Driving for Dollars: How to find the property owners' mailing address?

[Joseph Escamilla]

Not looking to wholesale, but posting in this thread because I'm guessing wholesalers probably have the most experience with this.

My Fiancée and I are driving for dollars looking to buy a primary residence in a neighborhood we want to live in. How would we go about obtaining the property owners' mailing addresses for the properties we want to reach out to? 

Im sure it varies by area, but is this public record that I can get from county/town records? Or do I need a specific software to obtain this info? 

Thank you ! 

Joe

[Jonathan Greene]

You can get almost any information on the owner from the county tax records, but then you would need to skip trace it. There are apps that do it all for you, like DealMachine. But if you are driving for dollars and looking for a home for yourself, you want to use this strategy:

Write a personal letter to the homeowner and explain exactly what you are looking to do and why you are sending them the letter. Only choose houses in the blocks that you really want and know you will have to overpay to get it this way.

Are you looking for a done house or a rehab one for yourself?

[Joseph Escamilla]

Quote from @Jonathan Greene:

You can get almost any information on the owner from the county tax records, but then you would need to skip trace it. There are apps that do it all for you, like DealMachine. But if you are driving for dollars and looking for a home for yourself, you want to use this strategy:

Write a personal letter to the homeowner and explain exactly what you are looking to do and why you are sending them the letter. Only choose houses in the blocks that you really want and know you will have to overpay to get it this way.

Are you looking for a done house or a rehab one for yourself?

 Thanks @Jonathan Greene !! I guess I’m confused by the skip tracing part? I can get the info from the county tax records but still need to take another step? Not sure if I follow 

Ideally we get something that has a good structure but is outdated and needs TLC. Even if it has some renovations we can work with that if it’s in the neighborhood we want. But would prefer to stay away from the far ends of the spectrum (dilapidated or fully renovated).

Thanks again for the reply 

Joe 

[Marshall Smith]

@Joseph Escamilla LandGlide. Download and pay the small monthly fee. You'll see who owns everything. I use it all the time just for this. It's not always completely accurate, but in the worst case, you get the previous owner who won't hesitate to tell you all about the property and who they sold to.

[Joseph Escamilla]

Quote from @Marshall Smith:

@Joseph Escamilla LandGlide. Download and pay the small monthly fee. You'll see who owns everything. I use it all the time just for this. It's not always completely accurate, but in the worst case, you get the previous owner who won't hesitate to tell you all about the property and who they sold to.

Super helpful I will check it out thanks @Marshall Smith ! 

[Jonathan Greene]

Quote from @Joseph Escamilla:

Quote from @Jonathan Greene:

You can get almost any information on the owner from the county tax records, but then you would need to skip trace it. There are apps that do it all for you, like DealMachine. But if you are driving for dollars and looking for a home for yourself, you want to use this strategy:

Write a personal letter to the homeowner and explain exactly what you are looking to do and why you are sending them the letter. Only choose houses in the blocks that you really want and know you will have to overpay to get it this way.

Are you looking for a done house or a rehab one for yourself?

 Thanks @Jonathan Greene !! I guess I’m confused by the skip tracing part? I can get the info from the county tax records but still need to take another step? Not sure if I follow 

Ideally we get something that has a good structure but is outdated and needs TLC. Even if it has some renovations we can work with that if it’s in the neighborhood we want. But would prefer to stay away from the far ends of the spectrum (dilapidated or fully renovated).

Thanks again for the reply 

Joe 

You will get the owner's name and address from the tax records, not phone and email. If you only want to mail, you are all set.

[Gregory Schwartz]

fastpeoplesearch.com has been my go-to free tool for finding people's contact info. 

I did the same thing about five years ago: I drove around town looking for a house hack. We ended up with a great fourplex. The trick was looking for those tired "For Rent" signs. If the sign is tired, so is the self-managing owner. 

Good luck! 

[Joseph Escamilla]

Quote from @Jonathan Greene:

Quote from @Joseph Escamilla:

Quote from @Jonathan Greene:

You can get almost any information on the owner from the county tax records, but then you would need to skip trace it. There are apps that do it all for you, like DealMachine. But if you are driving for dollars and looking for a home for yourself, you want to use this strategy:

Write a personal letter to the homeowner and explain exactly what you are looking to do and why you are sending them the letter. Only choose houses in the blocks that you really want and know you will have to overpay to get it this way.

Are you looking for a done house or a rehab one for yourself?

 Thanks @Jonathan Greene !! I guess I’m confused by the skip tracing part? I can get the info from the county tax records but still need to take another step? Not sure if I follow 

Ideally we get something that has a good structure but is outdated and needs TLC. Even if it has some renovations we can work with that if it’s in the neighborhood we want. But would prefer to stay away from the far ends of the spectrum (dilapidated or fully renovated).

Thanks again for the reply 

Joe 

You will get the owner's name and address from the tax records, not phone and email. If you only want to mail, you are all set.

 Gotcha makes sense. Thanks again! 

[Joseph Escamilla]

Quote from @Gregory Schwartz:

fastpeoplesearch.com has been my go-to free tool for finding people's contact info. 

I did the same thing about five years ago: I drove around town looking for a house hack. We ended up with a great fourplex. The trick was looking for those tired "For Rent" signs. If the sign is tired, so is the self-managing owner. 

Good luck! 

 Really good advice thank you @Gregory Schwartz ! 

[Taylor Dasch]

Definitely a good idea to drive for dollars but if you are looking for a primary residence, it is likely that the sellers you are reaching out to will lack motivation. You could definitely get on their radar and have them reach out if they ever decide to sell. 

As for your question, you can get their info from propstream or whitepages. Just look up the owners in your county records.  The writing a letter is a great idea also. 

[Joseph Escamilla]

Quote from @Taylor Dasch:

Definitely a good idea to drive for dollars but if you are looking for a primary residence, it is likely that the sellers you are reaching out to will lack motivation. You could definitely get on their radar and have them reach out if they ever decide to sell. 

As for your question, you can get their info from propstream or whitepages. Just look up the owners in your county records.  The writing a letter is a great idea also. 

 Totally agreed @Taylor Dasch. Our expectations are low. We know that we most likely will not get any responses, but let's see what happens! 

[Taylor Dasch]

Quote from @Joseph Escamilla:

Quote from @Taylor Dasch:

Definitely a good idea to drive for dollars but if you are looking for a primary residence, it is likely that the sellers you are reaching out to will lack motivation. You could definitely get on their radar and have them reach out if they ever decide to sell. 

As for your question, you can get their info from propstream or whitepages. Just look up the owners in your county records.  The writing a letter is a great idea also. 

 Totally agreed @Taylor Dasch. Our expectations are low. We know that we most likely will not get any responses, but let's see what happens! 

 I was just thinking, as a realtor, I will sometimes just drive through neighborhoods that I like and sometimes, I will see a Pods container or a moving truck, or people working - If I see that, I will normally go knock on the door and introduce myself to see if they are making a move or not. I would say that is the biggest switch between D4D for investment properties vs a primary residence. 

[Nicholas L.]

@Joseph Escamilla

hmm... interesting strategy.  i have questions:

-are you going to meetups and networking with both agents and investors that source off market deals?

-i do think it's going to be tough to find what you're looking for, which you acknowledged.  most sellers will lack motivation if their property is not distressed - and you said you don't want something too distressed.

-what is the background behind your plan to 'drive for primary residence'?

[Jon K.]

Quote from @Joseph Escamilla:

Not looking to wholesale, but posting in this thread because I'm guessing wholesalers probably have the most experience with this.

My Fiancée and I are driving for dollars looking to buy a primary residence in a neighborhood we want to live in. How would we go about obtaining the property owners' mailing addresses for the properties we want to reach out to? 

Im sure it varies by area, but is this public record that I can get from county/town records? Or do I need a specific software to obtain this info? 

Thank you ! 

Joe

These days a lot of local governments have the records online. You can usually find them by googling "<location> real property search".

I see you're in Charleston, SC. Assuming that's what you're looking for, the above mentioned google turned up this website: https://www.charlestoncounty.org/property-info.php

If you click on the GIS parcel viewer option, there's a search bar where you can punch in a street address. I just gave it a try with a random property I found for sale on Redfin and once the map updated and I clicked on the parcel it brought up a little context window that provided the mailing address (as well as other info).

[Axel Garcia]

I’m new to the real estate scene but my mentor has experience and told me that the best way to find property owners’ mailing addresses is by using tools like PropStream or BatchLeads. Because they provide updated contact info and allow you to filter for specific types of properties. But if you’re looking for a free alternative, county property records can work but take more time.

[Joseph Escamilla]

Quote from @Jack Schwartz:

You can easily find the owner’s name and address in the tax records at your local Town Office. If you’re planning to do some cold calling, I highly recommend using www.fastpeoplesearch.com. It’s a resource for finding contact information. Once you have the phone number, you can double-check it at https://www.usphonebook.com. Best of luck!

 Thanks so much @Jack Schwartz !! 

[Joseph Escamilla]

Quote from @Jon K.:

Quote from @Joseph Escamilla:

Not looking to wholesale, but posting in this thread because I'm guessing wholesalers probably have the most experience with this.

My Fiancée and I are driving for dollars looking to buy a primary residence in a neighborhood we want to live in. How would we go about obtaining the property owners' mailing addresses for the properties we want to reach out to? 

Im sure it varies by area, but is this public record that I can get from county/town records? Or do I need a specific software to obtain this info? 

Thank you ! 

Joe

These days a lot of local governments have the records online. You can usually find them by googling " real property search".

I see you're in Charleston, SC. Assuming that's what you're looking for, the above mentioned google turned up this website: https://www.charlestoncounty.org/property-info.php

If you click on the GIS parcel viewer option, there's a search bar where you can punch in a street address. I just gave it a try with a random property I found for sale on Redfin and once the map updated and I clicked on the parcel it brought up a little context window that provided the mailing address (as well as other info).

 This is awesome thank you so much !! @Jon K.

[Joseph Escamilla]

Quote from @Nicholas L.:

@Joseph Escamilla

hmm... interesting strategy.  i have questions:

-are you going to meetups and networking with both agents and investors that source off market deals?

-i do think it's going to be tough to find what you're looking for, which you acknowledged.  most sellers will lack motivation if their property is not distressed - and you said you don't want something too distressed.

-what is the background behind your plan to 'drive for primary residence'?

@Nicholas L.

 Reason we are trying this strategy is just due to the fact that just like the rest of the country there is limited supply in this market. We are very particular with what we want and identified specific neighborhoods that we want to live in. We aren't in a rush to buy so we told ourselves why not. It's a shot in the dark but costs us nothing except for a little bit of time to do. 

We don't necessarily have a NEED or desire to get something off-market per se. We are happy to get something on-market if it checked most of our boxes. But like I said we want a specific neighborhood so since nothing has been on-market there we decided to try to and test our luck.  

Hopefully this gives a little more insight to our reasoning ? 

[Nicholas L.]

@Joseph Escamilla

it definitely does.  i'd network with investors who might be able to source those types of deals for you.