Best skip tracing for real estate investors: prices compared
By Josh MillerUpdated 5 min readPay-as-you-go skip tracing for investors costs about 12 to 15 cents a record on published price pages, like REISkip at 15 cents a match and PropStream at 12 cents a contact on its entry plan, while platforms like DealMachine fold it into monthly data credits. Pick on the share of numbers that actually reach the owner on a test of your own list, not the advertised hit rate.
Skip tracing turns an owner's name and address into phone numbers and emails. Every list tool sells it, the prices look similar, and the advertised hit rates are all high. Here's what the published prices actually are, and the one test that tells you which service works on your list.
Published prices
| Service | Price | How it's sold |
|---|---|---|
| REISkip | 15 cents a match | Pay as you go, 50-match minimum |
| PropStream | 12 cents a contact on the entry plan | Added to a $99 to $699 monthly plan (checked October 14) |
| FreedomSoft | From 12 cents a credit | Added to a $147 to $797 monthly plan (checked October 14) |
| DealMachine | Inside data credits: 10,000 a seat on Basic ($99), 20,000 on Pro ($149) | Monthly plan; the page doesn't say how many credits a trace uses |
| BatchData | Quoted by sales; reviews report subscriptions from about $2,000 a month | For high volume and API use |
Source: each company's pricing page. BatchData figure as reported by third-party reviews, not the vendor.
The hit rate trap
Every service advertises a hit rate, usually 70 to 90 percent. A "hit" means the service returned a number. It doesn't mean the number reaches the owner. A list can come back 85 percent "hit" and still reach the right person on a fraction of the calls, after wrong numbers, disconnected lines and relatives.
The only test that matters
- Take 500 records from the list you'll actually work.
- Run the same 500 through two or three services.
- Call a sample from each and count right-party contacts: the owner, on the phone.
- Divide each service's cost by its right-party contacts.
That's your real price per reachable owner, and it's often different from the cheapest price per record.
Freshness matters here too
Skip tracing works on the record you feed it. If the list is weeks behind the county, the owner may have already sold, moved or heard from ten investors. In our tracking, the big licensed data sources ran about 12 days behind the county in the median county, and none of the 1,654 counties we could measure was same-day. See the lag in your county.
Scrub before you dial
Whatever service you use, scrub numbers against the national Do Not Call registry and your state's list, and know your state's calling rules. Skip tracing do's and don'ts.
Questions investors ask
How much does skip tracing cost for real estate investors?
About 12 to 15 cents a record from pay-as-you-go services on their published pages (checked October 20, 2026), or included in a monthly plan's data credits. Enterprise and API pricing is quoted separately.
What is the best skip tracing service?
The one that reaches the most owners on your list. Test two or three on the same 500 records, call a sample, and count right-party contacts. Advertised hit rates count any number returned, right or wrong.
What is a good skip tracing hit rate?
Vendors advertise roughly 70 to 90 percent, but that's numbers returned, not owners reached. What matters is how many calls reach the right person, which you have to measure.
Do I need skip tracing if I only send mail?
No. Mail goes to the owner's mailing address in the county records. Skip tracing is for calling and texting.