Have you ever been down this road? If so, you can agree that the common outreach and marketing tactics that many investors apply will rarely work – particularly if the owners of such properties have skipped town.

Understanding Skip Tracing in Real Estate

In real estate, skip tracing involves finding the whereabouts of a particular individual. The phrase is commonly used when locating property owners who are probably motivated sellers. By trying to find these owners, real estate experts want to find listings, investments, and wholesale deals.

If you’re a serious investor, then you should be aware of skip tracing to obtain contact details from difficult-to-find property owners, e.g., absentee owners. Rather than using direct mail, this method could be a more effective way of reaching these prospective sellers.

With this, you’ll find homeowners that haven’t found other investors; therefore, you’ll have a higher chance of closing many deals with motivated sellers.

Using Skip Tracing in Real Estate

Although skip tracing may sound basic, it’s the most effective technique of quickly locating property owners. Primarily, this process helps to obtain contact details for property owners who are hard to find.

When it comes to real estate, skip tracing is pretty straightforward- the amount of information needed is often minimal. Some of this information includes the owner’s current:

• Full Name
• Phone Numbers
• Property Addresses
• Email Addresses
• Social Security Number

In most cases, you won’t find the current address of out-of-state or absentee homeowners in any public record. Fortunately, if they’ve left a forwarding address with the NCOA, you may easily track them down.

However, the only issue is that the postal service isn’t obligated to give you the forwarding address of any person, no matter if you give numerous valid reasons! And this is how skip tracing becomes useful.

The good news is that there are numerous skip tracing services online. But before signing up for a service that interests you while doing an online search, ensure that you establish if it will offer the utmost value for your money.

You should also remember that a simple search on search engines or social media can provide you with all the necessary information regarding a property owner you’re looking for. So, determine whether you can carry out a skip tracing process by yourself before choosing a paid service.

The Next Step After Skip Tracing

Once you’ve found the property owner you want, the next thing you should do is to call them. Apart from having a follow-up system, you should have a script and database for every conversation you have. You can use a free customer relationship manager.

Before purchasing the property, collect all the information you want about it from the owner, to ensure you’re going for the best deal.

If there’s one thing you should remember to do after skipping tracing your specific real estate leads is to know the owner’s situation and investigate why your lead is willing to sell the property. Reveal the seller’s motivation and guide them with their options, before you draft the contract and make your offer.

Don’t forget that the more solutions you provide to your prospects’ issues, the higher the results your expeditions will bring.

Once you understand the situation that the seller is undergoing and providing the most practical solutions, get a reliable real estate lawyer to help you draft a contract to list or buy the property.

Conclusion

If you use skip tracing effectively, you’ll undoubtedly be at the top of the game in text messaging for real estate. It is primarily because you’ll reach potentials that other real estate investors cannot reach. And in turn, this will help you make more sales that should help you stand out from the competition.

Skip tracing doubtlessly prompts you to take the extra mile. You will need to spend money at times, needless to say, the amount of energy and time you’ll invest to attain your goals. But, if you correctly follow the process and adopt the ideal methods, the success you’ll get will truly be worth the struggle.