Good Skip Tracers are invaluable!

Skip tracing is a unique profession and requires a lot of different attributes including patience,self motivation, and inquiring mind that has the ability to think outside the norm.

Most good collection people have an innate ability to sniff out leads that most of us would just overlook. It is almost like having a "sixth sense".

A good skip tracer should also be disciplined, organized and tenacious with a "gift of gab" combined with the ability to "think through any situation "
Furthermore any skip tracer worth their salt will have an abundance of enthusiasm, energy and unquestionable integrity!

I have personally located skips and assets all over the world for over 40 years resulting in the recovery of millions of dollars in assets for my clients.
You can bet that these clients were glad to pay for my services.

Tools of the modern day skip tracer

It was not too many years ago that skip tracing could prove to be a laborious, tedious and boring prolonged task. In days gone by a skip tracer would have access to the phone books, the RL Polk Directories and several other publications that would give you some tidbits of information including nearby phone numbers and in some cases current or past places of employment.

If you were fortunate enough to have access to "credit reports" you would in most cases have a leg up.

The reason being that most credit reports could give you the critical information you needed such as the most recent employer or current address and creditors and in some instances the skip's phone number.

Basically you would do your inside skip tracing homework and then in a large percentage of the time you would have to "hit the streets" and do "door to door" searching in hopes that someone would "spill the beans" on the skip you were looking for.

I used all of these techniques and more in my 40 years plus of locating people and assets for my clients. Even though I happened to be one of those skip tracers that had a "nose for the skip" the use of the credit reports proved to be an invaluable and time saving tool in my never ending quest to locate skips of all varieties, shapes and sizes.

The biggest change in locating skips and assets today is of course the Internet. The wonderful world of technology has changed a lot of the ways we do skip tracing these days and has leveled the playing field somewhat.

Of course you still have to assimilate the information you need to locate the skip and make the calls but the Internet has greatly reduced the amount of time spent on locating skips today.

There is a tremendous and vast amount of information on just about anyone these days on the "net" which of course allows the skip tracer to locate more skips in a lot less time.

There are many and varied databases of information available to the professional skip tracer that are just a mouse click away.

The old adage that "you can run but you can't hide" has never been more accurate than in today's modern world of technology.

Yes it is true, with "caller ID", "reverse phone/address look up" combined with our trusty PC or Mac and the Internet it is extremely difficult for someone who has "skipped out" for whatever reason to stay hid for any extended period of time.

Who uses skip tracers?

Skip tracers are used by business and consumers alike for a variety of reasons.

Lenders and creditors use skip tracers on a consistent and regular basis to assist their collection department keep track of delinquent customers and protect their assets and keep the bad debt charge off's in line.

What do the following professions have in common?

Criminal Lawyers
Private Investigators
Collection Agencies
Missing Persons Bureaus.
Alumni Associations
Probate attorneys and Estate Executors.
Courts and Judges
Genealogy Services
Judgment Collectors

The answer is that in the course of normal day-to-day business practices they all use skip tracers!

One of the most commons uses for skip tracers is used by judgment recovery collectors to assist them in locating assets of judgment debtors.

The reason being that once someone has received a judgment handed down by the courts the work is just beginning on recovering the money due the them.

You see the courts only render the judgments, they have nothing to do with collecting it for the plaintiff other than handling the paper work as it is filed.

The collection of the debt from the defendant is entirely up to the plaintiff in the case.

This is where the skip tracer comes in handy.

They have the ability and the resources to locate the assets of the defendant in the case and because of this they can turn a piece of paper (The Judgment Decree) into cash for their client!

Author: Don Stone