How to Find Absentee Homeowners

If you're a realtor, you know that the US housing market is navigating choppy waters. After the soaring home prices of the pandemic, real estate trends are changing again.

Home prices have fallen month-over-month for several months. As a result, the median home price is now $11,560 lower than in July 2022.

This type of market can make sellers reluctant to list, hoping for more profitable times ahead. As a result, your realty agency needs access to highly motivated sellers. You need to know how to find absentee homeowners.

Let's explore what absentee homeowners are, how to find them, and why it's worth your time to follow up on these valuable leads.

What Are Absentee Homeowners?

At its most basic level, an absentee homeowner owns a property but doesn't live in it. But we're not interested in the millions of tenanted properties across the country. Instead, we're talking about homes that are typically vacant with owners who are no longer interested in owning them.

There are several common scenarios that bring homeowners to this point. This can include:

• Probate - inherited a property that they have no intention of living in or renting out
• Investment - purchase speculatively and now no longer needed
• A rental property without a tenant - can't find a suitable tenant and no longer needs the property
• In-between moves - the owner has moved out but has not yet sold their former property

Whichever scenario they fall into, many of these homeowners are looking to capitalize on their property. Maybe they're busy with other commitments and just haven't gotten around to listing the property yet. They may appreciate contact from a highly motivated realtor who can take care of everything for them. 

How to Find Absentee Homeowners

For obvious reasons, people don't advertise that their property is unoccupied. But if you're willing to dedicate time to some serious research, there are several ways to find absentee homeowners in your area. 

Neighborhood Prospecting

The first way to find potential properties is to drive around your target neighborhood and look for homes that appear to be uninhabited. This could include:

• Property maintenance issues
• Lack of routine landscaping
• Obvious signs that they are not currently inhabited

You can then dig deeper by looking at tax records to see if the owner lives at the address. Once you have the owner's details, you can reach out to them directly about the possibility of marketing the property.

Of course, not all properties are going to be worth your time and effort. So do a little checking first, making sure that the property is structurally sound and will appeal to investors.

Rental Listings

Rental listings are another easy starting point because they're publicly available. If a landlord has been marketing a property for a while and struggling to find a tenant, they may be a motivated seller. An asset can quickly become a liability in this kind of situation.

Tax Records

In the United States, property records are in the public domain. You can use this freedom to your advantage by requesting to see records held on the property you are interested in.

Head to the county tax assessor's office and ask to see copies of tax notices for the property in question. If the tax notice is sent to the property itself, that indicates that the owner still lives there. In that case, it's usually best to move on. 

If it's sent to another address, you've probably found an absentee homeowner. You then have access to their home address and can follow up from there.

In some cases, there may be a fee to access this information. So, while it's not free, it's still a sound investment that can help you to build up a list of potentially lucrative leads.

Online Database

In some jurisdictions, the county recorder may make property tax records available online. However, to access property records, you usually need the property owner's name. To find out this information, you'll have to head to the county recorder's office.

There are also some companies online that will allow you to search tax records for free. However, there may be fees involved in accessing specific information. Some of these sites may also show whether the property is owner-occupied.

Absentee Owners Lists

Another option is to purchase access to an online database from a company that compiles and sells seller leads. They use data from multiple sources to compile high-quality real estate listing leads.

They take the hard work out of finding potential sellers. They access data from many more sources than you could realistically access yourself.

These listings make it easy to reach out to potential sellers. They always include phone numbers and often include the owner's email address as well. 

How to Contact Absentee Homeowners

Reaching out to absentee homeowners requires tact and courage. Cold calling is still a great way to connect on a personal level with these owners. It also allows you to verify that you have the right person.

Another option is to write to them or send them a postcard expressing an interest in the property. This gives you a chance to state your credentials and share examples of the results that you've achieved for other owners in the area. 

How to Find Absentee Homeowners

We've talked you through how to find absentee homeowners using DIY routes. But thankfully, there's a much easier way. 

At The Share Group, we do the research for you. Our teams trawl multiple sources to compile and cross-verify absentee homeowner information. As a result, you receive a high-quality database of verified leads, complete with phone numbers. 

Reach out to these highly motivated sellers before they find an agent of their own calling us at (402) 235-4556 or contacting us online now!