Skip Tracing: How It Works

You have run an investor search and found 50 active buyers near your deal. You can see their names (or LLC names), what they have bought, and where they operate. But you cannot contact them yet because you do not have their phone numbers or email addresses. That is where skip tracing comes in.

What is skip tracing?

Skip tracing is the process of finding current contact information for a person or entity using publicly available data sources. The term comes from debt collection -- "skip" refers to someone who has "skipped town," and tracing means tracking them down. In real estate investing, skip tracing is used to find phone numbers, email addresses, and the actual people behind LLC names so you can reach out about deals.

When a property is owned by "Harkor Homes LLC," county records tell you the LLC name and its registered agent address, but they do not give you a cell phone number to call. Skip tracing cross-references the LLC registration, property records, utility records, social media profiles, and other data sources to resolve the actual person behind that entity and their current contact information.

How Deal Run does skip tracing

Deal Run uses a comprehensive skip trace data engine that is one of the most reliable sources available in the real estate technology space. When you skip trace an investor through Deal Run, the system sends the investor's name (or LLC name) and any known address information to the skip trace service, which returns all available contact data within seconds.

The process is fully automated. You do not need to manually enter data into a separate skip trace website, download a CSV, upload it elsewhere, or wait for batch results. Select the investors you want to trace, click the skip trace button, and contact information populates directly on their investor cards.

What you get from a skip trace

A successful skip trace returns multiple categories of information:

Phone numbers

Skip tracing typically returns multiple phone numbers per person, each tagged with a type:

• Mobile: Cell phone numbers. These are the most valuable for outreach because they can receive both calls and text messages. Mobile numbers also have the highest answer rates.
• Landline: Traditional wired phone numbers. These may be home phones, office lines, or business numbers. They can receive calls but not text messages.
• VoIP: Voice over IP numbers (Google Voice, Vonage, etc.). These can receive calls and sometimes texts, but answer rates tend to be lower because VoIP numbers are often used as secondary lines.

The skip trace results indicate which number is most likely to be the person's primary contact number based on recency of use and verification status.

Email addresses

Personal and business email addresses associated with the individual. Multiple emails may be returned -- for example, a personal Gmail, a business email at their company domain, and an older email that may or may not still be active. Deal Run flags the most recently verified email as the primary contact.

Names behind LLCs

When you trace an LLC, the skip trace resolves the actual individuals associated with that entity. "ABC Investments LLC" becomes "John Smith" with a phone number and email. This is essential because most active investors purchase through LLCs for liability protection, and the LLC name alone is not useful for outreach.

Additional data

Depending on data availability, skip trace results may also include mailing addresses (which may differ from the property address), age ranges, and associated persons. This supplementary data can be useful for personalizing your outreach -- knowing that the investor is a 55-year-old retiree versus a 30-year-old full-time flipper changes how you frame your pitch.

Free skip tracing on all paid plans

Skip tracing is included free on every paid Deal Run plan. There are no credits to track, no packs to buy, and no per-trace fees. Every investor returned in your deal search results can be skip traced at no additional cost.

The trial plan includes 1 deal search with up to 100 investors so you can experience the full skip trace workflow before subscribing.

Caching: never pay twice for the same person

Deal Run caches every skip trace result in your account. If you trace an investor for one deal and then encounter the same investor in a search for a different deal three months later, their contact information is already available instantly -- no additional trace query needed.

Caching works by matching on the investor's identity (name and/or LLC entity), not on the property address. So if "Real American Real Estate LLC" appears in your results for a property in Houston and again for a property in Katy, the cached result applies to both. You paid for the trace once and you have the data forever.

Cached results are visually indicated on investor cards. If an investor has already been traced (either by you or from a previous search), you will see their contact information displayed without a "Trace" button. You will also see a small indicator confirming the data came from cache rather than a new trace.

Contact quality grades

Not all skip trace results are equally reliable. A mobile phone number that was verified last month is far more valuable than a landline that may have been disconnected two years ago. Deal Run assigns a quality grade to each traced investor so you can prioritize your outreach accordingly:

• Grade A: Verified deliverable email address plus an active mobile phone number. Clean record with no DNC (Do Not Call) or TCPA flags. This is your best-quality contact -- call, text, or email with high confidence of reaching the right person.
• Grade B: Deliverable email address, but phone data is either missing, unverified, or landline-only. You can reach this investor by email but may have difficulty reaching them by phone.
• Grade C: Risky contact data. The email may be unverified or the phone may be VoIP. The data is present but has a higher chance of being outdated or inaccurate. Use with appropriate expectations.
• Grade D: Bad or unusable data. The email bounces, the phone is disconnected, or the contact is flagged as DNC or TCPA litigator. Avoid contacting Grade D results to protect your sender reputation and avoid legal risk.

Quality grades are displayed as color-coded badges on investor cards: green for A, light green for B, yellow for C, and red for D. Sorting by quality grade is available in the list view, which is useful when you have a large set of traced investors and want to call the highest-quality contacts first.

Bulk skip tracing

You do not need to trace investors one at a time. Deal Run supports bulk skip tracing -- select multiple investors using the checkboxes on their cards, then click the "Skip Trace Selected" button. The system processes all selected investors in a single batch, and results appear on each card as they come back.

Bulk traces are limited to 100 investors per batch to ensure fast response times. If you need to trace more than 100 investors, run multiple batches. All traces are free on paid plans.

Before a bulk trace executes, Deal Run shows you a confirmation dialog that tells you how many investors will be traced and how many are already cached (and therefore instant). This helps you understand the expected processing time.

Tips for getting the most out of skip tracing

• Start with top scores. Use Investor Scores to identify your top 15-20 matches and trace those first. If you exhaust that list without finding a buyer, trace the next batch.
• Leverage the cache. If you have been using Deal Run for several months, many investors in your searches will already be cached from previous traces. Cached results appear instantly without waiting for a trace query.
• Save traced investors to your buyer list. After tracing, add high-quality contacts to your buyer list so their information persists across all future deals. This builds a reusable asset over time.
• Respect quality grades. Calling Grade A contacts first dramatically improves your connect rate. A wholesaler who calls 20 Grade A contacts will typically reach more people than one who cold-calls 50 Grade C contacts.
• Trace liberally. Since skip tracing is free on all paid plans, do not hesitate to trace your full results list. The more contacts you have, the better your chances of finding a buyer quickly.

For guidance on organizing traced contacts for ongoing outreach, see Managing Your Buyer List.