How to find out who owns vacant property

Question

I’m a newbie trying to buy my first door in Detroit (duplex or single home), I live in Detroit & am looking to invest on the east side. I see lots of presumably abandoned properties that at least on the outside look like they have some promise. My problem is I don’t know how to find out who the legal owner of these houses are to contact them in order to make an offer.

I also don’t know what a reasonable offer would be. I can be very frugal and don’t want to get shot down with overly aggressive lowball offers. I want to be fair, but I’m also trying to build a portfolio of 8 to 10 homes (or 4 to 5 duplexes), preferably clear and free within he next 5 yrs. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

P.S. ATTENTION ASHLEY HAMILTON...IF YOU’RE STILL ON BP PLEASE CONTACT ME. I’M A FELLOW DETROITER (BORN AND RAISED ON THE EAST SIDE...DON’T HOLD IT AGAINST ME IF YOU’RE FROM THE WEST SIDE). I’VE SEEN YOUR STORY, AND. ADMIRE HOW YOU GREW YOUR PORTFOLIO TRULY FROM THE GROUND UP WITH YOUR FIRST DOORS CLEAR AND FREE.THATS WHAT I’D LIKE TO DO. PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU CAN FIND THE TIME. THANKS IN ADVANCE.

PHIL SMITH

Phillip Smith · Answer

@Stephen Keighery

Thanks, I really appreciate your input.

Phillip Smith · Answer

@Drew Sygit

Thanks Drew for your detailed insight.

Phillip Smith · Answer

@Stephen Keighery

Thanks Stephen for the reply. I’ll definitely do this.

Drew Sygit · Answer

You can look up the owner in Public Records, available online to agents via their MLS access.

Challenges:

1) Detroit & Wayne County are way behind in converting paper records to digital. So online data not always accurate.

2) Current owner is often an LLC. You can try to lookup them up on Michigan Business Lookup tool, but that often only leads to a registered agent for the owner.

3) If you find actual owner name, you'll probably need to use a paid online website to obtain their cell phone number and/or email.

While this is very labor intensive, not a lot of people are doing it. So, it may lead to some good deals if you stick with it.

Stephen Keighery · Answer

There should be an assessor site for the county which has the tax details for the property including the legal owner and hopefully a mailing address. You will need to skip trace them to get a phone number.

In terms of offers, I like to find out what they would need to sell it and then see if I can make the numbers work. If they don't I will tell them where I need to be to make a deal. If the numbers don't work but we are close or there is motivation just keep checking in every month or so to see where they are at. I get a lot of deals on the follow up.

How to find out who owns vacant property

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