I started investing in land because it seemed straightforward. No structures, no tenants — just parcels, priced right, and patiently held or flipped. But what looked simple on the surface quickly turned into a mess of fragmented data and bad tools.
Every county presents its own puzzle. GIS platforms are clunky, inconsistent, or non-existent. Parcel data is either locked behind PDFs or scattered across broken web portals. Zoning codes vary wildly and are rarely explained. Exporting usable data — or even understanding what you're looking at — can take hours.
I was spending more time wrangling data than evaluating deals.
So I started building my own spreadsheets. First as a way to stay organized. Then as a way to scale my research. Eventually, it turned into something bigger.
The First Files
The early version of Plotfolio wasn’t a business — it was a way to manage the due diligence grind.
I began pulling assessor data, overlaying GIS records, and adding missing zoning descriptions by hand. Then I structured the files so I could sort parcels by acreage, road access, ownership type, and zoning category — all inside Excel. Once I had a system, I applied it across more counties.
It didn’t take long to realize other investors were running into the same roadblocks.
Arizona as a Test Case
Arizona became the first real proving ground.
Mohave County had accessible data, but zoning codes like “RE-20” or “C-3” meant nothing without a separate key. I built a lookup table and added plain-English zoning types into each row. Yavapai had decent exports, but ownership data came in strange formats that had to be normalized. Coconino only allowed small-batch exports — I pulled it in pieces and stitched it back together. Apache didn’t allow exports at all. I scraped one parcel at a time. Pinal’s coordinates weren’t usable in Excel — they had to be converted just to understand where the land actually was.
Each cleaned file ended up including:
- Parcel number (APN)
- Acreage
- Zoning (decoded)
- Ownership (where available)
- Road access (yes/no)
- Township/section/range or subdivision name
- Flags for irregular shapes or landlocked parcels
This let me sort and screen parcels in bulk — something GIS portals simply weren’t built to do.
Why Plotfolio Exists
Plotfolio was never meant to be flashy. It’s a utility: cleaned, curated county land data for people trying to move faster and avoid bad deals. Whether you’re mailing, flipping, subdividing, or just tired of digging through clunky GIS maps, it saves time.
It now covers over 60 counties across multiple states. More are added every week.
You can explore available counties here or learn more at getplotfolio.com.
No subscriptions. No dashboards. Just data that works.
