What's the difference between a good repossession service and a great repossession service? Skip Tracing. The ability to repossess cars that your competitor's can't find is usually all that separates the good repossessors from the great repossessors.

Skip tracing has changed significantly in the last 10 years. The 80's and 90's were truly the golden age of skip tracing. Skip tracers had access to the all of the data you could imagine, and there were no regulations to stop a skip tracer from penetrating any data base at will.

Repossession service companies will always need quality skip tracers to locate vehicles they are having trouble repossessing. Here are some skip tracing sources that will help your skip tracer find more cars for you to repossess:

Skip-Tips.com - Skip Tips is a great web site with some great skip tracing suggestions and skip tracing references for all 50 states. You can find many county courthouses online at skip Tips. There is also a very informative section on phone breaks and what is legal and what is illegal.

FoneFinder.net - If you are breaking a phone number, step one is to find out what phone company is the carrier for the phone number in question. FoneFinder.net is accurate unless the consumer has ported their phone number to a different carrier. Repossession service companies and skip tracers have been using this database for almost 10 years.

Repo-Links.com - Repo Links has some good suggestions on ways to repossess cars that you are unable to find. They even teach you how to instantly turn off any streetlight that is hampering your repossession service activities. Repo Links has loads of other useful repossession information that makes for some very interesting reading.

Accurint.com - The information in the Accurint data base is very good, however, they have just about priced themselves out of the repossession service marketplace. Their searches are very helpful at finding relatives or spouses of the person you are trying to repossess from.

Repo-U.com - Repo University offers skip tracer training and repossessor training. Their list of skip tracing techniques listed on their web site is quite impressive and offers quite a few good skip tracing suggestions on any repossession that you are having trouble with.

Wisconsin Department of Justice - Has a great listing of where to obtain criminal history records for all 50 states. This is a very helpful resource for skip tracers trying to find cars that are up for repo.

Skip tracing for repossession services is more of an art form than a skill that can be taught. Watch your co-workers and see how they skip trace. Try to learn from both their mistakes and successes. A good skip tracer can find a lead for the car they are trying to repossess, when an average skip tracer just gives up.

What's your opinion?

Reader Comments:

RepoDan says: I can't believe I have been in the repossession service industry for almost 15 years and I didn't know about most of these skip tracing resources. This is valuable information, and it is all for free. Thanks.

Keep up the good work!