Understanding Skip Tracing - A guide to getting accurate contact information

Let's say you find a vacant house that would be a perfect addition to your portfolio, but you can find the owner. What do you do? When all your efforts to locate the owner are fruitless, you may have to seek skip tracing services for real estate.

Many real estate investors use skip tracing to find owners of a home or investment property before making an offer. Here is a detailed guide on understanding skip tracing and how to leverage it to get lucrative real estate deals.

What is Skip Tracing?

Skip tracing refers to the process of tracking a person's whereabouts. It is a standard service for locating down a fugitive serving a subpoena or skipped town. The same service can be applied in getting real estate leads. In real estate, it is the process of tracking the owner of a property. Locating the property owner is crucial for real estate investors who wish to purchase an income property that is not listed in the market.

A real estate agent can use skip tracing services to find sellers. Some distressed properties may be set aside by the owners or abandoned altogether. The owners may be ready to sell but are reluctant to work with real estate agents or handle the process of listing their property in the market. They may also have other matters to address or are focusing on other investments.

A real estate investor can seize this opportunity on properties that fit these features. The main aim of skip tracing is to find the owner's name, phone number, current address, and email address.

How does skip tracing work?

There are three main ways to do skip tracing. You can choose to do it yourself by looking at public records, or you can seek the services of a professional skip tracer, or the third option involves using specialized tools that aim to find out who owns the property.

The DIY Approach

This approach to skip tracing requires you to sift through local records to track information pertaining to the property owner. You have to analyze and verify any information you get in order to track an individual. The postal service does not divulge other peoples' addresses regardless of the reasons. The post office only provides this information to licensed private investigators, law enforcement officers, or other entities under a court order.

There are numerous skip tracing online services that are available for you to use to locate an individual. Ensure that you use a service that offers the most value for your money. Alternatively, you can also use search engines or social media to get information about a property owner. It's essential that you evaluate whether you can locate the person on your own or you will need professional services.

Once you receive the information about the property owner, you have to contact them to confirm whether they'll sell.

Six-step skip tracing strategy

1. Plan

The process of locating an individual can be a lengthy and daunting task that requires a lot of planning. Having a good and effective plan ensures that you save time and improve your chances of success. Laying your goals behind the plan and you're your intended outcome with the lead. This includes why you are finding them and what you will do with the property once you locate them. You will also need a follow-up strategy once you find the individual. Determine all the resources and tools you will need to find your person of interest.

2. Obtain Leads

The second step is to get the name or address of the property owner who wishes to sell. They could be delinquent on taxes, facing foreclosure, or have absentee landlords, which may prompt them to sell. There are many ways to obtain a lead, either physically or through online websites.

3. Research

You can conduct your research through the internet to look for more information about your person of interest or the property. There is a lot of information on social media sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram. You can get phone numbers by looking at online phone directories as 411, YellowPages, or AnyWho. Search engines like Bing or Google can provide you with general contact information about a person.

4. Organize

Once you get all the information you need, you organize it in a lead format that you can upload to a skip tracing service or with a professional skip tracer.

5. Upload

Upload your list with all the information into a skip tracing service. This will give you the complete profile of the person, including all the contact information.

6. Identify and Make Contact

At this point, you should have all the necessary information to make contact with the person you are locating. Make contact and close the deal.

What kind of information can a skiptracer help me collect?

A skip tracer can help you find the following information:

• Full name of the person

• Phone number

• Property address

• Email address

• Social security number 

How can skip tracing help my business?

Skip tracing can help your business in various ways, including giving you a competitive edge. If you are a real estate investor, you can find missing property owners before your competition. You can lay your offers where there are no other counter offers and have the advantage of getting a win-win deal with the property owner.

It also gives you endless opportunities to enter the real estate market at any time. When you locate a property owner, you can use skip tracing as leverage to get your preferred piece of real estate. Skip tracing is one the fastest ways to get leads. Other methods of getting leads, such as circling cities to find adverts on properties, can take a lot of your time. Skip tracing will help you find investors faster and start making deals immediately.

What’s the best skip tracing service?

An excellent real estate skip tracing service can provide you with valuable investment opportunities. They offer you an excellent insight to negotiate the best deal for real estate investing. There are various skip tracing providers to choose from. It's essential that you select a reliable company that will offer up-to-date information.

The best skip tracing service available is Clear Skip. Our skip tracing solutions are intuitive and straightforward. We provide the most up-to-date and accurate data possible. We will provide you with accurate phone numbers, mailing addresses, and Email addresses in our guaranteed 2-hour production time.

We provide four different packages, including non-bulk and bulk skip tracing, LLC business skip tracing, and probate skip tracing. With every package, you get ten phone numbers, ten email addresses, and one updated mailing address.

We offer free sorting of data records and have an average 95% hit rate for accurate information on leads. We have years of experience in real estate and offer exceptional service that will turn dead records into motivated leads. Contact us today to get started and enjoy the quickest delivery speeds.