Method
Skip Tracing: The Order of Operations
Most wasted time in skip tracing comes from doing the right things in the wrong order — paying for a database search that a free filing would have answered, or calling a neighbour before you knew what to ask.
The sequence below isn’t a rule, it’s an economy. Each step is cheaper than the one after it and narrows what the next step has to do.
Confirm you have the right person
Before anything else, pin the identity. Full name, date of birth or approximate age, last known address, and at least one identifier that isn’t a name — a middle initial, a suffix, a spouse, an employer.
Common names are where files go wrong. Chasing the wrong James Harris for two days is a real cost, and everything downstream inherits the error.
Mine the file you were given
Applications, contracts, prior correspondence, payment records, the original credit agreement. Old addresses, references, emergency contacts, employer at signing.
References and emergency contacts are the most under-used field in the entire file. People list their mother.
Free public records, in this order
- Secretary of State — business filings by person name where the state allows it. Annual reports give dated addresses and associates.
- Property records — grantor/grantee by name, not by address.
- Court records — civil, family, probate. Divorce and probate files are full of addresses and relatives.
- UCC and liens — lenders and equipment.
- Unclaimed property — free, and every record carries a dated address.
- Professional licenses — licensees must keep an address current.
The state pages tell you which of these are free and where they live in each state.
Political contributions
Itemised federal contributions carry a home address, an employer and an occupation, and they’re dated. Don’t skip this on the assumption your subject is too small a donor to appear — ActBlue and WinRed itemize every contribution they process, so a $10 donation made online is on file with a full address. This is a free dated address history.
Run it on the political contributor search. Search the employer as well as the person — that returns their coworkers.
Online and social
Now, not earlier. Once you know the employer, the town and the associates, social searching is targeted instead of speculative.
See verifying a profile belongs to your subject before you rely on anything you find.
Paid data, if you have permissible purpose
Only now. A credit-header database is excellent and expensive, and half of what it returns you already established for free. Going here first is how people spend $40 to learn something the assessor’s website said.
And you need a lawful permissible purpose under GLBA or DPPA to use one at all. Debt collection on an account you own or represent generally qualifies; curiosity doesn’t.
Human contact, last
Relatives, neighbours, former employers, the current occupant of the last known address. This is last because it’s the only step that tells your subject you’re looking.
Once you make contact, the trace becomes visible. Have your questions ready and know what you’ll do with the answer.
When to stop
Decide the stopping point before you start, in writing, and put it on the file. Either a number of hours or a set of sources exhausted.
Skip tracing has no natural end. There’s always one more search, and the marginal value of the ninth database is close to zero. Files that lose money are almost always files where nobody set a limit.
Write down what you ran and when. Not for the client — for you in four months when the file comes back. A list of sources already checked is what stops you paying twice for the same answer.