Posted by investorrob on July 28, 2003 at 18:31:12:
One other idea that has worked for me. I go over to the property in question and knock on several neighbors doors.
Telling them I am wanting to find the owners. I invest in houses fixing them up— as I point to the unkept yard. Many time have found out just enouph to track down the owner.
investorrob
Tracking down owners - 411 and Skip Tracing? - Posted by LoRezSkyline
Posted by LoRezSkyline on July 28, 2003 at 03:02:48:
So here’s my question - in trying to locate the owners of some vacant properties, I’m wondering when you all consider it necessary to shell out the $$$ for a skip tracer’s services? I’m talking about situations where the last known address of the owner is the vacant house itself, directory assistance doesn’t have a listing for the individual and a net search turns up nothing.
I don’t really want to take the time to send a 1st class letter return service requested as I doubt that’ll turn up anything, and I’d rather move on these leads - as opposed to “quick-turning in slow motion” in the words of Legrand! But at the same time, I’m wondering if the wise folks on this board think that dishing out $24.95 a pop for a skip tracer’s services at this point in the game is worthwhile?
Speaking of which - that $24.95’s the going rate at www.findtheseller.com for one-off searches - if anyone has experience dealing with them or any other skip-tracing services familiar with the needs of RE investors, I’d appreciate your input on that as well!
Thanks in advance…
Re: Tracking down owners - 411 and Skip Tracing? - Posted by Jeffery (La)
Posted by Jeffery (La) on July 28, 2003 at 09:08:36:
Here’s a good article by Joe Kaiser.
http://www.creonline.com/articles/art-079.html
I also use www.switchboard.com . They also have a reverse phone number look up just in case anyone was interested.
Happy Hunting
Jeffery (La)
Re: Tracking down owners - 411 and Skip Tracing? - Posted by Larry
Posted by Larry on July 28, 2003 at 08:14:50:
Some of my best deals have come from these sort of dead leads. I have made a lot of $$$ of these sort of leads since no body else can find them. If none of my competition can get a hold of the homeowners quite quickly then that means I have a better chance of getting a jump on the deal. Granted there have been a few times where I have tracked the owners down of these dead leads and they were not ready to sell but 6 months to a year down the road they have called me back interested in selling. So the work is not entirely in vein.
The company I use is www.deadleads.com and they guarantee their work so if they cannot find anything on the home owner then you don’t pay!
Here is the steps I take when tracking down owners:
After bird-dogging the area I look up the owners on my local County Appraisal District, CAD website.
Search Anywho.com for a phone number to call them. If that does not work then I mail them a letter inquiring about the vacant property.
If still no luck or the letter comes back undeliverable I then look them up at www.knowX.com. But I wait until I have a list of dead leads to do this. For $29.00 a day you can do unlimited searches for a full day. The downside to this site is that I cannot find unlisted #'s here.
If still no success then I contact the people over at www.deadleads.com. They will actually call around and try to contact the owner for you so you know you are getting accurate information and they are cheap to, $19.00.
This what I do and have great success at it.
HTH
-Larry