Study: we skip traced a live distressed-property list. Here is what actually came back

Methodology

• Date and place: July 2026, a live hard-distress list in the Phoenix metro, ZIP 85021.
• Source list: properties flagged with hard distress only (pre-foreclosure, foreclosure, auction, tax lien or vacancy), pulled live from county-derived records.
• Ownership classification: 100 properties categorized by owner type from the county record, as a company, trust or estate; an individual with a full name; or no usable name.
• Skip trace: structured lookups (first name, last name, full property address) on the individually owned subset through one commercial identity API.
• Compliance pass: phone results filtered against Do-Not-Call flags, the same filter we apply in production.
• What counts as a hit: at least one phone or one email returned for the owner. A dead lookup returned neither.

Key findings at a glance

Every number on this page comes from the same 100-property list. Watch the base column: a rate on individual owners is not a rate on the whole list, and mixing the two is the most common way skip tracing numbers get misquoted.

Finding 1: two thirds of distressed properties are not owned by people

Of 100 hard-distress properties, 66 were owned by companies, trusts or estates. Only 26 traced to an individual with a full name on the record, and 8 had no usable owner name at the search level. Every outreach plan that assumes a callable human on the other end is wrong two times out of three before the first dial.

This is not a skip tracing failure. A personal-identity lookup needs a person to match, and an LLC filing or a trust has none. Those owners are reached by mail and by registry or probate lookups, covered in the channel map below.

Finding 2: on individuals, skip tracing works

The individually owned subset returned at least one phone or email 88 percent of the time. Email was the stronger channel at roughly 89 percent of matched owners, averaging 4.3 addresses per matched owner. Raw phone matches were similar, averaging 2.2 numbers per matched owner. Total dead lookups, no phone and no email: about 12 percent.

Getting several results per owner is normal. It shifts the work from finding a contact to choosing among them: the email tied to the owner's address history, the phone that survives the compliance pass.

Finding 3: the Do-Not-Call haircut is huge, and raw match rates hide it

Do-Not-Call filtering removed roughly half of the raw phone matches. After the compliance pass, about 56 percent of individual owners had a legally callable number. That is the number that matters for a calling operation, and it sits far below the 88 percent of owners who returned some phone or email. Roughly half of the raw phone numbers an unfiltered report would have shown for this list could not legally be cold called.

Filtering is not a nicety. Calling a registered number to pitch a purchase can bring TCPA statutory damages of $500 to $1,500 per violation. Calls go to filtered numbers, dialed by hand, between 8am and 9pm in the owner's time zone. Cold texting is never worth the risk. Our guide to cold calling motivated sellers covers scripts and calling rules.

What 100 distressed properties yield

Put the findings together and a 100-property hard-distress list shrinks fast. About a quarter of the list can be skip traced at all. Of those owners, most have an email, and a little more than half have a phone you can legally call.

What this means in practice: a channel map by owner type

Work a 100-property hard-distress list and the realistic outreach map is about 15 owners you can call today, about 23 you can email, 66 entities that need mail to the county mailing address or a registered-agent lookup, and 8 records that need deed research before anyone can be reached. Plan channels in that order of scarcity and nothing on the list goes to waste.

The lookups for each owner type are covered in our guide on how to find the owner of a property, and the full tracing process in skip tracing 101.

It is also how LowBaller prices contact. One credit returns the owner's phone, with numbers flagged as Do-Not-Call and stale numbers left out. If no contact comes back, no credit is spent, and owners with only an email unlock free.

Why do skip trace vendors quote higher hit rates?

Three counting choices push a hit rate up without making it more useful. A raw match rate counts phones before Do-Not-Call filtering, and on this list that filter removed roughly half of the raw phone matches. A per-number rate counts every number returned, and matched owners here averaged 2.2 raw phones each, so numbers outrun owners. And a rate measured on individual owners says nothing about the two thirds of a distressed list held by entities.

When you compare services, ask three questions: is the rate per owner or per number, is it before or after Do-Not-Call filtering, and what kind of list was it measured on. Our ranking of the best skip tracing services compares how each one bills.

Limitations: what this study does not show

Read every number inside its scope. These are the limits we know about.

• Single metro, single ZIP. Every property sat in Phoenix ZIP 85021. The ownership mix and contact rates may differ in other metros, in rural counties and in other states.
• Single month. The list was pulled and traced in July 2026. Distress lists turn over as filings age and auctions are held, and contact data goes stale.
• One vendor. All lookups ran through one commercial identity API. Another vendor, or several combined, could return more or fewer matches.
• A small subset. The individual subset was 26 owners, so each owner moves a percentage by about 4 points. Read 88 percent and 56 percent as rough levels, not precise rates.
• Structured lookups only. Every trace used first name, last name and the full property address. Name-only lookups were not tested.
• Returns, not results. The study counts what the lookup and the filter returned. It does not measure whether numbers connected, whether owners answered, or whether any deal followed.
• No entity tracing. The 66 entity-owned properties were not traced to managers, trustees or executors, so the study says nothing about how reachable those people are.

How to cite this study

You are welcome to cite any number on this page with attribution to LowBaller and a link to this page. Please keep the scope with the number: one Phoenix ZIP, July 2026, 100 hard-distress properties, structured lookups and production Do-Not-Call filtering. Cite a rate on individual owners as a rate on individual owners, not on all properties.