Marketing To Vacant Homes

The County Tax Assessors office retains data on property owners (taxpayers) which may include current address for the property owner. The County Recorders office records information regarding sale of properties and any existing liens and mortgages on the property. This location may have contact information for the property owners as well.
If you are able to find the owner's name, but not the contact information, you can use online locations such as whitepages.com or anywho.com to enter the name and potentially find contact information for them.
If this fails, there are other online services called skip tracers who are essentially online detectives that track down current contact information for people who are difficult to locate.
Sometimes properties are owned by business organizations, such as LLC's. If the organization name sounds like a financial organization, the property may be owned by a bank or lending institution, which means that it is a foreclosed (REO) property. If the name sounds like an investment company, it may be owned by some other investor. Properties owned by investors, trusts, etc., are still worth pursuing. To track down the owner of a company, go to your state's Division of Corporations website, enter the name of the entity, and it should bring up some information regarding when that entity was formed, and the name and contact information of the registered agent. For small companies, the registered agent is almost always one of the owners. Once you have the name of a contact person, you can use the methods above to find any necessary contact information for them.
REO/Real Estate Owned foreclosure properties are sold through listing arrangements with a local real estate brokerage, so to make offers on those properties, you should contact a local real estate agent, and research and make offers on the property through them.
Properties that are owned by Trusts or Estate properties will probably require a contact with the court that is handling the trust or estate, in order to make contact with the trustee or executor.
Contacting absentee owners of vacant properties can be done either by telephone, letter, postcard, or visits to them at their office or home. Usually we send a letter or postcard to see if their is any interest in selling the subject property. Postcards are more likely to be read than a letter that looks like it could be junk mail or solicitation. If you want a letter to be opened, make it look like a letter from a friend, with a handwritten address, and a non-business sized envelope.
If you choose to make contact by telephone, make sure you are speaking with the right party, be courteous, and without pressure see if they are open to a discussion regarding the subject property. Indicate that you are a private real estate investor who assists people to resolve challenges with properties. The first conversation may not be the best opportunity to gather a lot of information, find out if there is a more convenient time for them to discuss the property, and if they are local, you may wish to schedule an appointment in person.

THANKS SO MUCH! I appreciate you spending the time to answer my question in such a detailed manner. I will follow your advice to the letter and let you know how it goes. Thanks again!

Great info from coach Dallin !! Another avenue is to talk to the neighbors surrounding the vacant home. Sometimes they are willing to give info freely and may have all the contact info you need. Set aside an evening to sit down and talk to them and listen. Maybe you would get an abundance of info on the owner, owners situation and property info that you may not get from the owner. I once did this and got all info I needed including what the owner pd for the house, all the work that was done and NOT DONE ) WHY the owner left it vacant and WHY they would sell it CHEAP ) all just for aSking a neighbor!!
It was a nosey neighbor but exactly what I was looking for )
PERSISTENCE is key in following through to to the end to get that FANTASTIC deal !!!!!
Go get um Mac !!!
Jay

Jbtoggs, looks like I'm following you around today, EXCELLENT suggestion, and it reminded me of something that really needs to be emphasized more.
While you are going around talking to people (which I call doing a Columbo after the television detective who is famous for the line, "Oh, just one more thing. . .) a tremendous "one more thing" question that we should ALWAYS be asking people is if they know of any other properties that are for sale or that people might be interested in selling or renting.
Or if you are talking with owners of properties, asking them if they have any other properties that they might be interested in selling.
I just worked with someone who it looks like will end up with four properties instead of one by asking that question. And another person I worked with got 14 properties with seller finance and a very small out of pocket by asking that question. In the hierarchy of great questions that should always be asked, this is #2, right after the number 1 question: "Why are you selling?"
These questions are so obvious, and yet, so frequently forgotten. Just try asking a real estate agent for details on why a particular seller is selling a property and you will begin to understand how little they really know about seller motivation and flexibility, the two most important factors for investor deals.
So hopefully we have just added a couple of new key things to always remember to ask. Tattoo them on the palms of your hands or something so you will never forget!