House flipping software for the driveway, not the spreadsheet

ARV, repairs and a confidence score, in the driveway

A flip lives or dies on two numbers, and both are produced in the driveway. The ARV step pulls nearby sold comparable sales you include, exclude or add to, with price per square foot, an adjustable ARV and a confidence score. The repairs step scopes work from Light through Full Gut, with suggested costs and a built-in contingency.

Around them sits the ownership picture across 160 million U.S. properties — owner, equity and what is still owed — so you know whether there is room to buy before spending an hour on the analysis. Flippers are one of eight roles in all SCOUTRE solutions, and the underlying capabilities are in what SCOUTRE does.

What problems does this solve?

Four mistakes account for most blown flip margins: a repair number guessed at the walkthrough, an ARV set from the wrong comparable sale, eleven houses that blur together by Monday, and an offer made without knowing what the seller still owes.

I guessed eighty grand of work and it came in at a hundred and forty

Repairs scope from Light through Full Gut. Estimate by square foot for a fast read, or go line-item by category — roof, HVAC, kitchen, bathrooms and others — with suggested costs, notes and a built-in contingency. The suggested costs are a starting scope, not a bid. You adjust every line with your own numbers.

My ARV came from a renovated flip in a better school zone

The ARV step shows nearby sold comparable sales you can include, exclude or add to, with price per square foot alongside each one, an adjustable ARV and a confidence score. Throwing out the wrong comp is a two-tap action, and the number you carry into the offer step is one you defended.

I looked at eleven houses and cannot remember which had the sagging ridge

Photos, voice notes, a distress rating from 1 to 5, visit outcomes, GPS location and capture date and time attach to the property, not to a camera roll. Tag what you see: peeling paint, overgrown lawn, cluttered driveway, damaged roof, boarded windows, accumulated mail, code notices, vacancy signs. A data provider cannot see peeling paint.

I made an offer without knowing what was still owed

Estimated value, estimated equity, estimated mortgage balance, lender, lien position, loan type, original amount and maturity date sit on the record before the conversation starts. Both are estimates, not statements of account balance.

Can you research a flip for free?

Yes, and the ownership half costs nothing. County assessors and property appraisers publish the owner of record, the mailing address, year built, square footage and the assessed value, and county recorders publish the deeds and mortgages underneath. Cook County publishes at cookcountyassessor.com; the Massachusetts registries publish deeds at masslandrecords.com. Searching is free; a copy costs a few dollars.

Comps and condition are where the free route stops. No county publishes a repair scope, and non-disclosure states do not publish sale prices. If you underwrite two houses a month, the county sites are enough and you should use them.

16 signals on the tired house you just walked

A motivated seller is an owner whose circumstances decide the sale, and a tired house often marks one. Vacancy, preforeclosure, probate, a tax lien and bank ownership all say the same thing. SCOUTRE puts those on the record one property at a time: add the house from the driveway with Property in Front, or by address with Nationwide Property Search, and the 16 signals answer whether this owner has a reason to sell. Availability varies by property, county and source.

From the driveway to a defensible number

The workflow starts at one property, never at a market-wide list, and every step stays on that record. You add properties one at a time — captured while driving, found by address, or worked from a list you already have.

The house then sits in an 11-stage pipeline you move by hand: New, Queued, Called, Texted, Contacted, Analyzing, Offer Sent, Negotiating, Under Contract, Closed, Dead. You set every stage yourself.

What comes back on a property?

SCOUTRE covers 160 million U.S. properties at roughly 95% coverage. Coverage varies by county. For a flip the two fields that do the most work are square footage and nearby comparable sales.

• Owner name, owner mailing address, and whether the owner lives there.
• Estimated value, estimated equity, estimated equity percentage, estimated mortgage balance.
• Lender, lien position, loan type, original amount, loan term and maturity date.
• Sale history, last sale price and date, deeds, taxes and assessments.
• Beds, baths, square footage, lot size, year built, zoning, land use, MLS status, Street View and nearby comparable sales.

MLS status comes from participating boards. Equity and mortgage figures are estimates derived from recorded loan history and assessed values. They are not statements of account balance.

SCOUTRE flags 16 distress and opportunity signals, derived from county records:

• Preforeclosure
• Probate or inherited
• Tax lien
• Other liens
• Absentee owner
• Out-of-state owner
• Vacant
• High equity
• Free and clear
• Auction
• Bank owned
• Long-term owner
• Recent transfer
• No homestead exemption
• Low down payment at last sale
• MLS activity

Signal availability varies by property, county and source.

What SCOUTRE does not do

SCOUTRE holds no roof age, no roof condition, no permit history, no inspection data and no storm or hail data. Everything SCOUTRE knows about a specific house's condition is what you photographed, recorded and tagged.

SCOUTRE has no market-wide property search. You cannot ask it for every preforeclosure in a city; the 30+ filters work on the leads you have already saved. There is no CSV import and no export today, and each account is a single user — no teams, no seats, no shared pipelines. SCOUTRE does not log calls, emails or texts back onto the lead. Coverage varies by county.

What does SCOUTRE cost for a house flipper?

One plan, $79 a month, after a 3-day free trial. Cancel anytime. Leads, captures, skip traces, photos, voice notes and follow-ups are unlimited, so photographing forty houses in a weekend costs nothing extra. Physical mail is the only pay-per-use item on the plan.

Postcards start from $0.50 and handwritten letters from $0.83, print and postage included, charged on approval. Address verification and a printed proof are shown before you pay, and your first postcard is mailed free. The Apple Watch app is included free. Full breakdown on SCOUTRE pricing.

Frequently asked questions

Should I trust the repair estimate?

No, and you should not be asked to. It exists so you have a defensible number at the house instead of a guess, not so you skip your contractor. Your own costs replace every suggested line.

Does SCOUTRE know the roof age or the permit history?

No. The closest fact in the record is year built, and year built is not roof age. Condition comes only from the photos, notes and tags you add yourself at the house.

What makes an owner a motivated seller?

Speed, usually — a circumstance that makes speed worth more than price: a foreclosure date, an inherited house nobody wants to maintain, a tax lien, a vacant property costing money every month. SCOUTRE flags all 16 signals on a property you have added, so you read the circumstance before the conversation. Signals describe circumstance, not intent, and availability varies by property, county and source.

Is it worth $79 a month if I buy from wholesalers and at auction?

Probably not. If every deal reaches you through someone else's inbox, the finding half of SCOUTRE sits idle and you are paying for a calculator and a CRM. This page is written for the flipper who sources their own off-market deals.

Can I show the analysis to a lender or a partner?

Yes. The analysis generates a PDF report covering property, owner, comps, ARV, repairs, motivation, exit strategy, offers and verdict, plus a personalized offer email with the details merged in. That email opens in your own client rather than being sent for you.

Does SCOUTRE track the rehab after I buy the house?

No. SCOUTRE is an acquisition tool, not construction project management. There is no budget tracking, no schedule and no draw management. Once the house is yours, the record keeps the history and your build software takes over.

Related guides

• SCOUTRE for real estate investors — the same field workflow across every exit, not only the flip.
• SCOUTRE for wholesalers — the offer step in full, through to a true maximum allowable offer.
• Real estate skip tracing — how a trace runs and what it returns.
• Postcards and handwritten letters — mail carrying the photo of the house.
• How to find out who owns a property — every route, including the free ones.