The real estate market is more competitive than ever. If you are trying to buy a home, there are more people looking for homes than ever before. This makes it difficult to find your perfect house unless you have the time and resources to be on the lookout constantly. One way to cut some of that frustration is by skipping traces. Here, are some steps to skip tracing a property in order to save time and money when buying a new home.
What is skip tracing?
Skip tracing real estate is the process of pretending to search for a home to get in first on a deal. These real estate professionals use the internet to find homes that are currently for sale in your area. They then use these to find homes that have been on the market for a long time without selling and put them on the market for you.
Don’t jump to conclusions about a property.
It is common for real estate agents to know which houses on the market are already listed for sale. However, there are a lot of houses that aren’t listed yet or don’t even exist yet but will in the future. Most real estate agents also know when they have found a home that meets your needs. They can often make an offer before you have seen the property.
How to skip tracing a property?
Here are 5 easy steps to skip trace and learn more about the house:
- Sign-Up with an agent to get access to local databases. This means that you can view real estate listings and other properties that are available in your area. You’ll be able to get a better look at what’s available in your area.
- Use the agent’s services to search for a home. You can get a better idea of what you are dealing with and see if you really are ready for a major purchase.
- Check out their reviews on the Better Business Bureau to see if they’ve been investigated or had complaints against them.
- Check the basics like the address, distance to schools and shopping, and your neighborhood crime rate to find out if it’s a safe area to live in.
- Compare properties from all over the city.
Tips for finding and skipping traces
Start by clicking on “Cannot Display Results” in the search field, or try searching for “For sale by owner” instead. There you will see the properties that have previously been searched for and won’t display again. (skip tracing)
To find past homes on Google, open Google Maps, and go to the Map View. From the right-hand side of the map, click on “Historical Homes”.
Keep in mind that there are hundreds of thousands of homes in this database. Searching is going to be more difficult than you expect. You will most likely need to make at least two or three laps before finding the exact one you want.
Remember that using “Historic Homes” will only help if you are searching in a city with a substantial amount of listings.
Conclusion
Any time you hire a Skip tracing real estate professional for help you will be glad that you did. What most people fail to realize is that real estate professionals are more than capable of finding properties for you. Many real estate professionals also specialize in helping you find properties that are not listed in the MLS or elsewhere online. These properties are more difficult to find, but they are also a lot of fun to work on. These services can also provide a faster and more cost-effective way of getting you a new home faster.