Hillsborough County's Clerk of Court publishes some of the most useful free public-record files in Florida: a daily index of recorded documents and daily lists of new court cases. Propertiz reads them every night, ties each record to one of the county's roughly 536,000 parcels, and ranks the owners in Tampa, Temple Terrace, Plant City and unincorporated Hillsborough who may have a reason to sell.
The signals Tampa investors get
New foreclosure cases, the day after filing
Every Florida mortgage foreclosure starts as a circuit civil case. Hillsborough's Clerk posts each day's new civil filings with the parties' addresses, and a defendant's service address is nearly always the property itself, so a new foreclosure can be matched to its house the next morning. The recorded lis pendens reaches the Official Records index about a week later. Propertiz treats the two as one foreclosure stage, so the same case never counts twice, and its weight fades as the filing ages.
County and city liens
The daily Official Records index includes liens recorded by Hillsborough County and its cities, mostly for code enforcement and nuisance abatement. A code lien often means an owner has stopped keeping up with a property: a vacant house, an overgrown lot, or a rental run from another state. Liens recorded by homeowners associations are kept out of this signal, because an HOA balance is a different kind of problem.
Foreclosure judgments and outcomes
The Clerk's case files show which foreclosures reached a final judgment, tied to the filing by case number. Dismissed cases drop off, and so does a house once the Clerk's escrow report shows the auction was held. Certificates of title that went back to the lender appear on the bank-owned list.
Code enforcement in unincorporated Hillsborough
Hillsborough County publishes its open code cases, condemnations and unpaid code-fine liens for unincorporated Hillsborough.
Probate estates
The Clerk also posts new probate cases every business day, with the decedent's address. Estate administrations become probate signals, matched to the property by address and name. Only the case facts and the property address are kept; heirs' addresses are not stored. Inherited houses are among the most common off-market sales, and heirs who live elsewhere often prefer one simple sale to managing a property from far away.
What isn't in Hillsborough yet
- Upcoming auction dates. They're published only on the auction site, which we don't read.
- City of Tampa code cases. The city doesn't publish them; recorded city liens are included.
- Tax-deed sales. Florida's Chapter 197 process is the same in every county, as our tax-deed guide explains, but Hillsborough's sale list isn't imported yet.
- Zoning analysis. Unit potential is calculated for Duval County only.
How Tampa leads are ranked
The rules are the same in every county. A lead needs at least one active distress signal: a foreclosure filing or judgment, a code case or lien, or a probate case. Owner traits from the Property Appraiser roll then add points, such as an absentee or out-of-state owner, no homestead exemption, long ownership and high estimated equity. A probate case on a house bought decades ago reads very differently from a fresh foreclosure on a recent purchase, and the score reflects that.
Every lead is underwritten as a long-term rental: value from nearby comparable sales, rent from HUD's Small Area Fair Market Rents, and taxes recomputed on your purchase price, because Florida resets the assessment when a property sells. The FEMA flood zone matters a great deal around Tampa Bay and along the Hillsborough and Alafia rivers. High-risk zones need flood insurance with a mortgage, and the default buy box accepts only zone X. Test your own numbers with the DSCR calculator.
Working Hillsborough leads well
Mail to the owner's mailing address from the Property Appraiser roll, not to the property, which often reaches a tenant. For probate, address the estate. For a new foreclosure, say plainly that the owner has options, including their servicer and free HUD-approved housing counselors, and that selling is one of them. Calls and texts fall under the TCPA, the Do Not Call registry and the Florida Telephone Solicitation Act, so direct mail is the simplest channel to keep compliant.