DataScout News

LITTLE ROCK — New mapping functions are available on the Arkansas land commissioner's website for people who want to research tax-delinquent properties.

Land Commissioner John Thurston says the mapping is available through his office's partnership with Arkansas-based information technology company DataScoutPro.

Those interested can visit the commissioner's website at www.cosl.org then select current catalog or negotiated sales list. Once there, the site shows delinquent properties at the county level.

Thurston says the new function will allow people to research parcels and view boundary lines quickly and easily.

JUL 19 2012 by Donetta Sterling, Guard Staff Writer

For anyone who has attempted to buy one of the tax delinquent properties at auction and found themselves overwhelmed- - you are not alone.

Changes made by Commissioner of State Lands John Thurston hopes to make it easier for everyday people to buy these types of properties.

Thurston was in Batesville Wednesday to present a $87,929.88 turn-back check to county officials. The funds stem from the redemption and sale of tax delinquent properties certified to the Commissioner of State Lands office for 2011 and although the county has already received the funds, the check presentation is a way to draw attention to the tax-forfeited land sales and auctions, according to Phillip Carper, public relations assistant.

Earlier that morning, the once a year auction was held inside the courtroom at the Independence County Courthouse with less than 25 people in attendance. Many of the parcels weren't even being bid on but changes made by Thurston are aimed at getting more people at these auctions.

An updated, easier to use website is one of those changes.

"That was the first thing we did when we came in," Thurston said. "In the past people had to come to the courthouse and do a lot of research."

"We have partnered with DataScout," Carper said. "We're making it easier for the everyday taxpayer."

At the website www.cosl.org, buyers can view the Public Auction catalog (parcels to be auctioned) or the Negotiated Sales list (parcels for sale). From either one buyers can view properties from all over the state that are categorized by county. By clicking on a parcel, perspective buyers can get assessment information including the property address if available.

Because of the recession the office is seeing more parcels and want to see more people taking advantage of the deals to be had at these auctions and the properties that are for sale directly through their office.

"The more people involved, the more money goes back to taxpayers," Carper said.

This year he has seen an increase of 20 percent more bidders.

A listing of properties for sale is available on the website www. cosl.org. A booklet is also available in the Independence County circuit clerk's deeds and mortgages office. Buyers need to be aware there is a 30-day redemption period where the property can be purchased back by the original owners.

"If not paid the purchaser will receive a deed," Carper said.

There is also a one year litigation period.

Carper said his office recommends no changes to the property within that year.

"You basically have to sit on your money for a year. It's not for everyone. It's a good investment opportunity," Carper said.

"I really want the public to know the excess proceeds goes back to the county. The state does not benefit. Eighty percent of these tax dollars goes to public schools. When they are in our land office schools are missing out," Thurston said. "Last year the land office forwarded $20.4 million to the counties of Arkansas."

For more information and a complete list of rules and regulations visit www.cosl.org or call (501) 324-9422.

The DataScoutPro.com development team has two major priorities when it comes to providing the best product for our clients: provide new upgrades seamlessly with strong customer service and open communication, and then develop products needed and suggested by you, our customer.

With that said DataScoutPro.com is excited and proud to present Radial and Buffer Selection tools for the interactive map viewer. You are receiving this email because we have identified you as the primary account holder. The auto-upgrade happened last month for beta-testing. There should not be any issues, but if you are experiencing problems contact our staff at support@datascoutpro.com.

What’s new?

	1.	Radial Selection Tool – DSP now allows our clients to view multiple parcels within a selected radius. You can does this by a) setting a predefined size for the radius of your circle, or b) dropping a radial center point and expanding to your desired size on the map.
	2.	Straight Line Buffer – If you have ever wanted to select all the parcels down a street, along a riverfront or lakeside, or down a power line all at once, then you will love this tool. With this tool, you can draw a line on the interactive map viewer. Any parcel that the line touches will be selected at once. You can increase the size, or buffer, of the line to engage a larger width.
	3.	Polygon Selection Tool – If you would like to select all parcels under a unique polygon, then this is your tool. The ‘Polygon Selection Tool’ is similar to the ‘Radial Selection Tool’ in that it selects all parcels within the drawn polygon. When you finish drawing your polygon, make sure you double click to view all parcels.

What do you need to do?

Nothing! The new upgrade is seamless and all ‘Silver and Gold’ accounts already have the new search features. Go and ahead and try them out. Then call our staff with product enhancements that will make your DSP experience more effective.

Confused or Need Help?

Watch these videos, or contact our friendly staff at anytime at 479-521-5607 or email us at support@datascoutpro.com.

Sincerely,

The DataScoutPro.com Team

The DataScoutPro.com development team has two major priorities when it comes to providing the best product for our clients: provide new upgrades seamlessly with strong customer service and open communication, and then develop products needed and suggested by you, our customer.

With that said DataScoutPro.com is excited and proud to present upgrades to the MyLists, Comparable Sales Finder, and Map Printing. You are receiving this email because we have identified you as the primary account holder. The auto-upgrade happened last night, Tuesday, December 6, 2011. There should not be any issues, but if you are experiencing problems contact our staff at support@datascoutpro.com.

What’s new?

1. MyLists Upgrade – We pretty much scrapped the old interface and are introducing a new and improved user experience. You can now map all your properties in your list, view the sales records only and much more. We suggest all users try this feature.
2. Comparable Sale Finder – DSP has tweaked its comparable sales algorithm to provide our clients even better comps. We also added the ability to ‘Map Selected’. This will locate all selected comps on a map so you can see where they are in relation to subject parcel. In addition to the algorithm and mapping the comps, we have added a few more fields to filter by.
3. Map Printing – There is a programming term called WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). Our print feature now makes this possible so that all parcels boundaries, points, section-township-range, or any other toggled layer is printed over the base layer. Literally, you can now print what you see on the map viewer and toggle the layers.

What do you need to do?

Nothing! The new upgrade is seamless and all accounts already have the new search features. Go and ahead and try them out. Then call our staff with product enhancements that will make your DSP experience more effective.

Confused or Need Help?

Watch these videos, or contact our friendly staff at anytime at 479-521-5607 or email us at support@datascoutpro.com.

The DataScoutPro.com development team has two major priorities when it comes to providing the best product for our clients: provide new upgrades seamlessly with strong customer service and open communication, and then develop products needed and suggested by you, our customer.

With that said DataScoutPro.com is excited and proud to present a direct link to map from search page. The auto-upgrade happened this morning, Thursday, August 24, 2011. There should not be any issues, but if you are experiencing problems contact our staff at support@datascoutpro.com.

What’s new?

1. 'Search Map' directly – Our clients can now navigate directly to the DataScout map viewer without searching for a parcel. Simply click on the 'Search Map' tab, which is next to the 'Search Data' tab in the main menu toolbar. By clicking on this link, you will redirect to a map of the State of Arkansas. You can zoom to your desired location or perform an address search on the left hand side of the map viewer.
2. Benton County deeds – DSP has recently added hundreds of thousands of deed document images to our database available for searching. The deed images date back to 1951 and encompass all scanned deed images available in Benton County.
3. New County Select for 'Gold' users – with the acquisition and integration of all 75 counties in Arkansas, the DSP county selection list for 'Gold' users has been slightly modified. We believe the user interface has been greatly simplified and hope you think so too – no more scrolling all the way to the bottom of the page for Washington County!

What do you need to do?

Nothing! The new upgrade is seamless and all accounts already have the new search features. Go and ahead and try them out. Then call our staff with product enhancements that will make your DSP experience more effective.

Confused or Need Help?

Watch these videos, or contact our friendly staff at anytime at 479-521-5607 or email us at support@datascoutpro.com.

Fayetteville, AR – DataScout, LLC announces today that real estate information contained in each of the county assessor offices within the State of Arkansas is now available on its flagship product DataScoutPro.com. With the addition of Mississippi County, DataScoutPro.com now becomes the only online resource for county real property records in all Arkansas counties. DataScoutPro.com now offers immediate access to property records to over 2.5 million parcels, 6.6 million property transactions, and 2 million deed document images.

“Being the first and only company with a complete database of real estate records in Arkansas is a milestone for our company,” said Cory Scott, Chief Operations Officer for DataScout, LLC.“. It has always been our goal to offer our clients full access to county records in Arkansas. We want to thank our loyal client base in Arkansas for providing us with the means to obtain these goals. We also sincerely appreciate the cooperation we have received from county officials all over the state.”

DataScoutPro.com is geared towards real estate professionals by offering powerful query capabilities of the information contained in the Arkansas assessor’s databases. Many financial institutions, appraisal firms, insurance agencies, attorneys and real estate firms have claimed that DataScoutPro.com is the first website they open each day and has changed the way they do business. Subscribers of DataScoutPro.com can look up the last sale amount, research the assessed and market value according to tax records, browse general property information, view parcel boundary lines on GIS maps, view surveys, analyze deed document images, and much more.

About DataScout, LLC

DataScout, LLC is an Arkansas based company that designs and hosts web based programs and applications for county governments and real estate professionals. Its product lines include actDataScout.com, CountyRecordDirect.com, DataScoutPro.com, county website design and online personal property assessment programs for county government.

The DataScoutPro.com development team has two major priorities when it comes to providing the best product for our clients: provide new upgrades seamlessly with strong customer service and open communication, and then develop products needed and suggested by you, our customer.

With that said DataScoutPro.com is excited and proud to present new map viewer enhancements. You are receiving this email because we have identified you as the primary account holder. There should not be any issues, but if you are experiencing problems contact our staff at support@datascoutpro.com.

1. Address Search – DSP has included a street address lookup on the map viewer interface. You can find this feature located in the ‘Address Search’ tab, directly beneath the ‘layers’ tab on left hand side of the screen. Now you can search the map without navigating away from the viewer.
2. Updated Floodplain Layer – DSP has integrated all levels of floodplain data provided by FEMA into the map viewer. We also provided a disclaimer when data is not available.
3. Parcel Info Popup - We relocated the ‘Parcel Info’ area that was positioned in the top left of the viewer to a more conspicuous popup. This is more in line with traditional map viewers that people are accustomed to, such as the Google Maps popups.
4. Parcel cluster markers – If you have used the ‘Map Selected’ feature to view multiple parcels at once from your search results, then you know searches with a large amount of returned records will produce many mapped data points that are difficult to see. We have now put drop pin cluster markers to show exactly where the mapped parcels are located.
5. Lat/Long Zoom – DSP created a way for you to zoom directly to a latitude/longitude GIS coordinate. This feature is located beneath the ‘Address Search’ on the left tabs.

What do you need to do?

Nothing! The new upgrade is seamless and all "Silver" and "Gold" accounts already have the new search features. Go ahead and try them out. Then call our staff with product enhancements that will make your DSP experience more effective.

Confused or Need Help?

Watch these videos, or contact our friendly staff at anytime at 479-521-5607 or email us at support@datascoutpro.com.

The DataScoutPro.com development team has two major priorities when it comes to providing the best product for our clients: provide new upgrades seamlessly with strong customer service and open communication, and then develop products needed and suggested by you, our customer.

With that said DataScoutPro.com is excited and proud to present agricultural search criteria and enhanced search fields. The auto-upgrade happened this morning, Monday, July 11th, 2011. There should not be any issues, but if you are experiencing problems contact our staff at support@datascoutpro.com.

What’s new?

1. Search ‘Agricultural Only’ – DSP has developed the ability to now search agricultural properties only. Under the property type drop down in the upper left of search screen, you will now see 5 different fields: all, agricultural only, commercial only, residential only, and agricultural/residential.
2. Search by Poultry Farms and more – DSP has integrated searching by poultry farms, hog farms, and dairy farms. You can find this in the main search section titled ‘Agricultural Improvements’.
3. Search by General Improvements - DSP users can now search by ‘outbuildings and yard improvements’, such as, pools, fences, patios, barns, and much more. You can find this in the main search section titled ‘General Improvements’.
4. Street Autofill – Just as we did with the subdivision and city autofill, DSP has created a way to show our users what streets are available for search in the county. Trying to figure out the way the county entered Highway into the datasets? Now just enter “Hi” or “Hw” and our system will tell you.
5. Lot/Block Search – DSP reworked our legal description search field. We now have a separate field for your ‘lot and block’ searches. But don’t worry; we still have a field for full or partial legals.

What do you need to do?

Nothing! The new upgrade is seamless and all accounts already have the new search features. Go and ahead and try them out.

Confused or Need Help?

Watch these videos, or contact our friendly staff at anytime at 479-521-5607 or email us at support@datascoutpro.com.

DataScoutPro.com has acquired all scanned document images from Boone County, AR Land Records from the circuit clerk’s office listed below are now available on DataScoutPro.com.

• Boone Co, AR – All Scanned Images including some as far back as 1939

Watch this Video to learn how access the document image of a real property deed.

Current monthly subscribers to Boone County records will receive 2 free document image downloads. Click here for Pricing and Discounts! Call for Enterprise pricing (unlimited document image downloads). Don’t forget with each month you subscribe as a Silver or Gold user, you get a complimentary deed image view.

DataScout, LLC would like to thank you for using DataScoutPro.com as your source for Arkansas real property records online. Research assessor records in 74 of the 75 counties in Arkansas, locate the property on DataScoutPro.com’s interactive map viewer, and now view the property’s deed. We appreciate your business!

We encourage requests for innovative features on DataScoutPro.com, as well as, requests for additional counties. Feel free to contact our customer service at (479) 521-5607 at any time.

LITTLE ROCK, AR—Commissioner of State Lands John Thurston is pleased to announce that his office has partnered with DataScoutPro.com in order to provide county property records to the public via the Commissioner’s website, www.cosl.org. DataScoutPro is a subscription based website specializing in real estate records. This service is being offered free of charge through the Commissioner of State Lands website and is available on the parcels listed in the auction catalog and on the negotiated sales list. The information includes property details such as: owner, legal description, assessed value, property address and photos if applicable. “Our partnership with DataScoutPro will give the public an online resource for researching delinquent parcels prior to the sale process,” said Thurston.

Potential purchasers may visit the Commissioner of State Lands website (www.cosl.org) to view the auction catalog and negotiated sales lists. Clicking on the parcel number will open a new window where the DataScoutPro property information can be viewed. For additional assistance please contact the Commissioner of State Lands office at 501-324-9422.

DataScout, LLC recently made a gift-in-kind contribution to the Walton College Graduate School of Business in the amount of $129,600 with its product, DataScoutPro.com. Cory Scott, MBA '09, the chief operating officer, was largely responsible for initiating this generous gift, which will provide faculty and students the opportunity to use the company's records for research and learning purposes.

Scott, a native of Little Rock, was inspired to give back to his alma mater after hearing a presentation from Larry Martin of the Gadberry Group, another gift-in-kind contributor, in one of his MBA classes. Then, after using his own company's records for a research project, he realized that others might be able to benefit from them as well.

Scott said, "DataScout has the unique opportunity to help the students, faculty, and staff at the University of Arkansas by providing access to a wealth of real estate data from the Northwest Arkansas area. This information can be used in economic studies, classroom research and to provide graduating students with valuable information as they consider future real estate purchases. I am very proud to be a graduate of the University of Arkansas and to now be associated with a successful Arkansas-based technology company. It is an honor, and most humbling for me to be able to give something back to an institution that has provided me with such a great education and with so many opportunities."

Some may remember Scott as the former portfolio manager for the Shollmier MBA fund who represented the Walton College on CNBC's Squawk Box in August 2008. His father, Tom Scott, BSPA '75, is the president and owner of an Arkansas-based business, and his uncle, Phillip Scott, is the president of DataScout and a former University of Arkansas student. WP

• Columbia Co, AR.

DataScout is a proud sponsor of the Chilrhea Cookoff 2010 benefitting Alzheimer's Arkansas. All proceeds from the event will be going to Alzheimer’s Arkansas. If you have been around someone suffering from Alzheimer’s or other dementia then you know how awful the disease is, as well as, the toll it takes on the caregivers and the families. Alzheimer’s Arkansas focuses its efforts on supporting the caregivers and families dealing with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.

To learn more about Alzheimer’s Arkansas, then go to their website at www.alzark.org.

If you are Northwest Arkansas on Feb 27th, then stop by Pratt Place Inn and Barn at 2231 West Markham Rd., Fayetteville AR. 72701 between 12:30 and 6:00 pm for some good Chili and to support a good cause.

• Stone Co, AR.

• Izard Co, AR.

We would like to thank Tammy Sanders in Izard County for making the data available to DataScout, LLC.

Now you can follow DataScoutPro news on Facebook and Twitter.

DataScout, LLC is excited to announce the introduction of Mailing Labels on DataScoutPro.com! You can now print property owners’ mailing addresses from your DataScoutPro.com account. We have created a PDF report that will populate owners’ mailing addresses without duplicates in the proper positioning for a variety of different Avery® brand shipping labels.

The report is located on the ‘Results Page’ and in the ‘My Lists’ page. To generate the report for mailing labels you will have to purchase one of the supported Avery® brand shipping label products. Load the paper labels into the printer and click print within the browser window of the PDF report that DataScoutPro.com generates.

The ‘Mailing Label’ report has already been applied to all Silver and Gold subscriber accounts for FREE! This feature will come standard with these packages at no additional charge. Bronze accounts will need to upgrade to access the ‘Mailing Label’ report. To learn more, watch this video http://help.datascoutpro.com/demo/MailingLabels/mailinglabels.htm. DataScout, LLC would like to thank you for using DataScoutPro as your source for Arkansas real property records online. We appreciate your business!

We encourage requests for innovative features on DataScoutPro, as well as, additional counties. Feel free to contact our customer service at (479) 521-5607 at any time.

Parcel Boundary Printing

DataScoutPro.com has listened to our clients and now offers the ability to print parcel boundary lines overlaid on Google® Map imagery within the DataScout Interactive Map viewer that is available on our “Silver” and “Gold” packages. This tool allows your company or firm to upload a logo, name the pdf, and write a unique description about the report. Click here to view an example a print out. The print option is located in the mapping toolbar shown below. View the video demo here http://help.datascoutpro.com/demo/mapprinting.html . 

Parcel Mutli-Select

Also, DataScoutPro.com has developed a multi-select tool where you can select multiple parcels at once and sort the parcels by name, address, market value. Product is available now on “Silver” and “Gold” packages. View the demo here http://help.datascoutpro.com/demo/multiselect.html.

DataScoutPro.com (DSP) has expanded its county coverage to 64 Arkansas counties. Real property records from the assessor’s offices listed below are now available on the DSP website.

• Chicot Co.
• Cleveland Co.
• Johnson Co.

We would like to thank the assessors in these counties for making the data available to DataScout, LLC.

The acquisition of these counties’ real property records has increased the total property and ownership records on DataScoutPro.com to well over 2,000,000 records.

DataScoutPro (DSP) has expanded its county coverage to 61 Arkansas counties. Real property records from the assessor’s offices listed below are now available on the DSP website.

• Calhoun Co.
• Greene Co.
• St. Francis Co.
• Scott Co.

We would like to thank the assessors in these counties for making the data available to DataScout, LLC.

The acquisition of these counties’ real property records has increased the total property and ownership records on DataScoutPro to well over 2,000,000 records.

DataScoutPro (DSP) has expanded its county coverage to 57 Arkansas counties. Real property records from the assessor’s offices listed below are now available on the DSP website.

• Clay
• Crittenden
• Lee
• Lonoke

We would like to thank the assessors in these counties for making the data available to DataScout, LLC.

The acquisition of these counties’ real property records adds over 100,000 parcels to the DataScoutPro database, which increases total property and ownership records to almost 2 million records.

DataScoutPro (DSP) has expanded its county coverage to 47 Arkansas counties. Real property records from the assessor’s offices listed below are now available on the DSP website.

• Boone County, AR
• Logan County, AR
• Pike County, AR
• Pope County, AR
• Saline County, AR
• Van Buren County, AR

We would like to thank the assessors in these counties for making the data available to DataScout, LLC.

The acquisition of these six counties’ real property records adds over 250,000 parcels to the DataScoutPro database, which increases total property and ownership records to nearly 1,750,000 records.

DataScoutPro (DSP) has expanded its county coverage to 41 Arkansas counties. Real property records from the assessor’s offices listed below are now available on the DSP website.

• Craighead County, AR
• Faulkner County, AR
• Franklin County, AR
• Howard County, AR
• White County, AR

We would like to thank the assessors in these counties for making the data available to DataScout, LLC.

The acquisition of Craighead, Faulkner, Franklin, Howard, and White counties’ real property records adds 216,000 parcels to the DataScoutPro database, which increases total property and ownership records to over 1,400,000 records.

On August 26th, DataScout’s Director of Marketing, Cory Scott, appeared on CNBC’s Squawk on the Street. The show, which covers news from financial markets around the world, interviewed Cory about his participation in the University of Arkansas’s Shollmier MBA Fund portfolio management class. The Shollmier MBA Fund recently placed first in its class at the annual Redefining Investment Strategy Education Forum in Dayton, Ohio. Over 250 schools from 69 countries participated in the forum.

The Shollmier MBA Fund was established in 2000 with an initial investment of $250,000. The fund is managed by students and faculty advisors at the Walton School of Business at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. The group meets weekly to discuss their investments and make buy, sell, or hold recommendations. Under the group’s guidance, the fund had an 18.99% return in 2007, which greatly exceeded the S&P 500’s 5.49% annualized return. At the end of 2007, the fund was valued at over $380,000.

Cory was interviewed in New York about the team’s fund management. He briefly outlined the group’s strategies and even discussed some of their recommended picks.

Click here to view the interview online.

DataScoutPro has developed the ability to view any additional parcels involved in a transaction. That is, if a parcel was part of any large transfer with other parcels, you can now click on a link that will display a list of all the additional parcels. The link will be under the “Transfer” section on the property record card under the ‘Code’.

DataScoutPro now offers over 1.2 Million residential and commercial real property records and coverage in 36 Arkansas counties.  Real property records from the Benton County, AR assessor’s office are now available for searching.

Fayetteville, AR. September 11, 2007.

DataScout, LLC announces today that DataScoutPro (DSP) has expanded its county coverage to 35 Arkansas counties. Real property records from the Pulaski County, AR assessor's office are now available on the DSP website. 

“This is a very exciting day for the DataScout family and our subscribers,” said DataScout marketing director Cory Scott. “Since our initial offering of the DSP service we have had numerous requests to provide the Pulaski County data in our ‘easy to search format’.  I am glad that we are now able to accommodate these requests for our customers.  Everyone at DSP would like to thank the Pulaski County assessor's office for their help and assistance in making these real estate records available to our subscribers. ”

The acquisition of Pulaski County real property records adds 168,541 parcels to the DataScoutPro database, which increases total property and ownership records to over 1,000,000 records.

About DataScout, LLC
 

DataScout, LLC is Arkansas's leader in providing internet access to property information and ownership records. All real property records from 35 counties in Arkansas can be accessed anywhere. . . anytime. . . 24/7.  The web based program, DataScoutPro™ (DSP), offers county assessor real property records in an easy search and print format. Where available, DSP displays dwelling sketches and photos, property transfers, ownership information and the property details from county assessor's databases.

You can now save and customize your searches with our new “My Lists” tool. The “My Lists” feature allows you to import and export your queries into separate folders (lists) for later viewing. With this tool, you can create a list of properties from different searches, and then view our property and sales listing reports based on your lists. Use the “My Lists” to organize your searches and save multiple properties from multiple criteria. Want to Learn More?

We have listened to our users! DataScoutPro has just now made it easier for you to find out who owns all the timber tracts by size in your county. Search our databases by Timber acreage. Queries can be performed simply by entering the minimum and the maximum acreage

DataScoutPro has undergone a recent facelift. We have also added new features. You can now advertise with DataScoutPro and get free service by refering your friends and peers. We have also created a new, more extensive county information page. All county official contact information is now available on this page along with the millage rates and more detailed county "quick facts". Dont forget to check DataScoutPro's site News page for new additions to the site. Any new features or site enhancements will be posted here first. Any time a new item is posted, the News section on the Home page will turn red.

DataScoutPro has created a "Refer-A-Friend" program. For every friend that you refer who signs up for a bronze, silver, or gold package, DataScoutPro will credit your account $10.00. There is no limit to the amount of friends that you can refer.

Simply click on the "Refer-A-Friend" link on the left side of the home page to start recieving free service.