Vacant homes/ find the owner!

[Laura Casey]

Hey All! 

There's a home that I want to buy. I noticed the home is empty and property is getting run down... I did a drive by of the home and of course got out to take a look, home is clearly vacant! I'm a full-time realtor in Syracuse, where the property is located and have been using all of my hacks, but coming to a dead end. The previous owner passed away years ago and I tried tracking down family members and none of them seem to be online to message and am not finding mailing or living addresses for them.  Properties mailing address is still circling back to the property, but the home has no mailbox. Taxes are even paid up to date... so someone has to be "caring" for the home! Suggestions on how to find out who!?? Thanks in advance BP!

[Shain Ismailovski]

There should be some record of who is making tax payments and their address. If you already have next of kin info you could use skip tracing services to get contact info. I read once that you could also try putting a for sale sign on the property that has your phone number on it, eventually the person who is caring for the place will see it and, boom, you have contact info. How effective that last option is, who knows lol