Developer · Clayton, NC · Member since 2020 · 58 posts · 32 votes
We are a real estate development company. We like buying off market properties because there is much less pressure of competing offers and timelines. We are a legitimate buyer (not like those people that want to pay you 15% of the value of your land)
The problem is 2 fold.
1. How to find the owners contact info (which is often not listed or wrong in county records).
2. How distinguish ourselves from the low ball bidders.
David, I'm curious as to the frequency you see property records with the wrong owners address/contact information. Is this in specific counties (e.g. Johnston) or generally throughout NC? Way back, after the Great Recession, I tried to find/contact maybe 200 or 250 owners and found the county tax data generally had the proper owner/tax payer. The reality is they seldom respond to solicitation(s), even in a tax or D-T default scenario, but that's a different matter than identifying the tax payer.
@Chris Martin. In rural areas it is not uncommon for the listed owner to be deceased and the but the property has been left to a child with different last name. Many times the correct property owner is listed but there is no address (no correct address) or phone number.
When I was an active acquisition manager for my company, I didn't do buying via probate... just first lien trustee sales. The clerk of Superior Court, though, handles the probate files and they will have contact information (I've seen phone numbers as well as addresses) for heirs of the estate. Someone is (most likely) paying the county real property taxes, and the county clerk of court or county Register of Deeds office will have a correct address at a minimum. Checking probate files may be a step in the right direction. Hope that helps.