Same issue shows up in Allegheny County. Absentee on a purchased list isn’t enough by itself. I only prioritize when absentee stacks with something live—open code case, active tax lien, or a recent foreclosure filing. County assessor and clerk records beat the list every time before you spend on skip tracing.
Update: Just checked PAPA for 7856 Trieste Pl - still shows same MI owner from 2002. Anyone know if Palm Beach PAPA is delayed or should I trust clerk?
Interesting find. I’d cross-check the property address and parcel ID, then compare the appraiser’s record with the latest recorded deed through the county clerk. The appraiser’s ownership data may not always reflect a recent transfer immediately, so I wouldn’t rely on either record alone without checking the underlying documentation. If the deed shows a newer owner, that would be a good reason to investigate the discrepancy further before skip tracing.
I use DealMachine to check the county data for the last sold date before skip tracing. That helps me catch outdated records and avoid tracing a previous owner.
Same issue shows up in Allegheny County. Absentee on a purchased list isn’t enough by itself. I only prioritize when absentee stacks with something live—open code case, active tax lien, or a recent foreclosure filing. County assessor and clerk records beat the list every time before you spend on skip tracing.
Thanks Travis & Dan - great points. Learned my lesson with 6663 Bristol Lk S - list said 2002 owner, PAPA showed it sold 2020. Now I'm checking PAPA + Zillow listing status before skip. Dan - good call on stacking with code case/tax lien, will check PBC Clerk for that. Appreciate it!
Hi Muyees, Great example of why verifying current ownership before skip tracing can save time and prevent researching the wrong person. I’d start with the county appraiser to confirm the current owner before running the skip trace. For older owner lists, I think the key is making sure the information is up to date before spending time on contact research. As for email vs. SMS, I’d track response rates separately rather than assume one works better for every market.
@Emran Hossain — Appreciate this, very helpful. You're right — that's exactly what burned me on 6663 Bristol Lk S. List showed 2002 owner, checked PAPA and it sold in 2020 to a new OH owner, deed confirmed it. So I wasted the skip.
Going forward I'm doing exactly what you said — cross-check property address + parcel ID on PAPA, then compare with latest recorded deed on PBC Clerk (myclerk.myPalmBeachClerk). If deed shows newer owner, I skip tracing.
Just applied it — 15534 Fiorenza Cir, Delray Beach — FastPeopleSearch showed previous address recorded July 1995 matching my list, so still current. Saved time.
Thanks for the save-time tip on verifying before skip — lesson learned!
i'd verify after you filter and before you skip. cut the list down by your criteria first, check last sale date against the appraiser on what's left, then skip trace only those. cheaper than skipping everything. and save the list name, pull date and last verified sale date on each record, so when the same owner shows up on the next list you're not checking him twice
Amr — thank you, this is huge. Got it: Filter → Verify remaining on PAPA → Skip only filtered. And log List Name + Pull Date + Last Verified Sale Date per record to avoid double-checking same owner next pull. I was checking before filtering and wasting credits. Implementing your system today for my Delray 33446 farm (Valencia/Vizcaya). Will report savings. Appreciate you!
this is exactly why “fresh” matters more than just having a big list. your new flow makes sense: filter first, then verify ownership against PAPA + the latest deed, then spend the skip trace credit.
one thing i’d add is keeping the source/list name, pull date, and last verified ownership date on the record. that way when the same property comes back on another list a month later, you’re not rechecking the whole thing from scratch.
this is actually one of the problems we’ve been trying to solve with Lispend — getting county-record signals into a usable workflow without losing the source/record context once the lead gets exported. but even if you’re working a separate absentee list, your PAPA → Clerk → Code/Tax → Skip process is a much better way to handle it than tracing everything first.
Ziad — appreciate you breaking this down. Agree — filter first then verify against PAPA + latest deed before spending skip credit makes sense for saving credits. And logging source/list name + pull date + last verified ownership date on the record is what I'm implementing now so I'm not rechecking same property from scratch when it comes back next month. Good point on keeping source context on export — that's where I was losing time. Thanks for the input.