How to track down owner...

[Shannon X.]

Once you find a vacant house; what are the procedures on tracking down the owner? What should be done as well? Should you send letters to the house? if yes but the owner does not visit or someone who is taking care of the property then how would you go about on tracking down the owner and talking to him/her personally?

Thanks

[Chris Feltus]

Shannon Xerri

As others have pointed out, the first place to check is your local tax assessor/ central appraisal district. It appears you have already done this, next I would attempt the following.

Talk to neighbors. This is great way to find additional information regarding the owner of the house. Often they can provide you with a direct number. The neighbors are happy to talk with you and provide information on the distressed property next door that is dragging their property values down with it.

Check public records. If you can locate a deed of trust on the property you can contact each of the grantors listed. See illustration below. Use this information to conduct individual searches on the grantors and see what you can find on google. The format for your google search might look something like this "[subject property address] [name of person your searching for] [local phone area codes]. "123 Main Street John Smith 817-"

If all else fails you can utilize a skip trace service such as: TLO.com, usa-people-search.com zabasearch.com just to name a few.