Bulk skip tracing vs single lookups
This is the first fork in the road and most people pick by price, which is the wrong axis.
The case for lookups
Per-lookup pricing is honest about small volume. If you need eleven numbers this month, paying for eleven is obviously right, and any bulk minimum is money set on fire.
It also matches a physical pipeline. Driving for dollars, a code-violation list you photographed off a county noticeboard, a probate filing a friend mentioned — all of those arrive one property at a time.
The failure mode is scale: assembling a thousand-record calling campaign one lookup at a time is slow enough that most people simply never do it.
The case for bulk
Outbound is a volume game with a low response rate per contact, so the campaign only works if the list is big enough for the arithmetic to land. That means sourcing in bulk.
Bulk also lets the provider do the cleaning once, for everyone: entity filtering, mobile-only selection, litigator and DNC scrubbing. Done per-lookup, that work either gets skipped or gets done by you.
If the county holds fewer records than you ordered, you get everything it holds and the difference goes back to your balance automatically. There is no topping the file up with a different list type to hit a promised number.
How to actually choose
Ask which you can name more easily: the next property you want to contact, or the next county you want to work. Whichever comes to mind first is the model that fits you.
If the answer is a county, the next question is which list type, and that depends on the state — a pre-foreclosure list behaves very differently in a judicial foreclosure state than a non-judicial one.
Volume without a plan for the follow-up is worse than lookups, incidentally. A thousand numbers you never call cost more than eleven you do.
Questions people ask
What is a reasonable first order?
A county you already know, at a size you can genuinely call through in a few weeks. A list you do not finish is a list you paid for twice — once in money and once in the deals that were in the bottom half of it.
Does a bigger order get a lower rate?
Through the plans, yes — the monthly fee buys a lower per-record rate and arrives as credit you spend on records. There is no separate volume haggle on top of that.
Does unused credit expire?
No. It rolls over for as long as the account is open. Nothing resets on the first of the month.
Other comparisons
Pick a county and a list type, or send your own addresses. Mobile numbers only, litigator and DNC scrubbed, and anything the county does not hold is credited back.