Build a Florida lis pendens list for pre-foreclosure research

What you’ll make

A lis pendens list with one row per recorded document from Hillsborough, Collier, Seminole, Duval, or Pasco County. You’ll need an Apify account and a spreadsheet app. This walkthrough starts with Hillsborough lis pendens filings and shows how to revisit the search.

A filing is a record to investigate. Use the clerk’s document and case information to understand its context; do not label every returned party as a property owner or treat a filing as a completed foreclosure. The actor returns legal descriptions where available, rather than matching documents to street or owner mailing addresses.

1. Collect a small set of filings

Open Florida Lis Pendens, Pre-Foreclosure & Deed Leads and paste this JSON into the input.

{
  "county": "hillsborough",
  "documentTypes": [
    "LP"
  ],
  "lastDays": 7,
  "includeDetails": false,
  "maxResults": 20
}

lastDays uses calendar days in America/New_York, ending today. A positive value overrides fixed dates. For a historical search, set lastDays: 0 and provide both dateFrom and dateTo as YYYY-MM-DD. Both dates are included; the maximum window is 366 days.

Check the actor’s current pricing and set a maximum charge before starting. A small maxResults limits delivered rows; it does not make a sample a complete county export. Check the run log for limits and incomplete results.

2. Choose a county and document type

Use LP for lis pendens. For deeds, use D or the equivalent county label listed on the actor page. Document codes vary by county; the actor accepts supported aliases. Run one county per task to make the resulting exports easy to review.

Collier can add case numbers and recording times with includeDetails. Seminole and Duval search results contain only the first party on each side; details add the full party lists. Duval has no recording time. Pasco uses multiple name-prefix searches and takes longer; details add full parties and legal descriptions. Hillsborough ignores the details option.

Use minSalesPrice only for Hillsborough or Duval deed searches with published prices. Leave it at zero for Collier, Seminole, and Pasco. A price filter drops rows with unknown prices.

3. Export and read the parties

When the run finishes, open its output dataset and inspect a few rows. Choose CSV or Excel from the export options. In Google Sheets, use File → Import → Upload. Keep identifiers and ZIP codes as text so leading zeros survive the import.

Keep county, instrumentNumber, documentType, recordedDate, party1, party2, legalDescription, and recordUrl. Use the instrument number to look up the record when the link leads to a search page, as in Seminole.

Party roles depend on the document type. On deeds, the sides represent grantor and grantee; on lis pendens, they represent the filing and opposing sides. Several names may be joined with semicolons. Check partiesTruncated and the party counts before assuming a list is complete.

Missing source values are null. detailFetchFailed: true means a requested detail page could not be read. Recent documents may lack their legal description while the clerk finishes indexing.

4. Set up a recurring search

Save a separate task for your ongoing search. Create a dedicated Apify key-value store, replace the placeholder below with its ID, and schedule the task weekly after you have checked a manual run.

{
  "county": "hillsborough",
  "documentTypes": [
    "LP"
  ],
  "lastDays": 30,
  "newOnly": true,
  "stateStoreId": "YOUR_KEY_VALUE_STORE_ID",
  "waitForLegalDescription": true,
  "maxResults": 500
}

The first complete run delivers the matching documents and establishes the saved state. Later complete runs deliver unseen instrument numbers within the county. The wider date window lets documents held for a legal description appear on a later run. It cannot recover a document that remains incomplete until it falls outside the window.

5. Check completion before appending

Only complete successful runs advance the new-document state. If the search reaches its row limit, spending cap, or fails, earlier instruments may be delivered again on the next run. Check the log, adjust the limits or narrow the search, and match on county plus instrumentNumber when merging exports.

Use one store per workflow and avoid overlapping runs. New-only mode tracks document identity; it is not a general change monitor for corrections to documents already delivered. Keep occasional full exports if you need to review corrected party names or descriptions.

If documents are missing

Check the county’s document label, widen the date window, and inspect whether waitForLegalDescription is holding rows back. Pasco searches require a Party 1 name beginning with a letter or digit, so other names can fall outside coverage. Access blocks or clerk maintenance are source failures, not evidence that no filings exist.