Starter Plan

Yes. Surplus funds recovery is a legitimate business across the United States. The Supreme Court's 2023 ruling in Tyler v. Hennepin County reinforced that property owners have a constitutional right to surplus proceeds from tax sales. Requirements vary by state. Some require you to be a licensed attorney or work with one, while others allow any individual to assist with recovery for a fee. Surplus Funds includes state-by-state compliance guides and Ivy AI can answer specific regulatory questions. Always consult a licensed attorney for guidance specific to your jurisdiction.

Starting a surplus funds recovery business requires three things: a reliable source of leads (county surplus funds lists), a way to skip trace and contact former property owners, and a system to manage your cases from first contact through claim filing and payment. Many new recovery professionals start by selecting a few states, building a pipeline of leads, and using tools like Surplus Funds to handle outreach, documents, and e-signatures all in one place. There is no federal license required, but some states have specific regulations. Our platform includes compliance resources for every state.

Most surplus funds software is a general purpose CRM with surplus fields added on top. Surplus Funds was built around how this business actually runs: dockets, payoffs, liens, and what the claimant nets. It is also the only platform that combines a nationwide leads database, CRM, power dialer, AI assistant, and e-signatures in a single system, so you do not need to pay for five separate tools.

Earnings vary widely and depend on your market, effort, and results; we do not promise any income. Where the law allows a fee, recovery professionals usually charge a percentage of the recovered amount, and some states limit that fee or do not allow a non-attorney to charge one. What you earn depends on the leads you work, the fees your states allow, and how you manage your pipeline.

At minimum you need a source of leads, a way to skip trace and contact property owners, and a system to manage your cases. Most professionals use a CRM to track their pipeline, a power dialer to make calls efficiently, e-signatures to close deals, and an AI assistant to draft outreach letters. Surplus Funds combines all of these into one platform starting at $99/mo.

Our nationwide database covers skip-traced leads, with Do Not Call flags, from tax sales, foreclosure auctions, and mortgage overages across the country. Leads are updated regularly from county records. The Starter plan lets you select specific states, while the Nationwide plan gives you access to every state with unlimited searches.

Ivy is an AI assistant built directly into the CRM that understands surplus funds terminology and recovery workflows. She can draft personalized outreach letters to claimants, generate claim documents and contracts, and summarize complex case histories. Think of Ivy as a paralegal that works around the clock. Each plan includes a monthly allocation of Ivy usage: 1x for CRM Only and Starter, 3x for Nationwide and 8x for Reserve, with a live bar in the app showing how much is left.