Absentee Property Owner Guide
Updated: Apr 7, 2021
What Is An Absentee Owner?
An absentee owner is someone who owns a property but doesn’t actually live in it or actively manage it. Technically this term could apply to any property investor who rents out properties and uses someone else to manage them.
Absentee Owners In Real Estate
When real estate investors use the term “absentee owner”, they typically refer to the owner of a vacant property. These investors will seek out these properties because absentee owners tend to be more likely to sell at a lower price (motivated seller) as opposed to a home that is owner-occupied. Below are examples of what investors are looking for when seeking absentee owners.
A landlord that is tired of dealing with property damage (termites, plumbing, landscaping, etc)
Someone who inherited a property through a will or probate process
Someone who has moved to a different location before they were able to sell the property
An investor who bought a property as a rental but hasn’t been able to find tenets
An investor who bought a property for appreciation and doesn’t plan on living in it
Real estate is an extremely competitive market and investors will look for any and all opportunities to expand their investments. In some cases, properties that are off the market present an opportunity for investors to strike a deal before other buyers have a chance to make an offer.
Methods of Building Your List
There are several ways to find absentee owner properties. Some involve more work than others, but they are proved to provide results.
Tax Records: This method can be quite time-consuming, especially if you don’t know your way around. It is the process in which you compare tax records of properties with the addresses of the owners. In some cases, this information is available online, but sometimes you will have to visit your local tax assessor’s office. If the address of the owner is different from the property address, it’s an absentee owner who might be receptive to selling.
Driving for Dollars: If you know about wholesaling real estate, then you are familiar with this method. It is exactly what it sounds like. Investors look for neighborhoods that interest them and drive around looking for vacant homes. If there are homes that are in bad shape with overgrown grass, boarded windows, or other signs of neglect, they make a note of the address and do more research on it.
Check Rental Listings: Absentee owners are people who choose not to live in the home they own, but that doesn’t always mean they are not interested in renting it out. Not all absentee owners of rental properties are good prospects for investors, but if the property has been listed for a long time, the owner might be open to an offer.
Advantages of Absentee Ownership
Many real estate investors prefer to be the absentee owners of each property they own. Absentee owners are not limited to a specific geographic area when they look for properties to buy. Turning over management responsibilities to a local management company leaves the investor with more time to scale operations and build a portfolio.
Absentee owners can be valuable assets in real estate investment deals. Anyone who is interested in getting involved in real estate investing would benefit from learning more about working with absentee owners.
Skip Tracing to Find Absentee Owners
After you have found your properties and have a list of owners to contact, you can call them and make them an offer. But what happens when you can’t get a hold of them? Skip tracing the process of locating absentee owners. These people might have outdated contact information and it can be hard to track them down. Utilizing skip tracing can make investing in absentee properties run smoothly. There are many premium skip tracing services available. Some offer single tracing or bulk tracing for large-scale contact information.
If you are interested in finding that property owner, visit Skip Vault. Investors all over the country use Skip Vault to find a single owner or a list of thousands. Skip Vault offers instant results and competitive pricing. Close more deals with Skip Vault!
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