VAs Who Work Skip Trace Lists — How Do You Decide Who to Call First?

VAs Who Work Skip Trace Lists — How Do You Decide Who to Call First?

Investor · Nationwide · Member since 2024 · 125 posts · 19 votes
Question for the VAs, cold callers, and lead managers who work with wholesale lists: When you receive a skip-traced file, how do you usually decide which records to call first? A lot of skip trace files seem to come back with plenty of phone numbers, but not always much direction. For example: * Which owner match looks strongest? * Which phone number should be tried first? * Which records look motivated but hard to reach? * Which leads may be false positives? * Which records should be researched before calling? * Which ones should be lower priority? I’ve been looking closely at this problem because most people talk about skip tracing as “getting more numbers,” but the real issue may be what happens after the numbers come back. For VAs and callers, a raw skip trace file can still leave a lot of guessing. My current thinking is that AI could be useful before outreach starts by helping score and organize the list around things like: * Contactability * Owner/name match quality * Phone confidence * Motivation indicators * Best contact path * Call-first priority * Research-first records * Possible false positives Not to replace the VA or caller, but to give them a better starting point. Curious for those of you who actually work these files: When you get a skip trace list, are you usually given a clear call order, or are you mostly just working through the list from top to bottom?
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  • Member since 2026 · 119 posts · 44 votes
    2mo

    Phone match confidence matters more than anything else in the file. A mobile number tied directly to the owner's name on a recent record beats three landlines tied to an old address. After that, recency of the filing itself. Someone who just hit a courthouse record is a different conversation than someone who's been sitting on a list for months.

  • Member since 2026 · 5 posts · 0 votes
    2mo

    Priority order that works well: tax defaults first, the ticking clock creates real motivation. Stack with absentee and high equity to filter out accidentals. Vacants are worth adding but expect lower answer rates. The sequence matters more than the list size a focused 80-call session on 40 motivated seller leads beats 200 random dials every time. What markets are you working?

  • Englewood, NJ · Member since 2018 · 258 posts · 36 votes
    1w

    Chris, Carson, Mohab — good discussion. I want to challenge the premise a little.

    Everyone here is talking about how to prioritize AFTER the skip trace comes back. Carson says phone match confidence and recency matter most. Mohab says tax defaults first with absentee and equity stacked. Both right.

    But what if you never needed to answer these questions at all?

    Here's what I mean. Carson's two criteria — owner name match and recency of filing — are exactly what county public records give you for free before you ever buy a skip trace:

    • Tax Collector has the legal owner of record (not an algorithm match — the actual name on the tax bill) and the tax delinquency status (which IS a ticking clock, as Mohab said)
    • Code Enforcement has the violation history (current, because the city just sent the notice)
    • Clerk of Court has probate filings and liens (recent courthouse records, exactly the recency Carson flagged)

    When all three converge on the same property — tax delinquent + code violations + probate or lien — you don't need to sort that record. It sorts itself. Your VA doesn't need to guess whether it's "call first" or "research first." Three independent government departments already did the research.

    Mohab's "80 calls on 40 motivated leads beats 200 random dials" — I'd push it further. Why call 80 when you can call the 10-20 where all three county sources converge? Those aren't just motivated. They're motivated with documentation. Tax notice in hand. Violation letter in hand. Court filing on record. That's not a cold call. That's a call where you already know why they need help.

    The skip trace step then becomes simpler too. You already have the owner from tax records. You already have the property address from all three sources. The only thing you need from skip tracing is the phone number — and since you know the owner's name for certain (not a confidence score, a legal name), the match quality is higher.

    This is how I'm building call lists now. Start with $0 county websites. Find where Tax Collector + Code Enforcement + Clerk of Court converge. THEN skip trace just for phone numbers on that small, high-confidence list. The VA gets 10-20 records where every one is a "call first" because three government sources already said so.

    Igor

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