Recently a student of wealth school asked about how to track down the owner of house overgrown by tall grass.  It looked like noone had lived in the house for years.  The kicker was that it was actually in a fairly nice neighborhood.  It was by far the dog of the block.  These are the types of properties you want to buy, because it wouldn’t take much to make this property into the pride of the neighborhood. 

Our student’s first move was to check the county assessor to see who owns the property.  Good move.  What she learned was that the address for the owner of record in Singapore.  Ouch.  What to do about that?  Also, she tells me the property taxes are delinquent. 

A notice from the city attached the house indicates their are no lien holders.  Sounds like the property might also be free and clear.  That’s awesome. 

O.K.  So how do we buy this thing?  First of all, we can only buy it from the owner.  Hope that’s obvious.  A good first step is to interview all the neighbors to see if you can find out how to contact the owner.  You could tell them that if they help you locate the owner and you buy the house, you will pay them a finders fee.  Careful, this is not a commission, so don’t tell them you’ll pay a commission.  That might violate your state’s laws (i.e., only licensed folks are to be paid commission). 

In addition, you will also want to send at least one letter to the record owner.  Make sure you write "return address requested" on the envelope.  

You might also try finding their telephone number.  They might possibly have it listed.  Try Googling the owner’s name.  Who knows, if it’s an unusual name, something might come up.

Their are some other ways you can find people, like hiring a skip tracer.  I’ve heard stories of that approach working well, but for most people I’ve talked with in regard to using a skip tracer, it’s a little like big foot.   Everybody seems to have heard about, but noone I’ve talked with actually has seen it work consistently for them.