Question about finding absentee owners

[Travis Elliott]

I called my local court house looking for a list of absentee home owners.. I asked the clerk to filter a list of just a owners who live abroad. The gentleman said that he was unable to filter any lists by my parameters and that he was only able to look up homes by addresses.

I have read on here about lists that you guys are getting. Where do you find them and how are they filtered? Do you do this at the court house?

[Patrick Karbon]

Great Question Travis! To answer your questions I get my owners lists from the CITY tax records dept filtered by Sales Amount under $40k within the last year in a target zipcode. I don't think courthouse will have what you need.
However, I need some clarification on what your looking for when you say 'Absentee' owner- if your talking about vacant homes with the Tax and the Mailing address being the same then you're going to have to track the name on record down yourself (in my experience)

However, as you may or may not know, if you're looking for absentee owners who may have a vacant INVESTMENT property, then the tax address and mailing address will be different as the tax bill will be sent to the owner's actual home address (not Renter's/ Subject House Address) In the essence of expediancy, trying to get a list of Tax Addresses and Real Address which are different is the smart approach IF you can create a contact/relationship with someone who will take the time to process your request as opposed to the classic clock-watcher city employee (zinger). The MLS is the alternative but much more time consuming process.

Since the parameters you're giving the person at the courthouse that may be the first pitfall as they may really not have the information you need. In Detroit, I go to the City Tax Records department and ask for the name's/addresses of anyone who bought a home under a wholesale price in a certain zip code for cash only(no mortgages) this is an indicator that the person is an investor and may not live there but even if they do and have paid cash (my parameters) under say, $40k, then I know I have a lead on a potentially motivated seller(is that what it's all about?)

The list I got under those parameters was used to find inactive but motivated sellers- Absentee or Owner Occupied. This is obviously the shot-gun method but you could lazer focus your approach by driving your target 'hood and cherry-picking individual addresses that look vacant/potential deals and search for the owner on the City Tax Record. Hope this helps!

Patrick