All Forum Posts by: David Dey

Greg 

Who's steps are you following?  I'm not asking rudely, I'm asking if you are following a specific process as provided by a particular system.

Speaking for most active investors, we have normally used the "ready, fire, aim," approach to investing.  That is to say, as soon as we figured out a system, we started hunting houses.

There are positives and negatives to this approach.  On one hand, this approach is somewhat of a trial and error approach to investing.  On the other hand, you can have all the best bells and whistles to your company, but your not gonna make a dime till you get a deal going.

I would recommend that you do what you can to prepare yourself to complete the deal, i.e.: work on financing etc..  Then get looking for houses.

Just Don't get stuck into the trap of getting ready to get ready.  

My favorite way of tracking down heirs is through the obituaries.

Many list the spouses and heirs along with city and state.

Then, truth be told, there are so many ways to find them online.  There's not too many ways to hide these days.

Here are some of the simpler ways:

Whitepages/anywho/zabasearch/etc

If you know what city or state the heir lives in, look up their name in the property appraisers site and manytimes you'll find them.

Amazingly enough, Google is one of the most overlooked places to look up someone.  

Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/etc

I have been successful with a combination of these tools and others in finding 85-90% of my skips without needing pay for skip services.  (Though I do have a private eye on retainer and some of the cooler skiptrace tools as well)  I feel more personal accomplishment finding them myself.