Terms of Service

These Terms of Service (the "Terms") form a binding agreement between you and K5 Labs LLC, a California limited liability company doing business as AuctionSift ("K5 Labs," "AuctionSift," "we," "us," or "our"), which operates the AuctionSift service (the "Service"). By creating an account, accessing, or using the Service, you agree to be bound by these Terms and by our Privacy Policy.

If you do not agree to these Terms, do not use the Service.

You must be at least 18 years old and capable of forming a binding contract under applicable law to use the Service. You represent that you are not a person barred from receiving services under the laws of the United States or any other applicable jurisdiction, including being on any U.S. government list of prohibited or restricted parties.

If you use the Service on behalf of an organization, you represent that you have authority to bind that organization to these Terms, and the terms "you" and "your" include that organization.

To access most features you must create an account. You agree to provide accurate information, keep it up to date, and maintain the security of your credentials. You are responsible for all activity under your account.

The Team plan allows a single organization to add multiple users (seats). The organization owner is responsible for managing seats, ensuring that each user complies with these Terms, and for any charges incurred under the organization's subscription.

Notify us promptly at [email protected] if you suspect any unauthorized access to your account.

AuctionSift is an informational tool that aggregates publicly available government records, third-party data (including automated valuation models, rent estimates, flood hazard data, and mapping imagery), and automatically-extracted property attributes, and presents them in a searchable, filterable, and exportable format for users researching real property that is the subject of tax sales, tax deed auctions, tax lien auctions, over-the-counter acquisitions, or similar dispositions.

The Service is not, and nothing displayed, exported, or generated by the Service constitutes:

• an appraisal or broker price opinion;
• a title search, title report, title commitment, or title insurance;
• a survey or legal description of real property;
• a home inspection, environmental assessment, or engineering report;
• legal advice or the practice of law;
• tax advice or the practice of accountancy;
• investment advice, a recommendation to buy or sell any property, or a solicitation for any securities offering;
• a guarantee that any property is free of surviving liens, encumbrances, code violations, occupancy issues, physical defects, hazardous conditions, environmental contamination, or title defects; or
• a prediction of bidding outcomes or future property value.

AuctionSift is not a real estate broker, salesperson, appraiser, title company, escrow agent, attorney, certified public accountant, investment adviser, or fiduciary to you. We do not represent you in any transaction.

You agree not to:

• use the Service in violation of any law or the rights of any third party, including the terms of service of any county portal, auction platform, or data provider;
• reverse engineer, scrape beyond posted rate limits, or attempt to extract the underlying data or code of the Service for the purpose of building a competing product;
• resell, sublicense, or redistribute enrichment outputs, reports, imagery, or exports except as expressly permitted for your internal business use and for sharing with your professional advisors, partners, and lenders;
• circumvent authentication, seat limits, credit limits, or geographic coverage restrictions;
• upload malicious code, attempt to disrupt the Service, or probe it for vulnerabilities without prior written consent; or
• use the Service to harass, defame, or violate the privacy of any person, including property owners identified in public records.

Certain features rely on data or media provided by third parties, including (without limitation) RentCast (property valuation and rent estimates), Google Maps Platform (imagery, geocoding, Street View, and satellite tiles), MapTiler (base maps), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (flood hazard data), Anthropic (automated language-model extraction), the United States Census Bureau (geocoding), and various county, municipal, state, and federal government agencies (property, tax, permit, and land records).

We do not control these third parties, do not guarantee the accuracy or availability of their data, and are not responsible for their acts or omissions. Your use of features that include third-party data or imagery is subject to the applicable third-party terms, including Google Maps Platform's terms of service. You may not scrape, redistribute, resell, or use third-party data or imagery in any manner prohibited by the applicable third-party terms.

The Service is offered on subscription tiers (currently Starter, Pro, and Team) with prices listed on our pricing page. Fees are billed in advance on a recurring basis (monthly or annually as selected at checkout) through Stripe, our payment processor. You authorize us to charge your payment method for all fees incurred.

The Starter plan is credit-based: one auction credit per month is included, additional credits may be purchased, and unused credits roll over for twelve (12) months from the date of issuance before expiring. The Pro and Team plans provide access within their respective geographic and seat limits described on the pricing page.

Prices displayed on the pricing page do not include applicable sales and use taxes. Where we are required by law to collect tax, it will be added to your invoice. Fees are non-refundable except where required by law or expressly stated. If a payment fails, we may suspend or terminate access until the balance is paid.

Your subscription renews automatically at the end of each billing period at the then-current price for your plan, unless you cancel before the renewal date.

You may cancel at any time from your account's billing page. Cancellation takes effect at the end of your current billing period, and you will retain access through that date. We do not offer prorated refunds for partial months or years unless required by law.

If you subscribe to an annual plan, we will send a reminder email at least thirty (30) days before the renewal charge. For California residents, you may cancel your subscription online in the same manner in which you subscribed, without speaking to a representative.

We may change prices on notice of at least thirty (30) days before the change takes effect for your next renewal.

We and our licensors own all right, title, and interest in and to the Service, including the software, user interface, scoring methodology, compiled enrichment datasets, and all associated trademarks and copyrights. Subject to your compliance with these Terms, we grant you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Service for your internal business or personal investment-research purposes.

You retain ownership of content you upload to the Service (for example, auction lists and manual enrichment notes). You grant us a limited, non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to host, process, and display that content solely to operate and improve the Service for you.

We do not use your uploaded content, prompts, or outputs to train foundation models, and we engage sub-processors (including our language-model provider) only under terms that preclude them from training on your content.

You acknowledge and agree that all information displayed, scored, calculated, generated, or exported by the Service — including without limitation property identifiers, ownership records, assessed values, estimated market values, estimated rents, maximum bid calculations, composite scores, tier assignments (A/B/C/D), flood zone determinations, zoning classifications, permit histories, tax bill line items, surviving lien indicators, satellite and street-level imagery, and any narrative summaries — is informational only, may be incomplete, out of date, or inaccurate, and is provided on an "as available" basis.

Reasons information may be inaccurate include, without limitation:

• public records that are themselves incomplete, outdated, erroneously recorded, or not yet digitized;
• changes to county portals, data formats, or record availability after extraction;
• errors introduced by automated extraction, including by large language models which can produce incorrect or fabricated values;
• third-party data providers whose accuracy varies and degrades on distressed, vacant, recently-damaged, or atypical properties (which are common at tax auctions);
• delays in data refresh between the Service and the underlying source; and
• human error in data mapping, schema definition, or scoring logic.

You are solely responsible for independently verifying any information before relying on it for any decision, including any bidding, purchase, financing, or investment decision.

At a minimum, before bidding on any property, you should: (a) consult the official records of the county clerk, recorder, assessor, tax collector, and treasurer of the relevant jurisdiction; (b) obtain a title search or title commitment from a licensed title company; (c) review the current status of liens, encumbrances, bankruptcies, and legal proceedings affecting the property; (d) physically inspect or cause a licensed professional to inspect the property to the extent permitted; (e) consult your own attorney, certified public accountant, and, if applicable, a licensed real estate broker or appraiser regarding the legal, tax, and financial implications of any acquisition; and (f) review the rules of the auction, including all special conditions published by the selling jurisdiction or auction platform.

You assume all risk of reliance on the Service. We are not responsible for any decision you make based on information obtained through the Service, including any bid you place, any property you acquire, any property you decline to bid on, or any opportunity you miss.

The Service and all data, outputs, estimates, scores, reports, and materials provided through it are provided "as is" and "as available," with all faults, and without warranty of any kind. To the maximum extent permitted by law, we disclaim all warranties, express, implied, statutory, or otherwise, including without limitation any warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, completeness, currentness, quiet enjoyment, and any warranties arising out of course of dealing, course of performance, or usage of trade.

We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, error-free, secure, or free of harmful components, or that any defects will be corrected. We do not warrant that any data, estimate, score, calculation, or output is accurate, complete, current, or suitable for your purpose. Any reliance on the Service is at your sole risk.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the disclaimer of certain warranties, so some of the above disclaimers may not apply to you to that extent.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, in no event will AuctionSift, its affiliates, or its or their officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, or data providers be liable to you or any third party for:

• any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary, or punitive damages;
• any loss of profits, revenue, business, goodwill, data, or opportunity (including any lost bidding opportunity, difference between bid price and resale value, or unrealized investment return);
• any amount paid for any property acquired or not acquired by you;
• any cost of title clearing, lien satisfaction, rehabilitation, eviction, litigation, or code compliance; or
• any damages caused by your reliance on, or failure to independently verify, any data or output of the Service,

even if we have been advised of the possibility of such damages and regardless of the theory of liability (contract, tort, statute, or otherwise).

Our aggregate liability to you arising out of or relating to the Service or these Terms, from all causes of action and under all theories of liability, will not exceed the greater of (i) the amount you paid to us for the Service in the twelve (12) months immediately preceding the event giving rise to the claim, or (ii) one hundred U.S. dollars ($100).

The foregoing limitations do not apply to (a) liability for our gross negligence, fraud, or willful misconduct, or (b) rights that cannot be limited or excluded under applicable law. You may have additional rights under the laws of your jurisdiction.

The parties agree that these limitations represent a reasonable allocation of risk and are an essential basis of the bargain between the parties, without which we would not provide the Service at the fees charged.

You understand that tax sales, tax deed auctions, tax lien auctions, and over-the-counter acquisitions are speculative and high-risk activities in which properties are typically sold without warranty, without inspection, and subject to possible surviving liens, occupancy, code violations, environmental conditions, and title defects. You represent that you are acquiring information through the Service for your own informed decision-making and that you are familiar with, or will independently become familiar with, the rules and risks of the jurisdictions in which you participate.

To the maximum extent permitted by law, you release AuctionSift and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, and data providers from any and all claims, demands, damages, and liabilities of every kind and nature, known or unknown, arising out of or relating to your use of the Service, any data or output of the Service, and any bid, acquisition, or non-acquisition of property.

You agree to defend, indemnify, and hold harmless AuctionSift and its affiliates, officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, and data providers from and against any and all claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) arising out of or in any way connected with:

• your use of or reliance on the Service;
• any decision you make, bid you place, or property you acquire or fail to acquire;
• your breach of these Terms, including any acceptable-use restriction;
• your violation of any law or the rights of any third party, including any county, auction platform, property owner, occupant, or lienholder; and
• any content or data you submit to the Service.

You may cancel your subscription and close your account at any time from the billing settings in your account. We may suspend or terminate your access at any time, with or without notice, for (a) violation of these Terms or our Acceptable Use restrictions, (b) non-payment, (c) activity that creates risk or possible legal exposure for us, or (d) if we discontinue the Service.

On termination, your right to access the Service ends. We will retain data as described in our Privacy Policy. You will have a thirty (30) day window to export your data before deletion, subject to our backup and archival schedule. Sections that by their nature should survive termination (including Sections 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, and 19) survive.

Please read this section carefully. It affects your legal rights, including a requirement to resolve most disputes through binding individual arbitration and a waiver of the right to participate in a class action.

We will try in good faith to resolve any dispute informally first. Send a written notice of the dispute to [email protected] describing the claim and the relief you seek. If the dispute is not resolved within sixty (60) days, either party may proceed under this Section 16.

Any dispute arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service that cannot be resolved informally will be resolved by binding individual arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Consumer Arbitration Rules. Judgment on the award may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction. Arbitration will take place on a documents-only basis unless either party requests a hearing, in which case the hearing will take place by videoconference or in the county of your residence.

You and we each agree to bring claims only in our individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, or representative proceeding. If this class-action waiver is held unenforceable, the remainder of this Section 16 will remain in effect, but the class claim will proceed in court.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, either party may seek relief in small-claims court for disputes that qualify for it, and either party may seek injunctive relief in court to protect intellectual property rights.

You may opt out of this arbitration agreement within thirty (30) days of first accepting these Terms by sending written notice to [email protected] stating your name, the email on your account, and that you are opting out of arbitration. Opting out will not affect any other provision of these Terms.

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. Except for disputes subject to Section 16, you and we consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in California for any action not subject to arbitration. Nothing in this Section limits any non-waivable consumer-protection rights you may have under the law of your place of residence.

We may update these Terms from time to time. For material changes we will provide at least thirty (30) days' advance notice by email to the address on your account and by posting the updated Terms on the Service. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the current version. Previous versions are available on request.

Your continued use of the Service after the effective date of updated Terms constitutes your acceptance of them. If you do not agree, you must stop using the Service before the effective date.

Questions about these Terms, privacy requests, security reports, and legal notices may all be sent to [email protected].

Formal legal notices may also be sent by mail to: