
- Generic YouTube advice with no sequence to follow
- Back at a sales job four months after going full time
- Spent $35,000 on marketing with zero return
- About 35 Leads Per Deal Across 347 Total Leads
- $253K In Cash And Equity From One Package Deal
- 40 Properties Wholesaled In Under Four Months
- 12-Hour Days And A 45-Minute Commute
- No Deals Found Through Realtors, MLS, Or Craigslist
- Cold Calling From A Printed Spreadsheet In The Parking Lot
- Pulls Nearly All His Data Straight From the County
- Runs Jacksonville Virtually on $1,000 a Month
- Locked a Contract Four Days After His January Restart
- Scattered Across SMS, Facebook Ads, and a Website
- Partner's $2 an Hour Caller Hit a 1% Contact Rate
- Called Lists Three Times Then Trashed Them
- 50,000 sqft warehouses in negotiation, one to two leads daily
- $59,000 spread on his first big wholesale deal
- Every eviction filed in New Jersey, worked daily
- Old CRM buried callers in highlight and right-click drama
- Phenomenal months, then crickets for months
- Overnight pharmacy shifts, 84 hours in a single week
- Knows the playbook works and is replicating it
- First off-market contract four months after starting
- $250,000 assignment fee on deal one
- Weak cash position after funding ground-up projects
- Questioned whether real estate money was even real
- Two years spending on development deals, not making much back
- $40,000 month tracking with fixed costs
- Five first to market deals since April
- Probate filings pulled daily in multiple counties
- Two mail campaigns, response rates he did not like
- Costs fluctuated month to month with list spend
- Custom Podio build, broad absentee and vacant lists
- Owner buried beside her son after two years unclaimed
- Runs every heir search solo now
- Five heirs found, contacted, and signed across Texas
- Needed a specialist for her first deep heir search
- Paper records only, fathers listed by initials
- Probate leads dead-ended with no findable heirs
- Every No Recycled On A Two-Year Rehash Cycle
- Three VAs Clean Data Before A Single Dial
- Three First To Market Niche Filters Worked Daily
- Loose Onboarding And Under-Corrected Bad Hires
- Team Swung From Large To Small To Solo
- Broad Marketing Across Every Niche At Once
- Mornings and evenings back with his family
- 8 person crew handles whole projects in sets of two
- 40+ properties across three portfolios in about six months
- Afraid to take on payroll and a crew
- The bottleneck on his own projects
- Software job eight to five, real estate five to midnight
- 55% Answer Rate On One-By-One Click To Call
- Free County Data Replaced Every Paid List
- $45K Fee Closed One Week After The Callback
- Podio, Slack, And Multiple VAs, No Traction
- 30,000-Record Lists Dialed Two Or Three Times Through
- At Least $40K Wasted On Lists And VAs
- Four Marketing Attempts on a Couple of Lists
- A Three-Person Team at About $1,800 Cost Per Contract
- Almost Two Years Nomadic Across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East
- Behind a Jacksonville Desk 95 Percent of the Time
What changed
The turning point came when Avi recognized the inefficiency of PPC's high cost per lead. Shifting to DataSift's strategies, he quickly saw a substantial return, with an $80k deal within the first month, validating his move towards a cost-effective, high-impact approach.
Avi Rasowsky's journey illustrates the power of strategic adaptation and the value of targeted, efficient tools like DataSift in achieving sustainable success in real estate.
The Results
The math changed by an order of magnitude. Wholesaling paid him $8,000 to $12,000 per deal on average. Today a typical spread runs $100,000 to $110,000, and he loses interest below $50,000 or $60,000. One 2023 file shows the model. He bought 1.92 acres for $33,000 all in and sold it for $230,000 on a five year note. That is a $197,000 spread before interest.
The test paid for itself in the first month. He switched off Google in August 2021 and landed an $80,000 profit deal that September. He never turned Google back on. The data is free, overhead stays very low, and the expensive part of the process is time he chooses to spend.
REI sift makes it easy to document all that. Whereas if I tried to do it without REI Sift, I would get lost before I even started.
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