How to Track Down the Owner of a House

During this week’s snow and ice storm, a tree fell on a neighbor’s house, penetrating the roof. The house is owned by a former Broadmoor resident who leases it through a prominent management company.

The neighbors were not able to reach their management company by telephone at the regular office number or the emergency number. A member of the Broadmoor board was able to assist them by contacting the owner.

When situations like these come up, it is helpful to know how to do a bit of detective work. Here’s a step-by-step description of the process of tracking down an owner.

1. When you see a house with a “for lease” sign in the yard, write the telephone number down. This seems too easy, but it is the most reliable way of being able to contact the owner in an emergency or with other concerns.

• Tip, you can type a telephone number (include the area code) into a search engine, such as Google, and it may give you a name and address. Try your own number to see.

2. If you don’t have the owner/manager’s number, or are just curious, search the ownership using the Pulaski County Assessor’s Web  site. Tip: just put the house number and the street name in the appropriate blanks. If you try to put in more information, such as “north” or “drive,” it confuses the computer. A search takes a minute or two.

3. If you get the owner’s name, look them up using the techniques in paragraph 5 below, or run the name (last name first) in the “ownership” line of the Assessor’s site.

• Tip: The most expensive house they own will be the one they live in.

4. If you get a corporation name, you can try four things:

     A.  Look it up in the telephone book (try the business pages)

     B.  “Google” it

     C.  Run the name on the Arkansas Secretary of State’s office. The Web search is at http://www.sos.arkansas.gov/corps/search_all.php.

• Tip: When you get the results, open the corporation name and look for names of real people. There will be a “Registered Agent,” sometimes the lawyer who set up the corporation, other times one of the owners of the business. It may also include other names of the people behind the corporation. Use the techniques below to find contact information for the people whose names come up.

     D.  Try to find the deed or mortgage on the Pulaski County Clerk’s Web site, http://69.152.184.8/oncoreweb/Search.aspx. You will often find a “natural person’s” signature on these documents.

• Tip: If you get a physical address, or even a post office  box, search it in Google, to see what you can find. You may find their telephone number that way.

 5. With a name, try these steps:

     A.  Look them up in the good-old telephone book. You should try the white pages and the business pages.

     B.  Run a Google search, and try other search engines, such as http://www.zabasearch.com/ and http://www.peekyou.com/. Both these sites will give you limited free information, which is often exactly what you need. You do not have to use any of the paid searches that they lead you to to find most of what you need. Run your own name for fun, it will scare you if you didn't already know what all is available over the Internet!

• Tip: The search results may give you enough information to follow up on using other Internet searches.

     C.  If you are on Facebook or another social media service, look them up. You may be able to contact them.

6. In general, apply some persistence and imagination, and you will be surprised what you can find out just sitting at your computer! After searching ownership a few times, you will get better at it and will start noticing interesting ownership patterns.

7. Please describe your experiences and tips in the comments!