You pulled a list of 500 absentee owners. Now what?

A list without phone numbers is a mailing list. That's fine if direct mail is your only channel. But if you want to call, text or email those owners, you need contact info. Looking them up one at a time would take days.

Batch skip tracing fixes that. You send the whole list at once and get contact info back for every owner the data can match.

What is batch skip tracing?

Skip tracing is finding contact info for a person who is hard to reach. In real estate, that usually means a property owner whose phone number and email you don't have.

Batch skip tracing (also called bulk skip tracing) runs that search on a whole list at once instead of one record at a time. You upload or select a list of properties. The service matches each owner against its data sources and returns what it finds:

  • Mobile and landline phone numbers
  • Email addresses
  • Mailing addresses
  • Do Not Call (DNC) and litigator flags on the numbers

For a deeper look at how skip tracing works and where the data comes from, read Skip Tracing for Real Estate: The Complete Guide.

Batch vs. one-at-a-time skip tracing


One at a time

Batch

Best for

A single hot lead you need to call today

Any list you plan to market to

Speed per record

Instant

Minutes for the whole list

Your time

Adds up fast

One click

Cost per record

Usually the same

Usually the same, sometimes less at volume

The rule of thumb: skip trace one record when a lead is hot and you need a number right now. Batch skip trace everything else.

How to batch skip trace a list in 5 steps

  1. Build a tight list first. Every record you skip trace costs money. Filter before you trace. Pick owners who are likely to sell: absentee owners, high equity, pre-foreclosure, vacant. A focused list of 300 beats a random list of 3,000.
  2. Clean out records you already traced. Check when each record was last skip traced so you don't pay twice. In Invelo, the "Last Skip Traced Date" column shows this.
  3. Select the list and run the skip trace. In most tools you check the records, click Skip Trace, and confirm the count.
  4. Scrub the results. Remove or flag numbers on the Do Not Call list and numbers tied to known litigators. More on this below.
  5. Push the contacts into your outreach. Load the numbers into your dialer, texting tool or email sequence while the list is fresh.

What batch skip tracing costs

Most providers charge per record, usually somewhere between a few cents and about 25 cents. Watch for three things when comparing prices:

  • Per record or per match? Some charge for every record you send. Others charge only when they find a match.
  • What's included. Some prices cover phones only. Others include emails, DNC flags and litigator scrubs.
  • Minimums. Some services make you buy credits in big blocks.

In Invelo, every paid plan includes skip tracing credits each month. Deal Finder includes 1,000, Growth includes 5,000 and Professional includes 10,000. After that, records cost $0.15, $0.12 or $0.10 each depending on your plan. See what's included.

Don't skip the compliance step

Having a phone number doesn't mean you can call or text it however you want.

  • Do Not Call: If you make cold sales calls, scrub your list against the National Do Not Call Registry before you dial.
  • TCPA: The Telephone Consumer Protection Act limits autodialed calls, prerecorded messages and texts to cell phones without consent. Fines can run $500 to $1,500 per violation.
  • Litigators: A small group of people sue investors over cold outreach as a business. Remove their numbers before you call.

Invelo flags DNC numbers and runs a litigator check on skip trace results, so you can filter them out before you dial. This is general info, not legal advice. Talk to a lawyer about your specific outreach.

Common batch skip tracing mistakes

  • Tracing junk lists. Bad data in means wasted credits. Filter first.
  • Paying twice. Re-tracing records you traced last month burns money.
  • Calling every number in order. Many owners come back with several numbers. Start with mobile numbers marked as the primary contact.
  • Letting results sit. Contact data goes stale. Reach out within days, not months.
  • Using too many tools. Exporting from one tool, tracing in another and dialing in a third creates errors. Keep it in one place when you can.

Batch skip trace inside Invelo

In Invelo, you build the list, skip trace it and reach out without leaving the platform.

  1. Build a targeted list in List Builder from 160+ million properties.
  2. Select two or more records and click Skip Trace.
  3. Get an alert when the results are ready, with DNC and litigator flags included.
  4. Call with the Dialer, or text, email, mail and drop voicemails through Marketing.

Start your free trial and skip trace your first list today.