Skip tracing absentee owners.

What an absentee owner is

An absentee owner owns a property but does not live in it. Think landlords, heirs who live far away, owners who moved and never sold, and companies.

Wholesalers like these owners because they often have less attachment to the house. But skip tracing absentee owners goes wrong in one common way: tracing the house instead of the person.

Mailing address vs property address

The county tax record for a parcel carries two addresses:

• The property address (sometimes called the situs address). This is where the house is.
• The mailing address. This is where the county sends the tax bill. For an absentee owner, it is where the owner actually is.

When the two match, the owner most likely lives there. When they differ, you probably have an absentee owner, and the mailing address is the one to trace.

How to spot an absentee owner on the county record

• Mailing address in another state. The strongest sign.
• Mailing address in another city or ZIP code. A strong sign.
• A company or trust name as owner. Often absentee. For a company, see how to skip trace an LLC.
• "In care of" (c/o) on the mailing line. Someone else is handling the owner's mail, like a relative or a manager.

Traps that waste lookups

Same address, written two ways. "12 Oak St" and "12 Oak Street Apt 1" can be the same place. Clean up the formatting before you call it absentee.

Local PO boxes. Some owners who live in the house still use a PO box in town. A PO box in the same ZIP is a maybe, not a yes.

Bills sent to a company that pays the tax. In some counties the bill goes to a mortgage or tax service, not the owner. If the mailing name is a lender or a service, the owner's own address is somewhere else. Look for it in older tax records or recorded documents.

How to trace them

Take the owner name and the mailing address from the county record. Run the trace on that pair, not on the property address. You will get numbers tied to the owner, not to the tenant who answers the door.

In the counties Tracepoint has property data for, the list builder has an absentee owner filter and flags out-of-state owners. The mailing address travels with each row into the skip tracer, so nothing gets lost in a spreadsheet. A lookup is only used when a new number comes back, and a new account gets 5,000 free, one time.

Calling an owner in another state

An out-of-state owner may be in a different time zone. Check the area code and their mailing address, and call at a normal hour where they are, not where you are.

Open with who you are and which property you are calling about. An absentee owner may own more than one, so name the street. Before you dial, check the number against your do-not-call list; see DNC scrubbing for wholesalers.

For the full step-by-step, read how to skip trace a property, or see how the workflow fits together in skip tracing for wholesalers.