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SHOW NOTES FOR EPISODE 346: HOW TO FIND THE OWNER OF ANY PROPERTY
Whether you need to find the owners of a dilapidated property that needs cleaning up, or you want to make an offer on your dream off-market property, locating the names of a property owner is important. In either case, and especially for those real estate investors trying to find those “diamond in the rough” properties, finding the property owner is key! In this episode, Bill shares seven ways you can find the owner of any property.
Here are the seven ways you can find the owner of any property.
1. Knock on Doors
Although it may seem obvious, the first step in determining property ownership is to ask neighbors living near the property. Older residents of the neighborhood may also know the history of the property and remember the last owner. While it might seem simple enough, a certain level of sensitivity is needed when talking about a neighborhood eyesore. Property owners may be embarrassed about the condition of their property or overwhelmed by a situation that has gotten out of hand. I f you do find yourself talking to the property owner, offering to help the owner recover the space from a neighborly (not critical) perspective might be enough to get the project rolling.
2. Contact the County Tax Assessor
If there’s a piece of property, someone is paying tax on it – or not. If the owner is delinquent on their taxes, the state and county will be looking for them too.
- If property taxes aren’t current, the county may foreclose on the property and sell it at public auction.[1]
- If you go to the website of the tax assessor in the county where the property is located, you may be able to search records online. In more rural counties, you may have to go to the tax assessor’s office in person.
- In most cases, if you know the street address of the property, you can search the county database that way. You’ll get the most precise results if you’ve determined the plat number or the lot and block of the property.[3]
- The tax records will include the name and contact information of the property owner.
- Tax records also may include detail about the most recent appraisal of the property, including its dimensions, number of rooms, type of heating or air conditioning, and other property features.[4]
- If the property has a tax lien or deficiency, the owners may be more willing to sell the property just to get rid of the debt.[5]
3. Consult Other Public Records Such as Property Deeds
Since property deeds must be recorded, you can take a trip to the county recorder’s office and pull up the deed to the property.[6]
- The recorder of deeds is responsible for maintaining public records of all land ownership and transfers.[7]
- In most counties, the recorder’s office is located in the county courthouse.[8]
- Some recorder’s offices may even have these records online for you to search, especially if the property is in a major metropolitan area.[9]
- The deed records the transfer of property, so you not only find the current owner of record, but also who they purchased the property from and if there are any liens on the property.[10]
- Deeds also will be easier to search if you’ve determined the plat or lot number of the property, since the plat number is the only information required for the legal description of the property on the deed.[11]
4. Talk to a Real Estate Agent
If you see signs in nearby yards for a particular real estate agent, give them a call and ask about the property. An agent selling other houses or property in the area is likely to have knowledge about the neighborhood.
- In addition to knowledge about the neighborhood including general demographics and property value trends, a real estate agent has contact with title search companies and other professional resources.
- A real estate agent’s professional connections can enable her to find information about a property owner much faster than you could on your own.
5. Contact a Title Company
Since title companies routinely perform searches to clear title on properties, and record deeds after title transfers, they have easy access to accurate, current information on a property.
- If you want to buy the property, connecting with a title search company will be essential, because you will need a complete and accurate history of the property’s title and its value.[14]
- A title company isn’t going to conduct a title search for free. Title search fees, which typically run between $200 and $400, normally would be included in the general closing costs when you were buying a house.[15]A title search independent of a home sale might cost more, depending on the company you contact.
6. Find a Skip Tracer
Skip tracers, like bounty hunters, are professionals who find people who’ve “skipped” out and can’t be located by usual means. Skip tracers are familiar with and have access to a number of databases that may not be available to the general public.[16]
- Skip tracers also may interview neighbors, relatives, or other sources and conduct surveillance on the property if necessary to locate the owner.
- Independent skip tracers often work with bounty hunters, bail bondsmen, and private investigators.[17]
- Podcast Link: 251: Using Skip Tracing to Market Direct to Sellers
- Podcast Link: 288: How to Find Below Market Properties in 2019
7. Pay for the Information
FIVERR
Fiver is a great resource I use in multiple ways with my real estate business:
- Skip Tracers
- LLC researchers that will get you the owner’s name, phone number and email address ($25 per address)
- Private detectives
PropertyShark
You can turn to PropertyShark for real estate data for a fee. The research company’s Property Ownership Search tool will pull, for a given address, a report with a property overview, property ownership records, deeds, tax liens, and more. The tool was initially launched for New York but now covers 15 states.
To search PropertyShark’s database of property ownership records, you’ll need a free basic account. (In some regions, full access requires a paid subscription.) You’ll get one free property record search with membership, and then can opt to purchase reports a la carte at $14.95 per 100 reports, or sign up for a premium membership.
If you’re REALLY curious about who owns that house and your neighbors, you can go for a premium membership plan.
PropertyShark’s most basic option, the Express, costs $199.95 a year for 150 reports a month in most states, $399.95 in New York, and $499.95 for all states. Express membership gets you information about property characteristics, ownership, taxes, and sales history. At the high end, the Elite plan for $1,249.95 offers more data on comparable properties in the neighborhood, photos, foreclosures, and pre-foreclosures.
Data Tree
If you want to search nationwide, Data Tree by First American, the Times’ other data source, ranks among the nation’s largest sources of real estate information. It mostly deals with mortgage lenders, credit unions, law firms, and real estate service providers, but anyone can sign up for a subscription to its national database.
Data Tree contains records from 99% of counties across the U.S., according to the website. The Times reporters used a custom search feature to find all addresses in a certain area sold within a certain time period. These searches are based on a per address fee, plus a small additional fee for each report. Customizing a plan to fit your needs comes at no extra charge.
Data Tree offers subscriptions that start at $99 a month and increase depending on usage. However, all subscribers have the same access to data—it’s the reports that cost extra. The more you pay for a subscription, the less you pay per report. It also offers a free trial.
DealMachine
Deal Machine is a real estate investing app that will put you in touch with the property owner via direct mail, phone and email by simply taking a picture of the house with your phone and get real time information. We had Dave Lecko, the founder of the company, on the Old Dawg’s Podcast (199: Secret Weapon to Acquire Off-Market Real Estate Deals – April 23, 2018)
Liran Koren
Liran Koren, a guest on the Old Dawg’s REI Network (331: From $39K to over $50 Million in 9 Years! Finding Off-Market Properties with Data Mining and Equity Analysis – ) has developed software that will help you identify off-market properties, including information on who owns the property.
What if the owner is an LLC
- Get the name of the LLC
- Do a search to identify the state the LLC is in
- Check through the state’s “Secretary of State” to get the info on the LLC
In Conclusion
Finding the owner of a property has tremendous value. If you can deal exclusively with the owner, you are more likely to:
- Get a better price
- Possibly set up seller/owner financing
- Get inside information that might be filtered out by realtors or brokers
Well, I hope this podcast helps you get that much closer to finding the perfect off-market deal.
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