Why hasn't BP helped with this question?

Question

Hey guys I have been reading through posts on here about skip tracing and I have yet to see someone definitively recommend a skip tracing service, or say who to stay away from. Most of the questions go unanswered. Is that because no one here using them? Do they just not want to share that info? Can they even share that information? Usually the BP community is pretty good about helping and answering questions, but I can't really find any good advice or sources to use for finding property owners information especially their phone number. I hope someone out there can and does help, I feel like there are plenty of other people that need to know this besides me.

Johnny Kang · Answer

Hey @Michael Guzik (can't tag you using my phone), skip tracing is talked about quite frequently. Just do a search & you'll see all the posts.

Anyway, I have VAs overseas who have access to Lexis Nexis, and TLO. Both services IMO, are the best in the industry. "Hit Rate" (phone #s found) is about 98% and usually they'll find multiple phone #s of the owner; accuracy is I'd say about 70%

Levi T. · Answer

BP does not permit self permotion even on threads where people are asking.. thus people have to recommend someone they use, but after a while it gets old as it’s not their business to promote someone else’s business each and every time someone ask on BP...

American Tracers is good, I’ve used them plenty, and it’s founder Corey Crane, is on the forum.

Account Closed · Answer

@Michael Guzik   So you are attempting to find owners of properties?  It is almost never worth paying for someone to track them down for you.  If you want to do it yourself then I suggest starting at the central appraisal district.  Then moving to google.  Then moving up to the county clerk's and the district clerk's offices.  If you have not gotten lucky by then I would try a commercial provider like... www.publicdata.com.

James Wise · Answer

You don't need to skip trace to do that. The information is publicly available on county tax auditor websites.

If you are looking to track them down on more than a 1 on 1 scale so you can do bulk marketing you will want to become a Realtor. That information is readily available through most MLS's.

Myself I mail out 6,000 letters every month to all non owner occupied property owners in the county that I operate in. The strategy works incredibly well. As such I happen to be the number 1 seller of investment property in said county.

Michael Guzik · Answer

@James Wise I'm trying to track down property owners for vacant homes and lots.

James Wise · Answer

Are you trying to track down property owners or tenants who stiffed you then moved out?

Frank Chin · Answer

There are skip tracing services out there. I haven't use any so I can't recommend any. The problem is most people here are real estate investors, have no time to chase people around, or look for services to chase people around, so often is the case, if it's unpaid rent, put it in for collections, and let collection agencies handle it. To locate absentee owners, I think often, it's a waste of time.

Out of curiosity, I googled skip tracing, and there's quite a few discussions of the subject out there, and quite a few threads even in BP.

My first job out of college was in the collections department of a finance company. They use "reverse directories", credit bureau info mostly to locate people. Its lot of phone calls to people who are neighbors, co-workers or former co-workers. It's something you can do yourself if you have the patience and don't mind angry people hanging up on you.

So for collections, it's far more efficient to pay collection agencies to do the work where they'll do it for a cut of the debt. For absentee owners, you can't look for credit bureau info on them  as it's likely you have no prior business relationships.

Why hasn't BP helped with this question?

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