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If you have ever pulled an absentee owner list and felt overwhelmed by the size of it, you are not alone. There are more than 65 million absentee-owned properties in the United States. That is not a list you can work. It is a database.
The fix is not a bigger list. It is a smarter filter. When you stack tax delinquency on top of absentee ownership, the list gets dramatically smaller and dramatically more motivated. This post walks through the national numbers behind that stack, where it concentrates by state, and how to apply it in DealMachine.
More than 2.26 million U.S. properties are simultaneously absentee-owned and tax-delinquent. That means 53.5% of every tax-delinquent property in America is also absentee-owned, making this dual-signal filter one of the highest-concentration motivated-seller screens a new investor can run.
What follows is a set of double distressed real estate leads pulled directly from parcel-level records, along with a clear explanation of what the numbers mean for the absentee owner tax delinquent properties filter and how to build your own call list from it.
Defining the Two Signals
An absentee owner is someone whose mailing address, on file with the county assessor, does not match the property address. The owner does not live in the home. DealMachine's ultimate guide to absentee owner lists covers this status in more depth.
A tax-delinquent property is one where the owner has missed at least one property tax payment, as recorded by the county tax authority. See DealMachine's guide to investing in properties with delinquent taxes for how that process plays out.
DealMachine cross-references both statuses at the parcel level, nationwide, so it can answer a more useful question than either filter alone: is this property demonstrably both, right now?
Most lead-list providers publish guidance on absentee owners and guidance on tax delinquency as two separate topics, and a few mention layering one on top of the other as a general idea. None of them publish an actual count of how many properties fall into both categories at once, or break that overlap down by state. Producing that number requires a nationwide, parcel-level absentee-owner database paired with a rolling feed of county tax delinquency records, cross-referenced property by property rather than at a county or zip code summary level.
The National Numbers
| Signal | National Property Count |
|---|---|
| Absentee-owned only | 65,542,182 |
| Tax-delinquent only | 4,229,026 |
| Both signals combined | 2,260,477 |
| % of tax-delinquent properties that are also absentee-owned | 53.5% |
If you are already pulling a tax-delinquent list, more than half of it is absentee-owned without doing anything extra. Stacking the absentee filter on top does not add work. It removes the other half, the half where the owner still lives in the home and is far less likely to sell to a stranger who mails or knocks.
The combined list, at 2.26 million properties, is 96.5% smaller than the absentee-only list. That reduction is the entire point of running both filters together instead of one.
It also compares favorably to running the tax-delinquent filter alone. That list, at 4.2 million properties nationally, is already a size many investors treat as workable. Stacking the absentee filter on top narrows it by another 46.5%, while keeping owners who are both financially behind and less connected to the property day to day, a meaningfully different starting point for a cold call or a mailer than the full delinquent list.
Where This Concentrates: Top 10 States
| Rank | State | Absentee + Tax-Delinquent Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Texas | 343,293 |
| 2 | Ohio | 194,285 |
| 3 | North Carolina | 166,433 |
| 4 | Florida | 111,424 |
| 5 | Georgia | 109,346 |
| 6 | Michigan | 103,598 |
| 7 | Tennessee | 66,159 |
| 8 | Pennsylvania | 17,340 |
| 9 | Indiana | 17,034 |
| 10 | South Carolina | 16,491 |
Texas leads by a wide margin at 343,293 combined properties, driven by sheer size and a high rate of investor-owned property. See DealMachine's Texas tax-delinquent properties guide for local detail.
Ohio's second-place ranking at 194,285 is the more surprising one, since Ohio is only the seventh most populous state. Rust Belt economic pressure and a high concentration of absentee landlords in older housing stock explain the gap. DealMachine covers this in its Ohio tax-delinquent list guide.
Florida ranks fourth at 111,424, despite having the second-highest absentee-owner count nationally, suggesting Florida's absentee owners are paying property taxes more reliably than in other states. Georgia, Michigan, and Tennessee round out the middle tier, each shaped by local absentee concentration and county collection patterns; Georgia's breakdown is in DealMachine's Georgia tax-delinquent properties guide.
Pennsylvania, Indiana, and South Carolina close out the top 10, sitting much closer together in scale than the states above them. Each still produces a double-signal count in the tens of thousands, a useful reminder that this filter is not only relevant in the largest states.
Who This List Is Built For
This filter is most useful for new wholesalers stuck between two bad options: a list so large it is impossible to work, or one so narrow it runs dry in a week. The double-signal list sits in between, small enough to call through and concentrated enough to be worth the effort, and it is a solid foundation for a wholesale lead list strategy that does not require guessing at which distress signals matter most. DealMachine's wholesaler solutions page has more on fitting this into a broader lead workflow.
In practice, a single county's absentee-owner list might still run a few thousand properties, too many for one person to work consistently alongside a job or other deals. Adding the tax-delinquent filter on top typically brings that same county down to a few hundred properties, a number that fits into a month of steady calling or mailing.
How to Apply This in DealMachine
Open your filter panel, select the absentee owner filter, then add the tax-delinquent filter on top rather than running a separate search. Optionally layer in an equity percentage filter to prioritize owners with the most room to negotiate, then export the list into your calling or mailing workflow. DealMachine's guide to using filters walks through the panel in more detail.
Both statuses update on a rolling basis rather than once a year, so it is worth re-running the filter periodically for your target area instead of treating one export as a static list. An older, previously worked list can start producing results again after a few months, once some of those owners have become newly tax delinquent.
Where to Go From Here
Two filters, applied at the same time, take you from an unworkable 65.5 million properties down to a focused 2.26 million, a list size a new investor can actually call through, mail to, and follow up with consistently. That is the entire value of the double-signal filter: not a bigger list, but a smaller one built around the owners most worth your time.
Run the double-signal filter directly in DealMachine and export a state-level or county-level list in a few minutes. From there, it is just a matter of working the list the way you would any other: consistently, and with a system for follow-up.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does tax delinquency mean the property is heading to foreclosure?
Not necessarily. Tax delinquency means at least one payment was missed. Most states offer a redemption period during which the owner can pay what is owed before anything more serious happens.
How many missed payments qualify as "delinquent"?
This varies by county. Most places flag a property after one missed payment cycle, though the point at which penalties or a sale process begin depends on local rules. DealMachine pulls this status directly from county tax authority records.
Can I add a third filter, like vacancy or pre-foreclosure?
Yes, and it is a natural next step once you have worked through a double-signal list. Adding vacancy, pre-foreclosure status, or equity percentage narrows the list further and can surface an even more urgent subset of owners. Just keep in mind each additional filter shrinks your total lead count, so test how far you actually need to narrow before you run out of leads to work.
Does DealMachine show the dollar amount of back taxes owed?
Where the county makes that information available, yes. Back tax amounts come from the same county records used to determine delinquency status.
Is absentee the same thing as out-of-state?
No, and this is a common mix-up. Absentee simply means the owner's mailing address does not match the property address. That owner could live twenty minutes away or on the other side of the country. Out-of-state ownership is one common form of absentee ownership, but plenty of absentee owners live in the same city, or even the same neighborhood, as the property they own.