How to skip trace a property.
A plain walkthrough: what skip tracing is, the steps to run one, and what to do with the number once you have it.
What skip tracing actually is
Skip tracing means starting with a property or a name you already have, and ending with a way to reach the person behind it — usually a phone number, sometimes an email. The term comes from tracking someone who has "skipped town," but in real estate it is used more plainly: an owner's mailing address is often not the property itself, especially for owners who inherited a house, moved out of state, or hold the property through a company. Skip tracing bridges that gap using records that are already public.
Step 1: Start from the property, not a name
Counties keep a record of who owns each parcel and where their tax bill or assessment notice gets mailed. That record is the starting point — the deed name and the mailing address on file with the county. If you already have a list of addresses (from driving for dollars, a tax delinquent list, or a probate filing), this step is already done for you.
Step 2: Pull the current phone numbers
The county record gives you a name and a mailing address, but rarely a phone number. That is the actual "trace" — cross-referencing the name and address against other public records to find a current number. This is the step Tracepoint does for you: drop in the owner's name and address, and it returns the phone numbers tied to that person, tagged with how each one was matched so you know what you are holding. A new account gets 5,000 lookups to do this with, one time, at no cost.
Step 3: Check the number before you use it
Before the first call or text, it is worth checking the number against your own do-not-call list — the list you keep of people who have already asked not to be contacted. Keeping that list current and checking new numbers against it before you reach out protects the people who opted out and keeps your own records straight, regardless of what any single tool claims to handle for you.
Step 4: Call and text like it's a person, not a lead
A skip-traced number belongs to someone who does not know you are calling. A short, plain introduction that says who you are and why you are reaching out — plainly, not as a script — gets further than a hard pitch on the first contact. If you text first, say who you are in the first message; a text from an unknown number with no introduction is the one most people ignore or report. And if someone says stop, stop — that is what the do-not-call list from step 3 is for.
Step 5: Keep the result, don't just use it once
Once you have traced an owner, keep the record — the name, the number, the address and any notes from the call — somewhere you can find it again. Re-contacting the same owner later, or handing the lead to a partner, is much easier with a written history than a phone number alone. Inside Tracepoint, every traced owner becomes a contact with its own call and text history attached, so nothing gets re-typed or lost between steps.
For the workflow built specifically around county maps and owner lists, see skip tracing for wholesalers, or start with 5,000 free lookups on your own list.