FAQ Forum Question: How Do I Find the Owner of a Property?

[Mindy Jensen]

Hello fellow BiggerPocketeers!

In an effort to provide the best answers to some of the most frequently asked questions, we've created an FAQ Forum so our most knowledgeable members can answer a frequent question thoroughly, one time.

Today's question is:

How do I find the owner of a property? Similar variations are How do I find the owner of a vacant/abandoned property? How do I find who owns a property where the owner is deceased?

Please share your best, most complete answers below. 

[Account Closed]

The abandoned house im closing on next week was probably the most labor intensive. It's been boarded up since 2009, no neighbors knew the seller, direct mail was all returned to sender.. so i went full stalker mode! Mapped out his family tree from intelius, and started messaging everyone with a name/location match on Facebook. Since FB filters out messages, none were getting through so i took it a step further. I found his ex-daughter in law had her page set to "public" so i dropped a comment with my quick pitch and # on one of her photos. She was none too pleased at first lol, but as soon as some rapport was built she forked over his number! His mailing address on the county assessor's site was wrong, and he said he'd never gotten any mail about the house! 

Usually i find just asking the neighbors works wonders. If you can't catch them outside, and hate knocking on doors like i do..I had few of these lil guys made up!