PropStream Alternative for Short-Term Rental Owner Leads

PropStream is one of the most widely used property-data tools in American real estate. People who want to reach short-term rental owners often open it first, because it has owner names, skip tracing and list building in one place. This page explains what PropStream does well, where it stops for anyone who needs to know which homes are short-term rentals, and how public permit registers fill that gap.

Everything we say about PropStream comes from its own website, read on October 23, 2026. Prices and features change, so check the linked pages before you buy.

What PropStream is and who it is built for

PropStream describes itself as a nationwide real estate data provider and "all-in-one real estate lead software." Its home page lists the people it serves: investors, wholesalers, landlords, flippers, lenders, agents and brokers, with contractors, property managers and appraisers among its client groups.

The scale is large. The PropStream home page claims data on more than 160 million properties, more than 308 million deeds and sales, more than 185 million mortgages, more than 41 million pre-foreclosures and more than 70 million MLS records. It says its comparables are built from public records and MLS data, and it advertises more than 165 search filters and 20 ready-made lead lists such as pre-foreclosures, tax liens and vacant properties.

That is a strong toolkit for its core job: finding properties with a financial or ownership signal (equity, distress, vacancy, absentee ownership), then reaching the owner by phone, mail or email. If you buy houses, lend against them or sell services to homeowners in general, it covers a lot of ground.

What PropStream gives you for short-term rental owner contacts

PropStream starts from the property and the deed. For any address it can show the owner of record, and its skip tracing add-on looks up phone numbers and emails for that owner. For a short-term rental business, that part is useful: once you know which address you want, PropStream can usually tell you whose name is on the deed and try to find a way to reach them.

The gap is the first step. To build an STR owner list, you need to know which of the 160 million properties are rented to short-stay guests. PropStream's public pages, as we read them, do not mention short-term rentals, Airbnb or vacation rentals, and we found no short-term rental filter described there. The only rental tool named on its home page is a rental ROI calculator for long-term rental returns. If PropStream adds an STR flag later, or offers one inside the app that is not described on its public pages, this section would change. Ask them directly if it matters to your decision.

The usual workaround is an absentee-owner or second-home list in a resort ZIP code. That list catches short-term rentals, but it also catches long-term landlords, vacant lots, family cabins that are never rented and seasonal homes the owner uses themselves. You pay to skip-trace all of them, and your outreach reaches a lot of people who have no reason to care about cleaning, guest insurance or STR management.

There is a second, smaller gap. The deed owner and the person running the rental are not always the same. A home held in a trust or an LLC may be run by a family member, a co-host or a manager. A deed tells you who owns the property. A short-term rental permit tells you who registered to operate it.

PropStream pricing as published

We read the PropStream pricing page on October 23, 2026. It listed three plans, each with a "7-Day Free Trial With 50 Free Leads":

• Essentials: $99 a month paid monthly, or $81 a month billed annually ($972 a year). 25,000 saves and exports a month. Skip tracing is an add-on at 12 cents per contact.
• Pro: $199 a month, or $165 a month billed annually ($1,980 a year). 50,000 saves and exports a month. Skip tracing through its PropStream Connect bundle is included, with additional skip tracing at 10 cents.
• Elite: $699 a month, or $583 a month billed annually ($6,996 a year). 100,000 saves and exports a month, with the same included skip tracing and 10-cent additional rate.

The same page listed emails at 2 cents each, deed and mortgage documents at $5 each, and direct mail from 57 cents per postcard. Team members on Essentials are a $30-a-month add-on.

How permit-register data differs

A short-term rental permit is a filing with a city, county or state. To get one, the operator gives the government the property address, their name and, in some places, a phone number and email. Many agencies then publish the register on an open-data portal or a map. Our guide to what an STR permit record contains walks through the fields.

Three differences matter when you compare this to PropStream:

• The STR signal is the record itself. Every row on a register exists because someone registered a short-term rental. There is no inference from absentee status or ZIP code.
• The name is the operator. The register shows who applied to rent the home, which is often the person who makes decisions about cleaners, insurance and managers.
• Contact details come from the filing, when the register publishes them. Some registers publish a phone or email on most rows, and many publish none. Lead Mining Company passes on what the government published and does not verify it.

Permit data has its own limits. It covers only places that run a permit program and publish the results: PermitPulse holds 283,611 records from public registers in the states that publish them, not all 50. Unregistered rentals are missing by definition. Idaho and Iowa prevent local permitting, so there is nothing to collect there (why). And a permit says nothing about mortgages, equity or value, which is PropStream's home ground.

When PropStream is the right tool

• You buy, lend on or list properties and need equity, mortgage, lien and sale history on any address in the country.
• You sell to homeowners in general (roofing, solar, home services) and short-term rental status is not your filter.
• You already have a list of STR addresses and need a phone number or email for owners whose register published none.
• You want a direct-mail, skip-tracing and list tool in one subscription.

When permit data is the right tool

• Your product only makes sense for short-term rental operators: STR management, turnover cleaning, guest-ready furnishing, STR insurance, hot tub service, listing photography.
• You want new operators. Registers carry a filing date, and some publish pending applications. PermitPulse currently holds 26,549 records filed in the last 12 months and 4,147 pending applications. A homeowner who just applied is often choosing a cleaner, an insurer and a manager right now (timing guide).
• You work a market whose register publishes contact details. As of October 2026, our Louisiana file had 29,350 contactable records out of 34,063, and Wisconsin had 13,064 out of 13,374.
• You want a fixed, known cost per state rather than per-contact charges.

Using PropStream and permit data together

The combination works best in markets where the register publishes addresses and names but no phone numbers. Tennessee is a clear case. As of October 2026, our Tennessee file held 33,732 records and none with a phone or email, because the registers there do not publish them. Most of that file comes from the Nashville residential STR permit register.

A worked example for a Nashville cleaning company:

1. Download the Tennessee file once for $149, or get it on the $99-a-month state plan.
2. Filter to the ZIP codes you serve and to permits filed in the last 12 months. Say that leaves 1,000 addresses (an example figure; your count will depend on the filters).
3. Upload those 1,000 addresses to PropStream and skip-trace them. At the Essentials add-on rate of 12 cents per contact, 1,000 contacts would cost $120 on top of the $99 subscription. That is our arithmetic from the published prices, assuming every address returns a contact; the real number depends on how many match and how PropStream bills misses.
4. Mail every address first, since mail needs no consent and every record has an address (mail playbook). Then follow up by phone only where the rules allow it.

Two cautions. Skip-traced numbers belong to the deed owner, which may not be the operator named on the permit, so check that the names match before you call. And appended numbers are often personal mobiles. Under the TCPA and the National Do Not Call Registry rules, scrub every number against the Registry and state lists, do not use autodialers or artificial or prerecorded voices, and do not text without consent. Email falls under CAN-SPAM. Our TCPA and DNC guide covers the details. This is general information, not legal advice.

PropStream and permit data compared

Where Lead Mining Company fits

We publish one product for this job: PermitPulse, the permit registers above cleaned into one file. It holds 283,611 records, 125,065 with a phone and 64,233 with an email, all as published by the government. It costs $99 a month for one state or $299 for all states, or a one-time download of $149 per state. Before buying anything, you can check a single address with the free STR permit lookup or see the state-by-state counts on our coverage page.

Frequently asked questions

Can PropStream find Airbnb hosts?

PropStream can find the owner of any address and skip-trace a phone or email for them. Its public pages, read on October 23, 2026, do not describe a way to tell which properties are Airbnb or other short-term rentals. Users usually approximate with absentee-owner lists, which mix STRs with long-term rentals and second homes.

Is permit data cheaper than PropStream?

They price different things. PropStream Essentials is $99 a month plus 12 cents per skip-traced contact. A PermitPulse state plan is also $99 a month, and a one-time state download is $149. If your goal is a list of registered STR operators, the permit file gets you there without paying to sort STRs from other absentee owners. If you need equity or mortgage data, only PropStream has it.

Why do some permit records have no phone number?

Each city or county decides what to publish. Some post the applicant's phone and email; others post only the address and name. Tennessee, Oregon, Illinois, South Carolina, North Carolina, Hawaii, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and Wyoming registers in our file publish no phone or email. For those, mail the address or skip-trace it in a tool like PropStream.

Does the deed owner match the permit holder?

Often, but not always. Homes held in trusts or LLCs, and homes run by a co-host or manager, can show a different name on the permit than on the deed. Compare the two before you call, and address mail to the name on the permit when you are selling an operating service.

Can I call the numbers I get from either source?

Only within the rules. Many STR owners are individuals, and their numbers are often personal mobiles. The TCPA and Do Not Call rules apply: scrub against the National Do Not Call Registry and state lists, use no autodialers or prerecorded or artificial voices, and do not text without consent. Mail is the lowest-risk first touch.

PropStream is a trademark of its owner. Lead Mining Company is not affiliated with or endorsed by PropStream.