How to search online for off-market Triplex or Quad owners?

Question

Hey BP Community! I'm a relative newbie in Central New York. I'm currently looking for a liveable Tri or Quad MF to hack as an owner-occupied investment. What are the best methods for finding these owners online in an area of my choosing so I can approach them about a possible sale?

All help appreciated!

Rob Sawyer · Answer

@Lee Gierszewski - Thanks for your note. You're correct and I do use it once I have an address. My issue is trying to develop a search list to go see and filter out SFRs & Duplexes from Tri's & Quads. They have Property Class codes (i.e., 210=Single, 220=Duplex, 230=Triplex, 411=Apartments) listed but no way to search for them based on the code on their web page. I may need to go downtown and have them run a report for me or perhaps they'll run a report and email it to me, will have to see.

@Larry T. - Thanks for your note and suggestions as well.  I'm just trying to avoid "driving for dollars" without having a few potential locations in mind in advance. I thought about Listsource but have never used it and am trying to bootstrap this search/acquisition so my resources are very scarce. As I mentioned to Lee above, the Onondaga County site has limited search capability. I have noticed however, that some other county sites are much more robust info-wise, haven't tested their search capabilities though so will see if I can crack them as well.  You're fairly close so let's connect and we can PM.

Larry Turowski · Answer

@Rob Sawyer While you can buy a list from listsource.com this may be overkill.  There'd just be too many for your needs.

Drive your target area, write down all the addresses of the properties that interest you.  Search for "yourtown ny tax records" or "yourtown ny tax assessor."  You will probably want this site.

From there you can find information on the property, links to the owners, etc.  This is all public information.  So when people ask how you got there information just tell them that.  Put together a short letter saying what you said here, basically, that you are interested in buying a multi in that area.  If they are interested in selling please call you.  In your case I think a photocopied letter would be fine.

Lee Gierszewski · Answer

If the city your looking in has a webpage of the cities properties & who or what owns them would be  a good start. The city I live in has a map of the city and if you click on the property it brings up most of the pertinent info about the property, and who owns it. Usually if it's a business or LLC that owns the property the webpage will list the address of the property which is sometimes the LLC's owners home address.

Hope this helps!