Daily Data vs Monthly Lists
Daily Data vs Monthly Lists
Information, not legal advice. Laws change; check the current statute or rule and talk to a Texas attorney before you act.
Most lead lists are sold as monthly or quarterly snapshots. That was fine when the source records were themselves updated monthly. Many Texas public records now change every day: court filings, posted foreclosure notices, tax payments, code cases. The gap between when a record appears and when you act on it often decides whether you are the first contact or the tenth.
This guide explains where freshness matters, where it doesn't, and how to work daily data without drowning in it.
What changes daily, weekly and yearly
| Record | How often it changes | Why timing matters |
|---|---|---|
| Posted foreclosure-sale notices | Daily during each month's posting window | Notice must be given at least 21 days before the sale (Property Code §51.002(b)). The whole window from posting to sale is about three weeks. |
| Tax suits, foreclosure suits, probate, divorce, eviction filings | Daily (court filing days) | The first weeks after filing are when owners decide what to do. |
| Delinquent tax balances | Daily as payments post; many counties publish weekly | Paid accounts should leave your list right away. |
| Tax-sale lists | Posted weeks before each first-Tuesday sale; tracts are pulled often | Pulled tracts are wasted mail and wasted research. |
| Code-violation cases | Daily in cities with open-data feeds | New cases and closed cases both carry meaning. |
| Appraisal owner records | Supplements through the year; certified roll each summer | Ownership changes, mailing addresses and exemptions. |
| Market values | Once a year, as of January 1 (Tax Code §23.01) | Monthly refresh adds little. |
So the right refresh rate depends on the signal. Owner and value data can be weeks old without much harm. A foreclosure notice that is two weeks old has used up most of its window.
What goes wrong with a monthly list
- You arrive late. If a list is built once a month, a record filed the day after the cut-off waits up to a month, plus delivery time. For a foreclosure notice posted 21 days before the sale, that can mean the sale is over before the list arrives.
- You contact people who already fixed the problem. Owners pay their taxes, lenders cancel sales, cases get dismissed. A snapshot can't tell you who dropped off since it was made. Mailing them wastes money. Telling someone they are behind when they aren't is a bad first impression.
- For tax lenders, staleness has a legal edge. A property tax lender's ad may not say or imply that an owner has been sued for taxes unless the lender verified the suit within the last 30 days (7 TAC §89.208). Fresh suit status is what lets a lender truthfully say a suit has been filed.
- Calendar deadlines slip by. In Texas, delinquent-tax penalties jump on July 1, and an attorney collection penalty of up to 20% can be added (Tax Code §§33.01, 33.07). Redemption periods run 180 days or two years from the date the tax-sale deed is filed (§34.21). A monthly list can miss the moment that matters.
- You can't see momentum. A property that picked up a code case last week and a tax suit this week is a different lead from one that has had a single old delinquency for years.
What "daily" should mean
A daily feed is only as useful as its change tracking. Look for:
- First-seen and last-seen dates on every record. You can sort by "new since yesterday" and see which records stopped appearing at the source.
- Drop-off handling. A record that disappears from the source (paid, dismissed, pulled from a sale) should be marked, not silently deleted, so you can stop outreach.
- The source's own date. "Pulled today" is not the same as "filed today." Each record should carry the source's filing or posting date and the date of the file it came from.
- Honest coverage. Some sources publish daily, some weekly, some only when asked. A good feed says which is which.
The limits of daily data
Freshness isn't free, and not every record can be daily.
- Some offices only publish weekly or less. A Public Information Act request covers only records that exist on the day it is received. An office doesn't have to honor a standing request for future records (Attorney General Opinion JM-48 and later decisions). Where no file is posted, "daily" isn't possible without a paid feed.
- Court indexes may lack addresses. Matching a filing to a property can then rely on names, which is less certain. Name-only matches should be labeled.
- More records means more noise. Daily feeds surface everything. You still need filters and a plan.
How to work daily data
- Set a daily routine. Review new records each morning: new foreclosure notices first, because their window is shortest. Then new suits and filings, then everything else.
- Suppress drop-offs automatically. Pull paid, dismissed and pulled-from-sale records off your mail and call queues the day they drop.
- Use deadlines as triggers. Examples: days until a posted sale; July 1 for tax delinquency; the redemption end date after a tax sale.
- Stack signals. A fresh signal on a property that already has another one is often worth more than either alone. See how to stack distress signals.
- Batch the slow stuff. Owner and value data don't need daily attention. Refresh your base list monthly and work the daily changes on top of it.
- Keep your own history. Note when you contacted each owner and what happened. Daily data plus your notes beats any purchased snapshot.
Example (made-up numbers)
A foreclosure notice is posted on the 10th of the month for a sale on the first Tuesday of the next month, 25 days later. On a daily feed, you see it on the 11th, with 24 days to reach the owner. On a monthly list cut on the 1st and delivered on the 5th, it shows up next month on the 5th, after the sale has already happened.
How this shows up in Agentix Data
Agentix Data pulls its sources every morning. Every record keeps the date we first saw it and the date we last saw it, so you can filter for what's new and see what dropped off. Each record also carries its source date. Sources that only publish weekly (several county tax rolls) are refreshed as often as the county posts them.
Sources
- Property Code §51.002 (notice of sale at least 21 days before): https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex._prop._code_section_51.002
- Tax Code §33.01 (penalties and interest): https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex._tax_code_section_33.01
- Tax Code §33.07 (collection penalty): https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex._tax_code_section_33.07
- Tax Code §34.21 (redemption): https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex._tax_code_section_34.21
- Tax Code §23.01 (appraisal as of January 1): https://texas.public.law/statutes/tex._tax_code_section_23.01
- 7 TAC §89.208 (property tax lender advertising): https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/texas/7-Tex-Admin-Code-SS-89-208
- Attorney General letter ruling citing JM-48 and ORD 465/476 (no standing requests): https://www2.texasattorneygeneral.gov/opinions/openrecords/50abbott/orl/2011/htm/or201103721.htm
General information, not legal or financial advice.