Hello All, I am new to bigger pockets podcasts and forum. I have been a real estate investor for a whole month. 😊 I will be the wholesaler that rehabbers and other investors come to rely on. I love marketing and will stop at nothing to find a deal. That being said, I have found many sad and empty houses that would make great wholesale deals...if I could find the owner. I have the owners name. Checked the taxes, the taxes were paid. I have Googled, looked at all social media platforms, drive by different times of the day to look for neighbors and nothing. Is there a rock I haven't looked under or is it time to just give up on these? I have considered taping a contract to the door. Any ideas? TIA.

Have you tried asking any of the neighbors if they know the owner or the back story on the home?

It's a numbers game.  If you can't find he owner move on to the next bunch of houses.  You can try mailing to the house.  If the mail is forwarded somewhere your letter will get to the right person.  Also where I am they will show if the property tax bill goes to a different address.  I have found owners that way.

Good Luck!

Have you done any real skip trace reports? You can use find the sell dot com or other skip trace services to find real phone numbers and address.

I would definitely skip trace the owner and try to reach them on the phone.  If you can't reach the owner directly, or the owner is deceased, don't hesitate to call the relatives.  That will make a difference in whether or not you get some deals.

You can mail them, but when you mail you can lose weeks or months potentially if the letter gets returned, and even if it's not returned you never really know if the right person actually got the letter.  Also, with distressed vacant houses, I've come across multiple owners that had received mail from investors and they wanted to sell, but they didn't call any of them because they didn't think they could for some reason, or they needed help they weren't aware we can provide to get the house sold.  I was able to get the deals just because I got them on the phone and was able to talk to them and let them know I could take care of everything.

Vacants are GREAT leads.....GOOD LUCK!

Walk the neighborhood and talk with other home owners in the area, ask them if they have any info on the vacant houses. If that doesn't work skip trace them. There are several skip tracing services out there. Tlo, beenverified, Whitepages premium, spokeo.

Hope this helps

God Bless

Curious if you can share your experiences with any of these Skip Tracing or phone and email gathering services?
TLO, mircobuilt,locateplus, intelius, whitepages, skipgenie, inquiso, etc.

Ease of use?

Cost Effective?

Can a VA use them?

Old thread, but I thought I'd add. 

Almost anyone has a google presence. There's always something, unless they're John Smith, in which case you'll end up with a thousand different guys. 

Facebook

Instagram

You can go to Intelius and Veromi and put in their name without joining. They'll at least show you, if that person has moved to another city. Then you can do a search in that city. Typically, those websites give you old information, but it also shows you potential relatives, which you can then search for. 

Join Ancestry.com for a free 14 day membership. If the owner is older, you'd be amazed what you can find. The newest census records are from 1940 (only allowed to publish 70 year old data).

Search for the person and if you find them in the census, you'll also be able to find siblings, who you then can search for.

They have old address books, so you can look them up and see, if someone else with the same last name lived at that address. Another relative. 

You'd find their parents' names in the census as well. Look for their names and see, if someone has them in their family tree. Then contact them, as they might know where the owner is. 

If you do find some relatives' names, go to the courthouse for that county and see, if you can find probate records. Those will give you other names, as well as addresses at the time of the probate file. More threads to pull on. 

I've taught myself skip tracing and I found a lot of people that others didn't. The hunt is a lot of fun. Good luck

Try www.truepeoplesearch.com the best part it's free