Overview
Skip tracing is an essential part of real estate investing and lead generation, helping match property owners to their most up-to-date contact information. However, it’s important to understand that skip tracing isn’t a perfect science. Results can vary depending on multiple factors outside of our control — including the accuracy of public records, the individual’s phone habits, and data availability from our provider.
Why Some Skip Trace Results May Contain Inaccurate or Missing Data
Our skip tracing process uses the best available data sources to match property owners to phone numbers and emails. However, there are several reasons why results may appear incomplete or inaccurate:
Changing or Temporary Numbers – Some people use prepaid or “pay-as-you-go” phones that change frequently, making it hard to maintain consistent matches.
Limited Digital Footprint – Individuals without online activity or public records tied to their phone number can’t always be traced effectively.
Data Provider Limitations – Our data comes from a third-party provider, and the quality of data depends on what’s available in their system at the time.
What We’ve Learned from Internal Testing
We’ve run internal analytics and compared results from multiple skip tracing providers. The findings show that:
While different providers may show variations in match rates or “contactable” numbers, the overall business outcome remains consistent.
Specifically, the number of deals or contracts generated per skip trace is statistically similar across different providers.
In other words, even if one provider seems to deliver “more data” or “better metrics” on the surface, the real-world impact on deal flow or ROI tends to be the same.
What You Can Do
Use Skip Tracing as One Tool Among Many: Combine skip tracing with other outreach methods like mailers, social research, or local networking to increase your success rate.
Be Mindful of Expectations: No provider can guarantee 100% accurate or current contact info — it’s a data-driven best guess.
Report Patterns: If you consistently notice significant data inaccuracies, feel free to share examples with us at [email protected] so we can pass them along to our data partner for review.
Summary
Skip tracing is an invaluable but imperfect process — it’s about maximizing your odds of contact, not guaranteeing it. We continually evaluate our data sources to ensure quality and reliability, but natural limitations in public data mean occasional mismatches are unavoidable.