Skip tracing for off-market investors: cost, export and calling rules

What skip tracing is

County records give you the owner name and the mailing address from the tax roll. They almost never give a phone number. A skip-trace provider matches the name and address against its own data and returns phones and e-mails it believes belong to that person.

You do not need it for mail. A letter goes to the mailing address in the county record. You only need skip tracing if you want to call, text or e-mail.

Why the price per record is the wrong number

Providers quote a price per record. What you pay for is a conversation with the owner, and most records do not lead to one. Some records come back with no number. Some numbers are wrong or disconnected. Some people never pick up. So the real cost is the total you paid, divided by the owners you actually spoke with.

Where LeadCounty stops and your provider starts

• LeadCounty does: owner lists, the score with reasons, letters, mail tracking, a pipeline, and a skip-trace export file.
• Your provider does: finds the phones and e-mails.
• LeadCounty does again: takes the results file back, matches each row to the owner, and shows the numbers on the owner record and in Search as "Phone found".
• Not included: skip tracing itself, a dialer, or texting.

How to export, trace and import, step by step

• 1. In Search, build your list. Trace only the owners you will really contact, for example your top-scored owners or a small stack.
• 2. Export a "Skip-trace file". Every row ends with a LeadCounty Record ID. Do not delete that column.
• 3. Upload the file at the provider you choose and run the trace.
• 4. Download the results from the provider.
• 5. In the app open Upload a list, choose Skip-trace results, pick your provider and map the columns. We guess the columns from the headers. Rows match on the Record ID first, then on mailing address and last name.
• 6. Phones and e-mails are saved privately on your account. Other customers never see them and they never appear in an export.

Clean the list before you pay for tracing

• Stack lists first so you trace fewer, better owners.
• Run the mailing address through NCOA (the Postal Service's change-of-address data) with a licensed provider, so you do not pay to trace someone who moved.
• Remove owners that are companies, banks or governments if you do not want them.
• Remove duplicates, so you do not pay twice for the same person.

Calls and texts: the rules in plain words

• The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) sets rules for calls and texts. Texts and automated calls to mobile phones need the right kind of consent.
• The National Do Not Call Registry lists numbers that telemarketers should not call. Scrub your list against it before you call or text, and keep your own list of people who said stop.
• E-mail follows the CAN-SPAM Act: a real sender, honest subject, a postal address and a working opt-out.
• Mail is not covered by Do Not Call, but some states have rules for contact with owners in foreclosure.
• Providers sometimes flag numbers as Do Not Call or litigator. Treat the flag as a stop sign, not as a guarantee that the rest are safe.
• General information, not legal advice. Rules differ by state and change, so ask a local real estate attorney.

Worked example: your cost for each owner reached

Example numbers, not market data. We do not know your provider's price or your hit rates. Type your own: the price from your provider's own pricing page, and the results from a small test batch.

Not included: your time, calls, texts, mail and tools. Compare this with the cost of a letter, which needs no skip tracing, and with what you earn from one deal. The example is simple arithmetic. Phone costs and hit rates differ by provider and by area.