Investor · Austin, TX · Member since 2021 · 9k+ posts · 5k+ votes
2y
I personally use batch skip tracer. They recently dropped their price to eight cents a skiptrace. The cream of the crop is Trans Union if you can get subscribed to that.
Investor · Austin, TX · Member since 2021 · 9k+ posts · 5k+ votes
2y
I personally use batch skip tracer. They recently dropped their price to eight cents a skiptrace. The cream of the crop is Trans Union if you can get subscribed to that.
I personally use batch skip tracer. They recently dropped their price to eight cents a skiptrace. The cream of the crop is Trans Union if you can get subscribed to that.
Investor · Alvin, TX · Member since 2014 · 87 posts · 124 votes
2y
There's so much bad info and just poorly informed opinions on the quality of skip trace services it can be difficult for someone to know what's legit and what isn't.
Some basic things to look for
- Does the service only offer up to a certain number of phone numbers or email addresses like 3 or 5 of each. Anything with a cap is an inferior service. Sometimes it's the 6th or 8th number on the report that is the best phone number to reach that person. And regardless of whatever claims a company makes regarding the ranking of phone numbers, it's 100% not accurate and they are just trying to make it sound better. It's one reason why they are generally a cheaper service.
- Does the service make ridiculous claims like having data scientists and engineers on their staff? This makes me laugh. If they claim to have "data scientists" and "data engineers" on their staff, ask for resume's of these people. These companies are strictly resellers of some widely available skip trace datasets out there and all they need is average IT guy to set everything up for them to resell the data they buy. There's a reason why there are so many almost identical real estate skip trace services out there with minimal or no difference in their offering or pricing.
I began researching skip trace data and services in 2014 and started Skip Genie in 2017. As an investor who specializes in finding owners/heirs to highly distressed properties, I understand more than most the importance of quality data when it comes to getting more deals.
Eliott mentioned TransUnion. If you can get access to that it's absolutely a great service. I used to have an account with them from 2014-2016. That was back when you could still get approved for an account with a home office. Since then they have really cracked down on real estate investors because investors for the most part use the data for marketing purposes which is absolutely not a permissible use for that data. Because the data they provide includes sensitive information like SSN, DL number etc...it's considered GLBA data which has strict legal guidelines on how it's used.
If you're curious about how much I truly understand about skip tracing data and different strategies on how to implement it into your marketing, just google Larry Higgins Skip Tracing and you'll find some podcasts I've done on the subject.
New to Real Estate · Dallas, TX · Member since 2020 · 94 posts · 20 votes
9mo
Shalom BP fam,
Just like most of you, I haven't found any skip-tracers that I can trust, to give me accurate information in the 80%'tile, that I need to perform in business well, and don't mind paying for. I never tried Trans Union sources before, but I will look into it.
Hey Matt & Geoff — yep, been there. We ran into the same connection rate issues with a bunch of platforms.
We’ve had a lot more success using a company called 13th Floor. Better data, solid hit rates, and they’re not overpriced like some of the bigger names.
I don’t get anything if someone signs up — I just genuinely like what they’re doing. If you're curious, you can check them out at 13thFloorPI.com.
And if you have questions, I’m pretty sure you could just email them directly from the site — they’re pretty responsive.
One cool thing that not many folks know: the CEO donates part of the company’s profits to support cold case work, and they offer help to families with missing loved ones for free. That mission really stuck with me.
Hope that helps, and happy to point you their way if you want!
I just realized the website for the skiptracing wasn't live. You might have to find them through LinkedIn; that's how I found them. Since then, I have become a genealogist for the 13th floor, and I have them run my data for other companies. I have no complaints. If you need an heir researcher or accurate contact info, pm me.
Wholesaler · Portsmouth NH · Member since 2019 · 206 posts · 94 votes
8mo
Skip matrix and Data.io has been our best skip tracing sources so far for 2025. Happy to send anyone the discount links on these sources to cut the cost in half.
Hinton, WV · Member since 2026 · 1k+ posts · 373 votes
7mo
Connection rates are brutal across the board right now. One thing that helped us jump from 8% to 15%+ wasn't just better data - it was calling within 24-48 hours of pulling the skip trace. Fresh data hits way better than week-old numbers. Also mixing multiple sources for the same lead (like pulling from 2 different platforms) gives you backup numbers when the first one's dead. What's your typical lag time between pulling data and making calls?