List stacking
List stacking: how to combine lead lists in a spreadsheet, and when a tool is worth it
Updated September 2026. The free method first, the paid shortcut second.
List stacking means combining lists that show different signs of distress, such as unpaid tax, code violations and liens, and working first the properties that appear on several. You can do it free in a spreadsheet: give every row the parcel number, put the lists in one sheet, count how many lists each parcel is on, and sort. The matching is the hard part, which is what the tools automate.
- You need
- Two or more lists from the same county
- You get
- One list, properties on several lists first
- Cost
- $0 in Excel or Google Sheets
- Time
- Minutes, once the lists share a key
Step by step, for nothing
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Pull lists that measure different things
Take lists from the same county that show different pressures: the delinquent tax list, open code violations, recorded liens, pre-foreclosure notices, absentee owners from the assessor. Two lists that measure the same thing add nothing to a stack.
What you come away with Separate lists, each with a property address or parcel number.
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Give every row the same key
Use the parcel number, the county’s own ID for the lot, wherever every list has one. Strip dashes and spaces so the formats agree. Where a list has no parcel number, clean the addresses the same way on every list: one spelling for Street, North and Avenue, no unit punctuation, all capitals.
What you come away with A key column that matches the same property across lists.
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Put the lists in one sheet and tag the source
Paste every list into one sheet, one below the other, and add a column naming the list each row came from: Tax, Code, Lien.
What you come away with One sheet in which each row says where it came from.
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Count how many lists each property is on
With the key in column A, add a column with
=COUNTIF(A:A,A2)and fill it down. A pivot table with the key as rows and the source as columns shows the same thing with the list names. Sort by the count, largest first.What you come away with Every property, with the number of lists it appears on.
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Remove duplicates, then work from the top
Keep one row per property, carrying the names of all its lists, and remove the rest with the spreadsheet’s remove duplicates command. Contact the properties on three lists before the ones on two. Rebuild the stack each time a source list is refreshed.
What you come away with A deduplicated list with the properties on several lists first.
Where the spreadsheet stops
Matching is the weak point. Offices write addresses differently, so a spreadsheet misses matches unless every list carries a parcel number, and code violation and eviction records are often kept by address alone. Every miss is a property that looks less distressed than it is.
A stack is also a snapshot. Owners pay their taxes, fix violations and sell, so each refresh of a source list means rebuilding the stack from the start.
Tools with stacking built in
Three tools we cover name list stacking or deduplication across lists on their own pages. Prices from each pricing page, September 2026.
| Tool | Stacking | Entry price | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
 BatchLeads |
List stacking and deduplication, on every plan | $119 a month | See BatchLeads pricing |
 DealMachine |
Deduplicates across your lists automatically | $99 a seat | See DealMachine pricing |
 REsimpli |
List stacking, unlimited on every plan | $299 a month, with the CRM and dialer | See REsimpli pricing |
A tool matches lists on its own property records, so the address problem largely goes away for lists you pull inside it. Lists you upload from elsewhere still have to match its records.
Stacking is among the features BatchLeads’ reviewers praise, along with its filters. In PropertyRadar’s reviews, one user says it cannot dedupe across two lists.
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List stacking: questions people ask
What is list stacking in real estate?
Combining lists of properties that show different signs of distress, then working first the properties that appear on several. The premise is that an owner facing several problems at once is more open to an offer. It is a working assumption among investors, not a measured result.
How do I stack lists in Excel or Google Sheets?
Put all the lists in one sheet with a column naming each row’s source, then count how often each parcel number appears with =COUNTIF(A:A,A2). Sort by that count, largest first, and remove duplicates.
What lists should I stack?
Lists from the same county that show different pressures: unpaid property tax, code violations, liens, pre-foreclosure notices, vacancy and absentee ownership. Two lists that measure the same thing add nothing.
Should I match on address or parcel number?
Parcel number wherever every list has one, with dashes and spaces stripped so the formats agree. Addresses need cleaning first and still miss some matches.
How often should I re-stack?
Each time one of the source lists is refreshed. Owners pay their taxes, fix violations and sell, so a stack built from old lists includes owners who are no longer under pressure.
What do you do with a stacked list?
Work it from the top. The properties that appear on several lists get the first direct mail and calls, and the rows on a single list can wait for the next round. If tracing is billed per record, trace the top rows first.
How we put this together
| Line | Source | What we read |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Spreadsheets | Spreadsheet functions for counting and removing duplicates, in Excel and Google Sheets |
| 02 | Pricing | The pricing and feature pages of the tools in the table, read September 2026 |
What we did not do. We have not measured whether stacked lists lead to more deals than single lists. That is the premise investors work on, not a figure we can show.