Locating current owners of apartment builidings

[Howie Baker]

Our company is looking to do a direct mail campaign to the area apartment building owners where we would like to invest. We have received a list of the owners from our title company and this is where we hit a snag. A lot of the owners of these buildings are registered as corporations, partnerships, or LLC's. The secretary of state website in California will divulge address information of these corporations but not any phone numbers. The only names listed are those of the "registered agent" who may not necessarily be the best contact person. Of course any skip tracing follows individuals not companies. Any suggestions on how to proceed and who to mail to for the greatest success at contacting these companies would be greatly appreciated.

By the way, the company I am working with now was created by a contact I made here on BP just by reaching out to the local investor list for a meet and greet!!

[David Dey]

@Howie Baker

This actually has a couple of relatively simple solutions.

As for the LLC's and corps on the Secretary of State, the address may give you more info then the actual Info on there.

Google the address and you will see the business come up often.  You may also get the contact info there as well.

Also, look up the address on the property appraiser's site.  If the property is a single family home, the owner is the probable owner of the company.

Another option is to look up the mortgage on the property.  Do a name search on the company name, yes the mortgage will show the company name, but the bank will require the owner/manager to sign the mortgage.  You will get his/her name there.  

Here is another option, look up the evictions.  If the company handles their own evictions, most of the complaints will have their contact on the notice of default to the tenant.  

If your state requires a corporate owned property requiring an Atty to file for them, all the better.  The atty has a fiduciary responsibility to make sure your contact gets to the owner.  (As a side note, if you see quite a few evictions, this may be a symptom of a bigger problem and may be a good filter)

Again, a name search on the register of deeds will give you other search options.  Notice of commencements, affidavits, etc.  some may even include phone numbers.

Hope this helps.