All Forum Posts by: Roger Kuo

@Roger Kuo - This isn’t just an issue you’ll run into in Orange County. No county in California provides online access to property owners’ names and addresses. 

The reason is because there’s a law in California that prohibits County Assessor’s Offices from posting the home address of any elected or appointed officials (i.e. members of the legislature, City Attorneys, District Attorneys, Public Defenders, Police Chiefs and Sheriffs, federal judges, etc) on the internet. And since the Assessor’s Offices don’t know who all these people are and the cost to continually try to collect and update that information would be prohibitive, they simply don’t post any property owners info online.

However, the information itself is a matter of public record, so you can always go the County Assessor’s Office in person and view it. Some counties will also allow you to obtain the information by phone and/or email. They just can’t post it online.

If you were going to be doing a lot of “driving for dollars”, that might become somewhat time consuming though. So I’d recommend the service which was previously mentioned called “Property Radar” since you could run as many properties as you want and get the info yourself directly without having to go through the Assessor’s Office. 

@Roger Kuo before going to Orange County I used to use Parcelquest. I loved that. Now I use Realist which comes with my MLS. I also use Spokeo to help locate owners, etc.

@Roger Kuo  if you are not a real estate agent it's sometimes difficult to get what you need.  I have access through the title company (First American) and a company called realist.  I don't "drive for dollars" in the biggerpockets sense of the word, because I have found it to be a waste of my time.  Also, what do you say at the front door if you are door knocking?  "Hi, I am an investor and I stopped by this ugly house to see if you are interested in selling?"  Awkward...

I do use a third party app called Property Radar (Not an endorsement). I use this to get my "NOD Notice of Default's" that I do target with calls and knocking of their doors. "Hi, my name is Joe and I stopped by to see if you are interested in selling your home?" "Do you have a few minutes to speak with me.?" I know they are in default from their loan and need to do something sooner rather than later. Why not pick on those that you know are already in trouble? This app provides ALL owner information and sometimes phone numbers as well.

Good investing...

Hey @Roger Kuo 

You can just reach out to a title company and ask them to do it.  I sent my title company 13 addresses and they gave me all 13 reports for free and the report tells you if the property is owner occupied and if not, it shows their address.  If you want more information like phone#, email, they charge $0.10 per lead, so really inexpensive.  The one I use is Old Republic Title. 

Hope that helps. 

@Roger Kuo Orange County is one of the only counties that won't allow their records to be accessed without the services providing info compensating them. You just have to get creative.

Wow I didn't realize Orange county did that till right now. As an agent we can look it up through the MLS. In your case I would recommend trying out deal machine, land glide, or the driving for dollars app. Don't believe they're free( might have free trials) bu they do get owner information so that might be your best shot. If you're going into any other county then yes usually the county website the easiest option.

Try BellesLink. 

You can use reverse address searches to find the property owner and then do a people search to find a phone number, mobile and landline, mailing address, emails, relatives, etc. 

If you develop a list of names and address those can all be searched at one time as a batch. 

You can get name and address from the county website, if you want a possible phone number you'll likely have to pay for skip tracing.