1. We Find the Funds
Counties and courts publish records of foreclosure and tax deed sales that generated more money than the amount owed. We track these records to find surplus funds that are still unclaimed.
Here’s the why behind it: once the government collects what it’s actually owed, that should be the end of the story — not a quiet green light to pocket everything left over. That extra money was never the government’s to keep. It doesn’t belong sitting forgotten in a courthouse file either — it belongs to you. Shining a light into that gap, and getting the money back to the people it belongs to, isn’t just what we do. It’s a bit of a crusade for us. Call it stewardship: someone has to look out for that money until it’s back in the right hands. That’s the job we’ve taken on.
2. We Do the Due Diligence
The county publishes the sale record, starts the clock on your claim deadline, and stops right there. No letter, no phone call — no one whose job it is to let you know money is waiting on you. That’s exactly the gap we exist to close. Before we ever reach out, we do the due diligence the state never will — confirming the surplus is real, verifying who it actually belongs to, and then reaching out to you, because if nobody claims the funds, they leave the clerk’s office and move into the state’s unclaimed property system, where they sit until someone files.
Then we contact you directly — plainly, and without any pressure — and tell you exactly what’s owed, what the timeline looks like, and how to get it back, including the fact that you’re always free to handle the claim yourself from there. We say that last part every time, because getting the money back into your hands matters more to us than who ends up doing the paperwork.
3. We Handle the Paperwork
Here’s how we help: we prepare the claim, gather the documentation the county or court requires, and file it before the deadline. Every state and county has its own rules and its own forms. We know them, so you don’t have to figure them out under a time crunch. We also cover every up-front cost involved in filing your claim — there’s nothing for you to pay out of pocket, whether or not we recover anything for you.
4. You Get Paid
Once the county or court approves and releases the funds, we send your payment right away. Our fee — if we recover any funds — comes out of that payment and varies depending on the state and type of claim. It’s a fixed percentage spelled out in your agreement before you sign anything, and it will never exceed what your state’s law allows. If we recover nothing, you owe nothing.
One more thing we’ll always tell you straight: if there are outstanding liens on the property — a second mortgage, an HOA lien, a judgment — those typically come out of the surplus before we calculate your payment, so what you receive can be less than the total surplus. It’s still worth claiming, though: claiming the surplus is what settles those liens. Leave the surplus unclaimed, and the government keeps it all while the liens usually go unpaid too.
How Long Does It Take?
It varies by county and by the type of sale — some claims resolve in a matter of weeks, others take longer if there are multiple claimants or extra paperwork involved. We’ll give you an honest, specific timeline for your situation once we’re working on it, not a generic promise.