Frequently asked questions

Yes. Every property record we sell is sourced from a county appraisal district's public records — the same data anyone can request through a Texas Public Information Act request, or look up parcel-by-parcel on the CAD website. We're just doing the messy aggregation work. Using public property records for direct mail is legal in Texas and every other U.S. state, the same as it's legal to mail postcards to addresses in the white pages.

That said: how you USE the data matters. Direct mail, door-knocking, and lawn signs are fine. SMS without consent is not (TCPA). Robocalls without consent are not. Sale or resale of the data we sold you violates our Terms of Service. Read the Terms if you're unsure.

We refresh from each county's official property record office at least monthly. Most counties publish certified rolls annually (usually mid-year) and preliminary rolls year-round. Ownership changes typically show up within 30-60 days of recording.

This means: a pool that was added 3 weeks ago might not be in our data yet. A homeowner who closed on the house yesterday might still show as the previous owner. For most direct-mail use cases this is fine — you're targeting established pool owners, not the latest 60 days of sales.

Roughly 14 columns per property:

• Owner_Name — the name registered with the appraisal district
• Property_Address — the street address of the home
• Property_City, Property_ZIP
• Mailing_Address, Mailing_City_State, Mailing_ZIP — often different from the property address if the home is a rental or the owner lives elsewhere
• Year_Built — when the home was built
• Pool_Year_Built — when the pool was added (when known)
• Living_Area_SqFt
• Total_Market_Value — most recent appraisal value
• Account_Num — the CAD's unique account/parcel ID
• County, Pool_Age_Years, Has_Spa
• Latitude, Longitude — geocoded coordinates for mapping or radius filtering

ZIP pricing is $0.10 per pool. Radius pricing is $0.20 per pool. The premium for radius reflects the value of precise targeting — buying by ZIP often gets you addresses outside your driving range, while a radius around your shop is exactly the homes you can service. The radius tool is doing the "exclude what doesn't matter" work for you.

After you purchase a radius or ZIP list, the download page shows a filter form. Filters include: minimum pool age, minimum/maximum home value, owner-occupied only (excludes rentals and out-of-state landlords), and minimum/maximum living square footage.

Pay $39 once per list and you can refilter that list as many times as you want for the next year. Want to target homes built before 2010 this week, then $500K+ homes next week? Different filter, same $39 — no extra charge.

The pool addresses themselves are essentially permanent — pools almost never get removed, and a home built with a pool keeps that pool. If you mail to "Current Resident" at each address, the list never goes stale for that purpose.

The owner names and mailing addresses do shift over time as homes change hands. If you mail with personalized names, expect about 8-12% of names to be outdated after a year (national homeowner turnover rate). Pull a fresh list every 12 months if name accuracy matters; mail to "Current Resident" indefinitely if it doesn't.

If you bought a list and the data is genuinely broken — wrong county, all blank rows, file you can't open — email us within 7 days at hello@findpoolowners.com and we'll refund you. We won't refund for "I changed my mind" or "I already mailed it" since the data has already been delivered.

Email us at hello@findpoolowners.com with the county name. We add new counties roughly weekly based on customer demand. If your county has public bulk downloads, we can typically add it within 7 days. If it requires a Public Information Act request, allow 2-4 weeks for the CAD to respond.

Standard comma-separated values, UTF-8 encoded. Opens directly in Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers, Google Sheets, and any database tool that imports CSV. On Android phones, Google Sheets app opens it cleanly. On iPhone, Apple Numbers is pre-installed. On Mac/PC, Excel is the standard.

Yes — anyone can buy the same area you bought. We're not a private list broker; we're a self-serve data product. The competitive advantage isn't whether your competitor CAN buy the data, it's whether they DO, and how well you execute on the mailing. Most pool service contractors won't bother. The 5% who do tend to dominate their service area.

Two ways to use FindPoolOwners:

• Pay-per-list (the main product): pull a list whenever you need one. No recurring fee. Most contractors pull a fresh list every 2-3 months.
• Sold-homes monthly feed (subscription, coming soon): a recurring email delivering the pool homes in your service area that changed ownership in the past month. New owners of existing pools are the highest-converting leads in the industry — they're often shopping for a service provider. Low monthly fee, cancel anytime.

Pay-per-list works for everyone. The subscription is for contractors who want to be first to reach new pool owners every month. Watch this page or your purchase confirmation email for the launch.

Typically 30-60 seconds. Usually faster. Check your spam/promotions folder if it doesn't show up in 5 minutes (Gmail aggressively filters new senders). All emails come from hello@findpoolowners.com — whitelist that address if you can.