Learning center
How our data is sourced
Every record in our index comes from a public source — lists published by county offices, auditors, tax commissioners, or courts. We don’t buy data from brokers, we don’t scrape private databases, and we don’t use anyone’s personal information beyond what the county itself published.
What kinds of lists we monitor
- Tax-sale surplus lists — published by county tax offices after properties sell for unpaid taxes.
- Mortgage-foreclosure surplus lists — published by clerks of court or sheriffs after foreclosure auctions.
- Unclaimed-funds lists — broader county lists where foreclosure surplus is flagged as a line item.
Each state’s page in our state guides names the type of office that publishes the list we monitor there.
How freshness works
Coverage varies by county and source. The state choices in search are filters, not a complete coverage list. A result shows its stored record-checked date when available; that date does not prove funds remain available. We do not publish a verified county-by-county coverage inventory or update timetable here. Confirm current records and availability with the responsible county or court office.
What we do with the raw lists
- Normalize. Names are converted to a standard uppercase form so “Smith, John” and “JOHN SMITH” can be compared fairly.
- Mask. Public display never shows full names — you see masked versions like “J*** S****” until and unless you verify your identity through the proper channels.
- Band the amounts. We convert exact figures into ranges (for example, “Under $10,000” or “$10,000–$25,000”). You’ll never see an exact dollar amount on this site — and there is no minimum: small balances are searchable right alongside larger ones.
- Verify current status. A listed record may be incomplete or out of date. The free search checks records in this index; it cannot establish that every public record or balance is included.
What we can’t see
Public lists don’t tell the whole story, and we’re upfront about that:
- They don’t show liens or competing claims that might reduce what’s actually recoverable.
- They don’t prove identity — a name on a list is not proof it’s you.
- They can be out of date between our checks, or contain typos from the original county file.
That’s why we call every result a possible public-record match, and why the county or court office — not us — makes the final call on eligibility.