Ugly House Finder vs PropStream in short
PropStream is a public-records database with over 160 million property records, plus a Photo AI feature that grades condition from MLS listing photos when a property has them. Ugly House Finder scores what a house physically looks like from street-level and aerial imagery on any parcel, whether or not it has ever been listed. If you need owner records and sale history, use PropStream. If you need to know which of those houses is falling apart before it ever reaches the MLS, add Ugly House Finder. Most investors running both pull the list in PropStream and rank it in Ugly House Finder.
Side by side
| Ugly House Finder | PropStream | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $49/mo (Property Scout, 300 points) | $99/mo (Essentials, 1 team member; extra seats $30/mo) |
| What the price meters | Points, metered by scan area and skip traces | Per seat, metered by monthly saves and exports |
| Coverage | 72.6 million or more parcels mapped. Visual scoring runs anywhere Street View reaches, and where imagery is thin a property still gets a Census-tract context score plus records-based motivation signals. Owner records and county-scale lead lists cover 1,776 counties across 45 states | Over 160 million public records |
| Visible physical condition scored from imagery | Yes. Every scanned parcel scored for visible distress | Yes, but only for properties with MLS listing photos. A feature called Photo AI grades exterior, interior, kitchen and bathroom from Disrepair to Luxury using those photos, so it does not reach off-market or unlisted distressed properties |
| Nightly violation, permit and tax-delinquency monitoring | Yes. 33 markets checked nightly | Records-based distress flags. Nightly violation and permit monitoring not published |
| Cost per skip-traced contact | 10 points per property, which is $1.63 on Property Scout, $0.99 on Deal Hunter and $0.75 on Market Dominator | 12 cents per contact on Essentials. Skip tracing is free on Pro ($199/mo) and above |
| Lead export cost | Free. Unlimited PDF and CSV downloads on every plan | 25,000 monthly saves and exports on Essentials |
| Free trial | 7 days, 100 points, full feature access | 7 days, 50 free leads |
Pricing and features for PropStream were read from their own public pricing page. Figures are as of July 2026.
What PropStream does better
- Scores property condition too, through a feature called Photo AI, which grades a listed property's exterior, interior, kitchen and bathroom from Disrepair to Luxury using MLS photos. The gap is coverage: it only works on properties with MLS listing photos, so it cannot score the off-market, unlisted houses we scan.
- Carries over 160 million public records, far more raw record coverage than we do.
- Bundles skip tracing free on Pro at $199 a month and above, which is better value than our per-property pricing if you trace in volume.
- Includes direct mail from 48 cents a postcard and click-to-dial in the platform.
- Gives you a marketing credit of $100 to $150 depending on tier.
- Holds over 70 million MLS records in addition to its public records base.
- Includes a comps and nearby-listings tool built on public records and MLS data.
- Offers over 165 search filters to narrow down a property list.
What Ugly House Finder adds
- Scores the visible physical condition of a house from street-level and aerial imagery, so you can rank a list by what the properties actually look like.
- Monitors 33 markets nightly for new code violations, building permits and tax delinquency.
- Charges nothing for lead exports. Download every saved property as PDF or CSV on any plan.
- Starts at $49 a month, which is less than half the entry price of any tool on this page.
Where condition scoring falls short
Visual scoring needs a usable image. In our own Carter County scan, 27 percent of parcels had no street-level imagery at all, and coverage thins out in rural markets. A property without a usable image is not dropped: it still receives a Census-tract context score and any records-based motivation signals we hold, such as tax delinquency, ownership structure or a deceased owner. What it does not get is a visual read on the building itself. That means our measured distress counts are a floor, not a ceiling, and we find imagery coverage is worst in exactly the areas where distress runs highest, so the true number sits somewhat above what we report. Records-based tools do not have this limitation, which is part of why we suggest running both.
How to run both
Pull your list in PropStream using owner and equity filters. Export it, then scan the same area in Ugly House Finder to see which of those addresses show visible distress. You spend your mail and dial budget on the houses that look the part instead of the whole filtered list.
Add condition data to the stack you already run, from $49 a month.
What you cannot buy from PropStream at any price
County-scale scans done for you. Every tool on this page is self-serve search. Tell us the county and we will scan it and hand back a ranked list.
Estate Watch. Weekly deceased-owner alerts matched to parcels in your county. Deceased owner is the strongest motivation signal we track and the window is short, so alerts favor recent deaths. Sold per county with limited availability.
Portfolio Watch. Send us a property list you already track and we watch it for ownership changes, new distress signals and status changes, on a schedule.
Tell us the county and we will quote it.
Common questions about Ugly House Finder and PropStream
Is Ugly House Finder a PropStream alternative?
Not really a replacement. PropStream is primarily a records platform that also scores condition on MLS-listed properties through Photo AI, while we score any parcel, including off-market and unlisted ones. If you only pay for one, and you need owner records and comps, pay for PropStream. We are worth adding when the problem you have is that your filtered list is too long and you cannot tell which houses are actually distressed.
Which is cheaper, Ugly House Finder or PropStream?
Our entry plan is $49 a month against PropStream Essentials at $99 a month with one seat, as of July 2026. But we are not cheaper on everything. PropStream charges 12 cents a contact for skip tracing and includes it free on Pro and above, where we charge 10 points per property, which works out between 75 cents and $1.63 depending on your plan.
Does PropStream show property condition?
Yes, through a feature called Photo AI. It reads MLS listing photos and grades a property's exterior, interior, kitchen and bathroom from Disrepair to Luxury. The catch is coverage: it only scores properties that have been listed on the MLS with photos. Off-market and unlisted distressed properties, which is most of what investors are hunting for, get no score from PropStream. We score any parcel from street-level and aerial imagery, listed or not.
Can I use both together?
Yes, and that is how we expect most people to use us. PropStream can score condition too, where an MLS listing with photos exists. We score condition on any parcel, which is what makes us useful for off-market hunting. Running both costs $148 a month at entry tiers, as of July 2026.