Skip Tracing fees too much?

Question

I'm a wholesaler in Baltimore, MD. The problem I'm running into is I'm finding these empty houses however when I look on the SDAT The mailing address is the same as the empty house. Someone recommended a skip tracer? I researched 2  that I came across who were EXTREMELY expensive. One wanted 30% of the each deal. I'm new to the game and I'm wasn't sure if I was being bamboozled.

Ola Dantis · Answer

@Alesha Bracey Expensive is relative, you know. I heard a recent BP podcast and the guest said they spend $1M on marketing in a year! My mouth dropped, but undoubtedly, these guys are getting their RoI on that marketing spend.

So, my suggestion is that as a wholesaler, you should be ready to spend one of two things: TIME OR MONEY. Or both.

Hope this helps somewhat. Thanks! - Ola

Jeff Filali · Answer

TruePeople and Facebook are both free and are the only two I use unless someone owes me money.  You can find most people through one of those two

Gregory Baker · Answer

There are plenty of quality solutions. Datafinder.com has a variety of data products for use in lead generation ... but just skip tracing (or they call it phone number append) is $0.04 per record and they have a ~70% success rate. Datazapp.com is cheaper at $0.03 per record, and ~57% success rate. They also have a TON of data products. Each require a free membership and minimum orders in the ~$100 range. And each require your batch list be in a very specific format. I have used overseas VAs, but discovered that they were having somebody use a free service like truepeoplesearch.com and hand jamming all 900 names and addresses one by one, then compiling the list ... it took them well over 48 hrs. Datazapp and Datafinder return lists the next day.

Also, if you use Mojo Dialer, a $40 subscription gets unlimited numbers and emails, with about ~60% success rate and it just autopopulates the integrated Mojo CRM.

hope that helps. I have zero data on the confidence level of the phone numbers themselves.

Cornelius Garland · Answer

@Alesha Bracey Paying a skip tracer any part of your deal is ridiculous. Look at skip tracing like direct mail. It's a marketing expense and should be comparable to the cost of a mail piece. For instance, one skip trace for a seller should cost at or below the price of a mail piece.

A lot of investors make the mistake of contacting private investigators. These people skip trace for law enforcement or similar purposes. You're barking up the wrong tree. Find a service that can skip trace in bulk. Whatever you do, please do not pay anybody a percentage of your deal for just finding owner information. Don't even pay anybody a flat fee. I would check out Locate Plus if you're doing volume under 100 searches per month. They have the same exact phone numbers that TLO does, except you don't have to qualify through a site inspection. That's a rip off!

Joe Norman · Answer

Flat fee is the way to go, I wouldn't pay a skip trader a percentage of the deal.  Good luck!

Chris Burnett · Answer

we have a bulk skip trace service that starts at 10 cents per record. It’s not perfect but you’ll get in touch with owners with it and you could then run the no-hits through a more expensive service.

Jp Kilduff · Answer

Check out the county records for the mailing address of the owner of the property. You can then skip trace that owner now that you have their name and mailing address.

Joseph Turner · Answer

Paying percentage is horrible. Depending on your use case IDI has regulated and non regulated data that is top in the industry. We can have a discussion anytime you want. Feel free to reach out.

Jason Miles · Answer

@Gregory Baker Thank you for passing on our information! @Alesha Bracey we can provide you phone appends for $.03 per match / $125 minimum order. Feel free to message me for more details.

Alesha Bracey · Answer

Thanks Ola. Very helpful indeed lol

Skip Tracing fees too much?

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