Finding owners background info

[Alex Verdugo]

I am trying to locate the owners of a few properties I've sent yellow letters to.  I had these letters returned with no forwarding address available.  What is the next step to find these owners?  I'm aware of the many different skip tracing companies that can find the information I'm looking for but I'm one of those people that likes to know how things work.  I'm sure eventually I will outsource this task, when my investing career in much further along.  But for now I would like to learn how to do my own tracing.  I'm sure there are times when I won't need or want a full report from these companies and only need a few pieces of information.  I would like to learn how to fund all the credit reports, criminal records, rental history, etc.  As a for instance, I have a friend who I know has a criminal past. Ive know him for years and he is a good person, mostly.  I wouldn't necessarily need to know his rental history because I know where he's been living the past 4 years.  But some of the other info might be helpful.  

Where can I get a copy of his credit report?  For free?

Is there a free way to find out about his criminal past without manually going to every county in the US and searching his name?

And on a similar note, what all is contained in a skip trace report?

Thank you for helping.

[Andy Eakes]

@Alex Verdugo There are numerous ways to get all of the information you are looking for. As far as looking for owners of distressed properties, you can call the local county tax assessor and use the address or the owners name to find out their latest address listed. Those are usually pretty current as they collect payments from homeowners throughout the year. Dont feel weird asking for their address either. Just tell the assessor's office why you want their info and they usually share what they can.

All of the other stuff can be found through background checks. You have to purchase them but they will tell you rent and criminal history.