When a property is abandoned or vacated by its owner, that can present an opportunity for real estate investors. Off-market properties, especially those whose owners have vacated or abandoned them, can be great investments for wholesalers and flippers.
While finding these types of properties can be a challenge, investors have a few methods at their disposal. The following are some common approaches for creating an absentee owner list:
- Buy lists from an outside curation source
- Create your own lists using online property data
- Find properties in probate
- Identify long-term rental properties
With the right tools, you can build your lead list by searching for indicators that a property has an absentee owner. You can determine whether a property is occupied and look at other vital data points to create your absentee owner list.
What Is An Absentee Owner
The term absentee owner refers to any owner who does not occupy a property. Not all absentee owners have the same motives or intentions. The one thing they do have in common is that they do not personally reside at this property.
The distress level of absentee owner properties can vary significantly. In some situations, the owners may have had to vacate the property due to it being in severe disrepair. In other situations, the owner may be absent because the property is being rented out to tenants. The reasons why an owner is absent will influence which approach you use to make an offer to the owner.
Types Of Absentee Owners
As we stated previously, some absentee owners are renting out their property to tenants and have hired a property manager or management company to oversee operations. Meanwhile, other absentee owners are holding the property purely as an investment. These types of investors are likely to sell if they can make a return on their original investment.
In other cases, investors will buy a property with the intention of rehabbing it, but these plans can frequently be put on hold. Sometimes investors underestimate the amount of work involved, or they have another investment that’s tying up their capital. These types of investor-owned properties are also excellent opportunities.
Another type of absentee owned property is one whose owner has passed away. The person who inherits the property may live elsewhere, in which case it becomes a property with an absentee owner. In many circumstances, the homeowner’s heirs might be motivated to sell. If the owner of the property didn’t have a will, it will end up in probate. When a property enters probate, it could still be a good investment. It just requires greater patience because the sale must first be approved by a probate judge.
How To Find Absentee Owners
Some investors simply buy lead lists of absentee owners from data vendors, while others will build their own list using real estate investment software. If you’re in the latter category, map search tools with detailed property information are a good resource. Once you’ve identified a property for your absentee owner list, you need to find that owner’s contact information. It’s not enough to have a name without a mailing address or phone number. After all, they are by definition unreachable at the property address, so sending mail to the address won’t be very useful.
The absentee owner quick filter in BatchLeads make it fast and easy to find absentee owners and combine this filter with other common distress factors to identify motivated sellers.
Skip tracing tools like the ones built into BatchLeads have become essential for those seeking off-market properties with an absentee owner. The skip tracing technology scours public records to enrich your absentee owner lists with the most current known phone numbers and email addresses. These public records can help you locate and contact the property owner.
Why Absentee Owners Make the Perfect Prospects
Some absentee owners, such as rental property owners, may be committed to holding on to their properties. That being said, it’s still worth it to communicate with rental property owners on your absentee owner list. They could be motivated to sell if they’ve owned the property for a long time or if they’re looking to get out of the rental business.
Absentee owners of abandoned or vacant homes are generally more eager to sell than rental property owners. Keep in mind that when you approach an absentee owner, you’re not trying to convince them to do something that they don’t want to do. Instead, you’re offering a solution to their problem. Many absentee owners would like to live in these properties but have a situation preventing them from doing so. Meanwhile, other absentee owners would like to sell but haven’t been able to because there may be distress factors that make a traditional sale undesirable.
Key Takeaways
Identifying absentee owner properties and getting in touch with the owners requires diligence and resourcefulness. Fortunately, real estate investment software and skip tracing tools make it possible to obtain this information relatively quickly and effectively. Real estate wholesalers can still try to find this information at their local county assessor’s office or town hall, but that will limit their searches to properties in their immediate vicinity. Whether you’re a wholesaler, flipper, or rental property owner looking to scale up, the research you put into creating an absentee owner list will be more than worth your time. Absentee owners are one of the most motivated pools of potential sellers. Tapping into this demographic is a lucrative strategy for wholesalers.
