Skip Tracing & Heir Research Guide: How to Find Property Heirs

A traveling musician. A mother who died in Japan at 104 years old. Weeks of research. And a $146,000 profit.

That's a real deal from a professional heir property investor—and it illustrates why skip tracing is often the difference between closing deals and chasing dead ends.

Skip tracing is the process of locating people who are difficult to find. In heir property investing, that means tracking down heirs who may not know they own property, haven't been in contact with family for years, or live across the country (or world).

This guide covers the tools, techniques, and strategies that professional investors use to find heirs that others can't.

Why Skip Tracing Matters in Heir Property

Here's a counterintuitive truth about heir property investing:

The hardest-to-find heirs often make the easiest deals.

Why? Because heirs who are disconnected from a property typically have:

• No emotional attachment to the property
• No interest in managing inheritance complications
• No knowledge they even own anything
• No reason to hold out for top dollar

A distant heir who hasn't thought about the family property in 20 years will often accept a reasonable offer immediately—while a local heir with memories and emotions attached might negotiate for months.

The challenge is finding them first.

Finding Death Signals: Where Skip Tracing Begins

Before you can trace heirs, you need to identify properties with deceased owners. Professional investors look for specific patterns in property records:

The Simultaneous Stop Signal

When an owner dies, all property-related payments typically stop at once:

• Property taxes stop being paid
• Utility bills go unpaid
• HOA dues stop
• Insurance lapses

If a property was current on taxes for years and then suddenly went delinquent—and stayed delinquent—that's a strong death signal.

Code Compliance Liens Appearing

When properties become neglected after an owner's death, municipalities often cite them for code violations. If you see code compliance liens appearing around the same time taxes went delinquent, investigate further.

The Real Example

One investor tracked down a traveling musician whose mother had died in Japan. How did they find the property in the first place?

"All the property bills stopped being paid simultaneously when the mother was 104 years old. Code compliance liens appeared at the same time. That pattern screamed 'deceased owner' even before we confirmed it through research."

The investor spent weeks skip tracing the heir, but once contact was made, the deal closed in two weeks for a $146,000 profit on a $7,143 investment.

Skip Tracing Tools and Resources

Professional heir property investors use a combination of paid services and free resources:

Paid Skip Tracing Services

Service	Best For	Approximate Cost
TLO (TransUnion)	Comprehensive searches, accurate data	Per-search pricing
Skip Genie	Bulk skip tracing, real estate focused	$0.10-0.15 per record
BatchSkipTracing	High volume, fast turnaround	Volume pricing
REI Skip	Real estate investor focused	Subscription + per search

Genealogy Resources

Resource	Best For	Cost
Ancestry.com	Family trees, death records, obituaries	$25-50/month
FamilySearch.org	Free genealogy records	Free
Newspapers.com	Obituaries, death notices	$8-20/month
FindAGrave.com	Cemetery records, death dates	Free

Free Resources

• True People Search — Free contact info, addresses, relatives
• Facebook — Finding heirs, verifying identities, making contact
• LinkedIn — Professional heirs, contact verification
• County probate records — Identifies heirs in estate proceedings
• Obituaries — Lists surviving family members by name

The Heir Research Process

Here's the systematic approach professional investors use:

Step 1: Identify the Deceased Owner

Start with what you know from property records:

• Owner name from CAD/tax records
• Last known address
• Approximate age (from ownership duration)

Search obituary databases and death records to confirm the death and get exact dates.

Step 2: Find the Obituary

Obituaries are goldmines for heir research. A typical obituary lists:

• Surviving spouse
• Children (often by name)
• Grandchildren
• Siblings
• Predeceased family members

This gives you the starting point for building the heir list.

Step 3: Build the Family Tree

Using obituary information and genealogy tools:

1. Identify all children of the deceased
2. Determine which children are living vs. deceased
3. For deceased children, identify their heirs (grandchildren)
4. Map out who inherits what percentage

In Texas, intestate succession (no will) typically passes property to surviving spouse and children equally. If a child predeceased the owner, their share passes to their children.

Step 4: Skip Trace Each Heir

For each identified heir, gather:

• Current address
• Phone number(s)
• Email address
• Employment information
• Social media profiles

Multiple contact methods increase your chances of reaching them.

Step 5: Verify and Cross-Reference

Before making contact, verify your information:

• Cross-reference addresses across multiple databases
• Confirm identity through social media
• Check if listed relatives match your family tree

Wrong contacts waste time and can create legal complications.

Strategic Contact Approach

How you contact heirs matters as much as finding them. Professional investors follow specific strategies:

Target the Most Disassociated Heirs First

Counter to intuition, start with heirs who are:

• Geographically distant from the property
• Not in regular contact with other family members
• Least likely to have emotional attachment

Why? Because contacting the "family leader" first often triggers coordination among heirs—they'll talk, compare notes, and potentially hold out for higher prices together.

A distant, disconnected heir is more likely to accept a reasonable offer without consulting others.

One Person at a Time

Don't blast the entire family at once. Contact one heir, close that deal, then use that success to approach others:

"Once you get one heir to sell, they often become your referral source to other family members. They'll say 'I sold my share to this person, it was easy, you should talk to them.' That's much more powerful than cold outreach."

Framework Over Scripts

Professional investors don't use rigid scripts. Instead, they follow a framework:

1. Fact-finding mission: Express genuine curiosity about the property situation
2. Problem identification: Understand what challenges the heir faces
3. Education: Explain options without pressure
4. Offer: Present your solution to their specific problem

The goal is conversation, not sales pitch.

Contact Methods That Work

Professional investors use multiple channels:

Phone Calls

• Double dial: Call twice back-to-back without leaving voicemail (increases answer rate)
• Strategic timing: Evenings and weekends for residential, business hours for professionals
• Persistence: 7-10 attempts before giving up on a number

Text Messages

• Curiosity hooks: "I believe you may have inherited property from [Name]. Please call me back."
• Audio messages: iPhone audio texts that disappear after listening create urgency
• Short and direct: Identify yourself, state purpose, request callback

Social Media

• Facebook messages: Often reach people who don't answer unknown numbers
• LinkedIn InMail: Effective for professional heirs
• Extended networks: Contact spouses, adult children, even friends who might relay messages

Physical Mail

• Certified letters: Create paper trail, professional appearance
• Handwritten notes: Higher open rates than typed letters
• Multiple addresses: Send to current and previous addresses

When Heirs Are Truly Hard to Find

Some situations require extra effort:

Heirs Who've Moved Multiple Times

Use comprehensive skip trace services that show address history. Contact previous addresses—neighbors or new residents sometimes have forwarding information.

Heirs with Common Names

Cross-reference with family connections, age ranges, and geographic history to identify the correct person among multiple matches.

International Heirs

The traveling musician case involved an heir who was overseas. These deals take longer but often close faster once contact is made—international heirs rarely want to deal with U.S. property complications.

Incarcerated Heirs

Use inmate locator services to find current facility. Contact can be made through official channels, though communication is slower.

When All Else Fails: Professional Investigators

Private investigators who specialize in heir location report 96%+ success rates. Services like the Baker Investigation Group have located over 400 distressed property co-owners using advanced databases and investigative techniques.

Cost is higher ($200-500+ per heir), but for high-value properties, professional help is worth the investment.

The Conversion Reality

Set realistic expectations for your skip tracing efforts:

Stage	Typical Conversion
Phone numbers found	70-80% of heirs
Calls that connect	10-15% of dials
Conversations to offers	30-40%
Offers to acceptances	10-20%

This means: 300 dials → 30 heir conversations → 10 offers → 1-2 deals

Skip tracing is a numbers game. The investors who succeed are the ones who build systems to research efficiently and maintain consistent outreach.

How LienSuite Helps

Skip tracing starts with knowing which properties to research. LienSuite helps you:

• Identify multi-owner properties from CAD data
• Spot death signals through delinquency patterns
• Research ownership history to understand inheritance chains
• Filter by value thresholds to focus skip tracing budget on worthwhile targets

Instead of skip tracing every delinquent property, LienSuite helps you identify the 1% worth the research investment.

Ready to find heir properties worth skip tracing? Start your free LienSuite trial and access multi-owner property identification across Texas counties.