Budgeting a List Order: Records, Cost and Where to Start

Pricing here has two parts and nothing else: 2¢ per record, and a $10 minimum order. No subscription, no setup fee. So the only real question is how many records you need.

The math

Multiply the record count by 2¢. If the result is under $10, you pay $10. That minimum covers 500 records, so any order of 500 rows or fewer costs the same.

=MAX(A2 * 0.02, 10)

Here is what each list costs for a whole county, using Boulder County, CO, October 2026 data (133,279 properties on file):

Data is the small line in the budget. Printing and postage on every record you mail will cost far more than the records themselves, so plan the mailing budget first and let it decide how many rows you buy.

Pick where to start

1. Step01

   Choose one county you can work

   Start where you can do the deal, not where the count is biggest. Good signs:

   • You know prices well enough to make an offer without guessing.
   • You, or someone you trust, can see a property in person.
   • You have a title company or closing attorney there.

2. Step02

   Choose the narrowest list that fits your offer

   A broad list isn’t a filter. In Boulder, high equity matches 123,159 of 133,279 properties, about 92% of the county. Buying it whole is close to buying every owner.

   Start with a narrow list that matches your offer instead, then use the signals column to stack. Every row carries every list it matches, so a vacant or tax delinquent order already tells you which of those owners also have high equity. No second purchase needed.

3. Step03

   Split a big county into ZIPs

   When a list is too big for one mailing budget, order it a ZIP at a time instead of the whole county:

   • Look up the count for each ZIP you are considering.
   • Start with the ZIP you know best, or where your buyers want to own.
   • Work it fully: every touch you planned, every reply logged.
   • Then order the next ZIP. Each order is priced on its own.

   A small ZIP can come in under 500 rows, and you pay the $10 minimum either way. If that happens, consider ordering the whole city instead of the single ZIP.

4. Step04

   Write the budget down

   One line per order: area, list, record count, data cost, mailing cost, and the date of the drop it came from.

Three ways to waste a list budget

• Buying the whole county on day one. You pay for rows you won’t mail before the next drop makes them stale. Order what you can work this month.
• Buying the same owner twice. A property on two lists shows up on both orders. Before you mail a second list in the same area, match it to the first on apn plus county_fips and drop the repeats.
• Sitting on a file. Pre-foreclosure and tax delinquent rows change fastest. Order them close to the day you mail, not weeks ahead.