Locating Owners of Vacant and Abandoned Properties
IN THIS SECTION
Finding out who owns vacant property in your community is an essential step to building a strategy that encourages reuse and revitalization.
Laws in the United States are designed to protect an individual’s private property. Even if a property owner walks away, stops paying property taxes, and lets the home fall into disrepair, they are still its rightful owner—up to a point. Municipalities can step in when a property is posing health and safety risks to residents and neighbors, or when property taxes become delinquent.
Identifying who owns vacant property determines what legal strategies your state and local government can use address them (e.g., code liens, tax foreclosure, receivership, land bank transfer)—and which strategies will work. For example, aggressive code enforcement in a weak market with low property values and owner-occupied properties may backfire if the cost of repair exceeds the value of the home.
Additionally, understanding patterns of ownership (e.g., absentee investors, heirs, corporate entities) can inform broader policy.
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To learn more about neighborhood data collection and analysis, download Neighborhoods by Numbers.
Challenges to Finding Vacant Property Owners
- Corporate or LLC Ownership: Some buyers use limited liability companies (LLCs) to purchase and hold property for legal and tax reasons. This ownership structure shields owners’ personal assets from property-related lawsuits and debts and can make tracking down the owners of vacant properties significantly harder. Investors often use a “Russian doll” structure where one LLC is owned by another, which is then owned by another. This structure makes it almost impossible to find the ultimate human owner and hold them accountable.
- Heirs’ Property and Fractional Ownership: When a property owner dies without a will or estate plan, state laws governing inheritance determine how the property is passed to family members legally entitled to it. Probate courts can clarify the distribution of real property (e.g., land and buildings), but some family members may be unaware of probate, lack the resources to use it, or distrust the system. These unresolved property issues become more complex over time, especially with multiple heirs, or when heirs pass away, leaving their interest to other relatives. Resolving this heirs’ property phenomenon—also referred to as tangled title, family property, or family land—requires tracking down all living heirs to clear the title and specialized legal expertise. This process is complex and often unaffordable for many families, especially if several generations have gone by since the original title owners passed.
- Outdated Public Records: Property records generally only change when someone takes the initiative to file a new document. If a property is sold informally or passed down without a formal process, the official county record will still show the previous owner. If a property owner dies without a will (see heirs’ property) and the family doesn’t go through the probate process, then the property remains in the deceased person’s name. In smaller and rural communities, data may not be digitized, and therefore require more manual hours of searching.
Gathering Data on Vacant Property Owners
The following local sources can offer helpful ownership information:
- The Recorder/Register of Deeds holds official property ownership records.
- The Assessor’s Office holds taxpayer information, including buyer name or address to determine owner-occupancy as well as the nature of ownership, such as an out-of-state LLC. Depending on the locality, assessor data might incorporate up-to-date ownership records from the Recorder’s office in a single database. Assessor data also provides information on median residential sales price in a neighborhood or community and frequency of sales—all of which shed light on neighborhood market conditions.
- Your tax commissioner/collector/treasurer holds county-level data on property tax delinquency, sold tax liens, and properties facing foreclosure. No data point is more predictive of a potential problem property than property tax delinquency. Chronic delinquency suggests an abandoned property that could be causing significant harm to its neighbors. Tracking the result of tax sales and auctions is also essential. This helps identify who is buying property, what they’re willing to pay compared to public debt owed, and which properties are so underwater they don’t attract a single private bid.
- Some local governments have a vacant property registration ordinance (VPRO). These ordinances require owners of vacant properties to register with their municipality or county. If your community has a VPRO, these registries can provide data on vacant properties and nature of ownership (in-state, out-of-state, etc.).
This table shows the property-related datasets that are usually collected by most public agencies.
Table: Property ownership data regularly gathered by municipal or county agencies
| DATASET | Information Usually Available | Source* |
|---|---|---|
| Property information | Name and address of owner, type of property, property features (square footage of lot and building, etc.), assessment and taxes levied. | Municipal or county tax assessor or other land records agency |
| Property transactions | Date of sale, name and address of buyer and seller, type of property, consideration (sales price), and (sometimes) whether a mortgage has been taken out on the property. | County recorder, register of deeds or clerk |
| Tax sale or tax foreclosure | Properties on which tax liens have been sold and name and address of lien buyer, or which have been sold in tax foreclosure auction with name and address of buyer (see foreclosure text box). | Municipal or county tax collector or treasurer |
| Mortgage foreclosure | Properties on which foreclosures have been filed, name and address of owner and name of foreclosing entity. | State or county court with foreclosure jurisdiction or county agency (see foreclosure text box) |
| Foreclosure sales | Properties which have been sold as a result of foreclosure, with name and address of buyer. | County sheriff |
| Crime incidents | Crime incidents reported by type and location. | Police or public safety department |
*Names shown are typical names of agencies responsible for the subject area shown. Actual name may vary by state and locality.
Source: Adapted from Alan Mallach, Neighborhoods by Numbers (Center for Community Progress, 2017), 23.
Access to government data varies widely in terms of cost and ease. National commercial data providers aggregate and organize these local sources for purchase, but it’s worth checking first whether you can obtain more current data directly from the source, often at little or no cost.
Other methods—often used by private investigators and real estate investors seeking to purchase vacant property—include ordering a title report from a title company and “skip tracing.”
- Purchased from a title company, a title report lists all parties with interest in the property, including lien holders, lenders, and current owners.
- Skip tracing is an investigative method for locating individuals using partial information. An investigator searches databases (such as vehicle registration, credit card applications, or utility accounts) to piece together a current address and contact information for a property owner.
LEARN MORE
To learn more about neighborhood data collection and analysis, download Neighborhoods by Numbers.
Using Vacant Property Ownership Data
Once you have access to parcel-level ownership and taxpayer information, focus on what it reveals about current ownership and trends in your community. Key questions include:
- Which properties are owned by public entities? Individual homeowners? Investors and LLCs?
- Which properties are tax delinquent or facing foreclosure?
- How and where are the different ownership types concentrated?
- How has ownership shifted over time?
Distinguishing between individual and investor ownership is essential because the strategies to motivate maintenance, sale, or reinvestment will change. Deed and assessor records can help you distinguish individuals from investors. Some common flags include:
- Name: Terms like “LLC,” “Corp.,” or “Company” typically indicate corporate or investor ownership.
- Mailing address: If the mailing address is different from the property address, the property is likely not owner-occupied and may be a rental property or investor-owned. The address also signals whether the owner is local or out-of-state.
- Property tax status: A homestead exemption usually indicates owner-occupancy. Whether a property is tax-delinquent is also crucial, as it may signal foreclosure risk or opportunities for intervention.
As real estate prices have soared, many communities have seen a rise in investor-owned properties. Understanding who these investors are and where they’re located versus where they’re acquiring property helps shape an effective strategy. Investors are not a monolith. While all seek returns on their investment, timelines and goals vary. Responsible investors can play a constructive role in a revitalization strategy, stabilizing properties and expanding rental housing options.
Table: Types of Investors
| Category | Strategy | Investment Goal | Time Horizon |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rehabber | Buy properties in poor condition, rehabilitate them and sell them in good condition to home buyers or other investors. | Appreciation generated through ability to realize greater increase in value than the cost of rehab | Short (usually 1 year or less) |
| Flipper | Buy properties in poor condition and sell quickly (flip) to buyers in as-is or similar condition often using unethical or illegal practices. | Appreciation generated by taking advantage of buyer ignorance, providing misleading information or misrepresentation, or collusion with others. | Short (usually 1 year or less) |
| Milker | Buy properties in poor condition for very low prices and rent them out in as-is or similar condition with minimal maintenance, often to tenants who may be low-income or with limited housing options. | Cash flow generated through disparity between low acquisition and maintenance costs and relatively high market rents. No expectation of property appreciation | Short to medium (usually 1 to 3 years) |
| Holder | Buy properties and rent them out in fair to good condition, usually following responsible maintenance and tenant selection practices. | Sum of cash flow during holding period from rental income combined with long-term property appreciation. | Medium to long (usually 5 to 8 years) |
Source: Adapted from Alan Mallach, Meeting the Challenge of Distressed Property Investors in America’s Neighborhoods (LISC, 2018), 10.
Understanding who owns vacant properties in your community is the foundation for an effective vacant property revitalization strategy. With parcel-level data, municipalities can segment properties by ownership type, tax status, and investor profile to design targeted strategies rather than one-size-fits-all approaches. A block dominated by tax-delinquent, investor-owned properties calls for different tools than one where long-term homeowners are struggling to maintain aging homes.
Market conditions should also shape how a community engages with different investor types. In stronger markets, rehabbers and long-term holders can be constructive partners in revitalization, given that their financial incentives align with property improvement and stability. In weaker markets, where long-term appreciation is uncertain and acquisition costs are very low, milkers are more likely to dominate, extracting short-term profit while neglecting maintenance and taxes before eventually walking away.
Recognizing which investor types are active in which neighborhoods, and why, allows municipalities to tailor their approach: engaging responsible investors as partners, targeting enforcement toward exploitative ones, and directing limited resources to where they’ll have the most impact.
Armed with this data, you’ll be able to match the right strategy to the right property, the right owner, and the right market conditions.
LEARN MORE
To learn more about neighborhood data collection and analysis, download Neighborhoods by Numbers.