Are you searching for the owner of a multi family property that you’ve spotted in your neighborhood to see if he/she is open to selling it? Well, you’re not alone. Many real estate investors are always actively looking for off market properties in hopes of finding motivated sellers, especially when it comes to investing in multi family properties. Off market multi family properties represent a great opportunity for them to acquire new real estate deals and expand their investment portfolio in a relatively quick way. That’s because they are typically associated with less competition, better sale prices, and a higher return on investment. Knowing how to find these properties’ owners is, therefore, crucial for anyone looking to land the best real estate deals.
Related: 6 Reasons You Should Look for Off Market Real Estate Deals
If you are wondering how to find multi family property owners, or how to find out who owns a house in general, then keep reading. In this article, we will show you three different ways you can go about searching for and finding the property ownership information you need.
How to Find Multi Family Property Owners: 3 Ways
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Property Tax Records
The first way on our list of how to find multi family property owners is to look up local property tax records. As you may know, anyone who owns a real estate property should be paying taxes on it. You should, therefore, be able to find property ownership information at your local tax assessor’s office. Usually, the tax assessor’s office has a website feature that allows members of the public to search for property tax records and ownership information online for free, as long as they have the address of the property. But in some cases, especially in more rural areas, you may have to go to the assessor’s office in person and inspect the property tax records manually. This also requires you to have the address of the property.
You can use the Nationwide Environmental Title Research’s website to find out if the county where your subject multi family property is located has an online property search database or not. Generally, if you know the street address or even the lot number of the property then you can easily locate its owner. The tax records will include the property owner’s name as well as their contact details. You may also find information on the most recent appraisal of the property, including its square footage, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, the type of air conditioning and heating in place, as well as other property features.
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Property Deeds
Another way to find multi family property owners is through a property deed search. A property deed is a legal document that is used to transfer the ownership of a real estate property from an individual to another individual – in other words, from the old owner to the new owner. Since all deeds must be recorded, you can go to the county recorder’s office (which is also known as the registrar of deeds in some counties) and request to retrieve the latest deed to the multi family property you’re targeting using its address. The latest deed will tell you not only who the current owner of the property is, but also who they acquired it from, and whether there are any liens on the property.
In most counties, the recorder’s office is located in the county courthouse, the city hall, or another county department. But there are some county recorder’s offices that do have a website that allows you to search for deed records online. Here also, you can check if your county recorder’s office provides an online service using the Nationwide Environmental Title Research website. If it does, then all you have to do is enter the address of the multi family property in the appropriate field and select the most recent deed on file.
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Private Online Record Search
The third way you can go about finding multi family property owners is through a private online record search. A number of real estate investor websites collect homeowner data from a variety of sources and offer this information to their users for a small fee. One of these websites is Mashvisor. This real estate investment software has a tool called Mashboard, which allows you to search for owners of any type of residential real estate in any location across the United States, even if you do not have any information on the property or its owners. This means you can easily find the owner of any off market multi family home without necessarily having an address on hand. You can even use the tool to build property owner lists so you always have a good source of off market deals that you can turn to anytime you want.
Let’s see how you can locate multi family property owners with Mashboard in more detail.
Related: What Is Mashvisor? What Can It Do for Real Estate Investors?
How to Find Multi Family Property Owners with Mashboard
Using Mashboard is very simple. Here’s how it works, step by step.
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Step #1: Access Mashboard
In order to access Mashboard, you first need to create an account with Mashvisor. Sign up for a 7-day free trial now and you will gain access to a number of real estate investment tools, as well as our homeowner database.
Once you’ve created an account, visit Mashboard through your dashboard and click the ‘Add Owner List’ button.
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Step #2: Set the Filters
After clicking the button, a pop-up form will appear on your screen, where you can enter the criteria for your property owner search using a set of filters.
Finding Property Owners by Address:
If you know the address of the multi family property you’re targeting, finding the owner is pretty straightforward. Simply type it in the ‘Address’ field. Once you’ve done that, you will notice that the other location-related filters (‘State’, ‘City’, ‘Zip Code’) will auto-fill.
Finding Property Owners Without an Address:
If you don’t have an address, you can still do your property owner search with the geographic specifications that you do know on the property, or on the broader area where you would like to find an off market multi family for sale. In this case, fill in the following filters:
- ‘State’
- ‘City’
- ‘Zip Code’
- ‘Address’ (here, type in the neighborhood)
In addition to these filters, there are a number of other filters that you can use to narrow down your property owner search. These include:
- ‘Property Type’: Mashboard’s homeowner data includes owners of all types of residential real estate. Since you are specifically looking for the owners of multi family properties, select the ‘Multi Family’ option to filter out all the other types of investment properties.
- ‘Year Built’: You might be looking for an older multi family property that you can fix and flip/ fix and rent out at a higher value. Or, you might be searching for a brand-new investment property that requires no renovation and that you can rent out for positive cash flow immediately after purchasing it. Depending on your preference, you can set the ‘Year Built’ filter to the year range you’re interested in and find multi family homes for sale that were built within that range.
- ‘Sales Date’: The sales date of a property is crucial when it comes to finding motivated sellers. As you may know, a property owner who recently bought a property is less likely to be willing to sell. You can, therefore, use the ‘Sales Date’ filter to filter out all the multi family homes that were sold recently. This will increase your chances of finding multi family property owners who are motivated to sell.
- ‘Contact Data’: Finally, you can use the ‘Contact Data’ filter to select which type of homeownership information you would like to receive about the multi family property owners, such as their address, phone number, and email.
After setting all the filters above, click the ‘Add Contact’ button and the system will gather the homeowner data for you.
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Step #3: Download the Homeowner Data Report
Once the data is gathered, you can go ahead and download the property owner information in the form of a CSV report. Or, you can simply view the data on your Mashboard.
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Step #4: Reach Out to the Multi Family Property Owners
Now that you have all the property owner information at your disposal, the final step is to reach out to the owners of the multi family properties that you are targeting. Unlike other platforms, Mashboard allows you to find and connect with multi family property owners directly. You can actually send SMSs, emails, as well as email campaigns, all through the platform.
Conclusion
You now know three different ways to find multi family property owners. No matter which way you choose to go for, you will eventually find the information you’re looking for. However, know that finding a motivated seller will require some patience. In fact, not every multi family owner that you’ll contact will jump at the idea of selling to you right away. That’s why we suggest that you come up with a smart marketing strategy and work on perfecting your negotiation skills before you even start contacting multi family property owners.