What to look for in skip tracing software.
A plain checklist for picking a tool, whatever you end up choosing — cost per lookup, where the list comes from, and what happens to the result after.
Start with how it charges you
Most skip tracing tools charge per lookup, and the sticker price on the first search is rarely the full story. The question that actually matters is what happens when you re-run the same list next month: does an owner you already found cost you again, or only a genuinely new result? A tool that only charges for new numbers is worth more than the same price tag on a tool that charges every time, because a working list gets re-run far more than once.
Tracepoint's answer to this: a new account gets 5,000 lookups one time, at no cost, and a lookup is only spent the first time a new phone number comes back for an owner. Owners already in your workspace return for nothing on every re-run after that.
Ask where the list comes from
Before you trust a phone number enough to call it, it is worth knowing roughly how the tool got it. A tag that says how a number was tied to the owner — through the county record, through a mailing address match, or some other path — lets you decide for yourself how much weight to put on a given result, rather than treating every number the tool hands back the same way.
Decide whether you want a CRM built in
A skip trace on its own is just a phone number. What happens after — the call, the note you write down, the follow-up text a week later — needs somewhere to live. Some tools stop at the number and expect you to paste it into a separate CRM by hand; others build the trace and the pipeline into the same screen, so the contact record already exists by the time you dial. Which one fits depends on whether you already have a CRM you like, or whether re-typing between two tools is the part of your day you would rather cut out.
Check what it takes to actually reach people
A phone number is only useful if you have a way to call or text it that doesn't fall apart at the compliance step. Look at whether the tool includes a dialer on numbers you already own, whether it walks you through the registration a carrier requires before texting works, and whether it gives you a simple way to keep your own do-not-call list and check new numbers against it before the first contact.
A short checklist
- Does a re-traced owner cost you again, or only a genuinely new number?
- Does it tell you how a number was tied to the owner, or just hand it over blind?
- Does it come with somewhere to hold the contact, or do you need a second tool?
- Can you call and text from your own numbers without a separate setup?
- Is there a free way to try it on a real list before you commit to anything?
If you want to see how Tracepoint answers each of these directly, start with 5,000 free lookups, or read about the workflow built for wholesalers specifically.