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You've just moved into your new home. Your next door neighbor drops by to welcome you into the neighborhood. While munching on the chocolate cake she brought you, she says, "Oh, by the way, half of your garage is on my property. The garage was built 20 years ago, and I asked each owner since then to remove the garage. But nothing has been done. If you don't remove the garage from my property, I'll sue you."

Startled, you check the easement and find out your neighbor might be right. You then decide to track down the previous owners to find out how this mistake could have happened. But then you panic and ask yourself "How in the world will I be able to track down previous owners?"

Well, tracking down past owners and occupants of your home may not be as difficult as you think. There are at least two ways to conduct your search and unlock the padlock to the mystery of your home's previous owners and occupants: check official records or hire a skip tracer.

CHECK OFFICIAL RECORDS
Do you have the desire and time to tackle government bureaucracy? If you do, you can conduct the search yourself. However, be prepared for a lot of legwork if you run into problems. The simplest approach is to search:

1. Real estate records either online or at the county or state recorder's office to locate the names of previous owners. Some jurisdictions may place a limit on the number of years they store such data.

2. Tax roll records at your city or county office. Search for real property, personal property and excise tax bills related to your property and the previous owners and occupants of your property.

3. Court records for bankruptcy files, divorce cases and other civil records that may yield names, social security numbers, aliases and current addresses of past owners and occupants of your property.

Again, these steps are easy to perform when you have the desire and time. But you still may run into problems if you can't find sufficient information for you to locate a person. In such a case, you may want to take an additional step.

HIRE A SKIP TRACER
What is a skip tracer? A skip tracer is someone who can do what you cannot do - a professional who for a fee locates a person who may or may not be dead or who may or may not want to be found. Essentially, a skip tracer performs duties similar to a private detective.

Skip tracers charge $40.00 to $100.00 or more for their services. If you can afford their fees, they are an excellent investment, because their services are more comprehensive than what you can perform on your own. In addition to the search methods previously mentioned, a skip tracer may also search:

- Vital records
- Department of Motor Vehicle records
- Voter registration records
- Better Business Bureau information
- Former employer information.

Skip tracers cannot guarantee success in locating a person. But if a person can be found, a skip tracer is more likely to find that person than you would on your own.

TO SKIP OR NOT TO SKIP
Is searching for past owners and occupants of your home yourself more efficient than hiring a skip tracer? Not necessarily. If you search yourself, you may not need to hire a skip tracer if your only purpose is to determine who were the past owners and occupants. But if you also want to locate the owners and occupants, you should consider hiring a skip tracer.

Learn more about this author, James Strong.
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