How Often Real Estate Teams Actually Buy Data

What the data shows

• 1 in 6 teams added new data every month. The other 5 added lists in some months and none in others (dialing data, November 2025 to October 2026).
• The busiest month carries the year. For a typical team, one month held more than half of all the lists it added.
• About 3 of every 10 paid months saw any use. Subscribers in the 2026 usage data we reviewed used credits in roughly 3 of every 10 months they paid for.
• The market swings too. In 2026, January had 228,000 existing-home sales and June had 424,000, a little over half (NAR, not seasonally adjusted).
• Leads keep coming in slow months. Properties with foreclosure filings rose 26% from November to December 2025 (ATTOM).

What that does to the price of a subscription

A data subscription is priced as if you use it every month. A slow month still bills the full fee. Here is a $129-a-month plan, $1,548 a year, against what you actually traced:

Ava Data is the $9 plan with 100 credits a month included, then 2¢ per match. The figures assume every search finds a phone; searches that find no one cost nothing, so the real bill is usually lower. Below about 73,000 contacts a year, Ava Data costs less than the $129-a-month plan. Above that, the subscription costs less.

Work out your own number

1. Add up what your data subscription cost over the last 12 months, add-ons included.
2. Count the contacts you actually traced in those 12 months.
3. Divide the first number by the second. That is what you paid per contact.

Months when you traced nothing still count in step 1. Compare your number with 2¢ per match, charged only when a search finds someone. See pricing and bulk skip tracing for how the credits work.

Where the numbers come from

• Dialing data: aggregate counts of new call lists added by real estate calling teams through a dialing partnership, November 2025 to October 2026, for teams that dialed in at least three months, counted by the month each list was added. These are aggregate counts; no customer lists or records were shared.
• Usage data: 2026 subscription usage data we reviewed, counting the months in which a subscriber used any credits, from the month after sign-up through October 2026.
• Home sales: National Association of Realtors existing-home sales, not seasonally adjusted, via FRED (read November 1, 2026).
• Foreclosures: ATTOM 2025 Year-End U.S. Foreclosure Market Report (January 15, 2026).

We counted lists added, not records, so a team that loads one large list in a month counts the same as a team that loads several.

Frequently asked questions

How often do real estate investors buy data?

In bursts. In a year of dialing data, only 1 in 6 real estate calling teams added new data every month, and for a typical team the busiest month held more than half of everything it loaded that year. Subscribers in the 2026 usage data we reviewed used credits in about 3 of every 10 months they paid for.

How do I work out the real cost of my data subscription?

Add up what the subscription cost over the last 12 months, add-ons included. Count the contacts you actually traced in those months. Divide the first number by the second. That is what you paid per contact, and it's the number to compare with 2¢ per match.

When is a data subscription cheaper than paying per match?

When you trace a large volume steadily, inside the plan's included allowance. Against a $129-a-month plan ($1,548 a year), Ava Data's $9 plan plus 2¢ per match costs less below about 73,000 contacts a year. Above that, the subscription costs less.