Skip tracing glossary for real estate investors

A skip tracing glossary is a plain-English list of the words investors and skip tracing services use for results, billing, lead lists, addresses, phone lines and compliance. Each entry below starts with a definition, and where Skipmatch uses a term in a specific way, such as what counts as a match, the entry says so.

Price your list See a sample result

Key facts

Price: a flat $0.03 a record at any list size from 50 to 100,000 records.
Unit: Priced per matched record.
Minimum order: 50 records
Minimum charge: Minimum charge $0.50 when any record matches.
Single search: Single search: $0.10, charged only on a match, paid from prepaid credit ($10 minimum top-up).
Prepaid credit: Prepaid credit expires 12 months after your last credit purchase, single search or credit-paid list, and unused credit is refundable on request within 90 days of purchase.
Free tool: Check your list free at /tools/skip-trace-csv-checker. Check columns, split addresses and download a fixed CSV in your browser before tracing at $0.03 a record. No account needed.
Subscription: None. A list order is paid for on its own by card or prepaid credit.
Max per order: 100,000 rows or 50 MB per file
Output: Up to 10 phones per owner, each with its line type (mobile, landline or VoIP), plus emails where found
Sources: 3 core providers: idiCORE, Enformion and Delvepoint
Not for: FCRA uses: credit, insurance, employment or tenant screening
Prices last changed: 2026-10-02
Last updated: 2026-10-02

Results: hit, match, miss and right-party contact

The words for what came back from a skip trace. Services use them loosely, so check how each one counts before you compare two numbers.

Hit: A hit is a row in a skip trace that comes back with contact data attached. Each service decides what counts: some count any phone number or email, others count only a phone, so the same list can show a different number of hits at two services.
Match: A match is a row the service tied to a person and returned contact data for; most services use match and hit for the same thing. At Skipmatch, a match is a record that comes back with at least one phone number or email, and a record with only an email still counts.
The result file marks each match HIT in its HitFlag column; the sample file shows both kinds of row. Skipmatch publishes no match rate: how many rows match depends on the list you upload.
MissAlso: No hit: A miss is a row that comes back with no contact data. In a Skipmatch result file, a miss is a record with no phone number and no email, marked MISS in the HitFlag column, with the columns you uploaded still on the row.
Hit rateAlso: Match rate: Hit rate is the share of submitted rows that come back as hits: hits divided by rows submitted. It measures how many rows got some contact data, not whether that data reaches the owner.
Worked example, with illustrative numbers. Upload 1,000 rows and get 600 back with at least one phone or email: that is 600 hits, 400 misses and a hit rate of 60%. If calling the hits reaches 250 owners, the right-party contact rate is 25% of the list. The table below counts the same list each way.
Why published rates are not comparable, and how to run a fair test: How to judge a skip tracing hit rate.
Right-party contactAlso: RPC: A right-party contact is a call or text that reaches the person you were looking for, rather than a relative, a tenant, a wrong number or the number's previous owner. Only dialing measures it; no result file can flag it in advance.

One illustrative 1,000-row list, counted four ways
Measure	Rows	Share of the list
Rows submitted	1,000	100%
Hits (matches): at least one phone or email	600	60%
Misses: no phone and no email	400	40%
Right-party contacts, found only by dialing	250	25%

Illustrative numbers chosen for easy arithmetic, not a measured rate for any service.

Billing: per record, per match, per hit, per row and credits

The words for what a price list counts. The same headline rate can mean very different totals depending on the unit behind it.

Per record: Per record pricing is a rate for each record in an order. Usually a record is a row you submit, but some price lists use record for each result returned, so read which one a price list means before you multiply.
Skipmatch prices per matched record: $0.03 a record at any list size. The whole list is priced at that one rate, and the quote is shown before you pay. Minimum charge $0.50 when any record matches.
Per row: Per row pricing is a rate for every row you submit, whether or not anything is found for it. The total is known before the list runs: rows times the rate.
Per match: Per match pricing is a rate for each record that comes back with contact data; rows that come back empty are left off the bill. The total is known only after the list runs, because it depends on how many rows match.
Per hit: Per hit pricing is per match pricing under another name: the bill counts hits. What is billed therefore follows each service's own definition of a hit.
Credit: A credit is a prepaid unit a service sells in packs or monthly plans and draws down as you search. How many credits a search or a hit uses varies by service and by feature, so compare the dollar cost per record, not the credit count.
Skipmatch has no subscription: each list is quoted on its own and paid by card or prepaid credit for that order.

What each billing unit counts on the same 1,000-row list
Billing unit	What is counted	Units on the example list
Per row	Every row submitted	1,000
Per record (rows submitted)	Every record in the order	1,000
Per match or per hit	Rows that come back with contact data	600
Credits	Credits per search or per hit, set by each service	Depends on the service

The example list from the Results group. A per-match rate is always multiplied by fewer units than a per-row rate, so compare totals, not headline rates.

On Skipmatch, a 1,000-record list is priced at $0.03 a record, a quote of $30.00. That quote is the most the list can cost. The cost calculator prices any row count.

Lists: bulk vs batch, list stacking and lead types

The words for how lists are built and run, and for the lead lists investors most often skip trace.

Bulk vs batch skip tracingAlso: Bulk skip tracing, Batch skip tracing: Bulk skip tracing is running a whole list of owners through a skip trace in one upload and getting the same file back with contact data appended. Batch skip tracing means the same thing; both are the opposite of a single lookup, where you search one owner at a time.
Skipmatch is bulk only: orders run from 50 to 100,000 records. What is skip tracing? covers single lookups and bulk runs side by side.
List stacking: List stacking is combining two or more lead lists and ranking the properties that appear on more than one. A parcel that is on an absentee owner list, a tax delinquent list and a code violation list is a three-list stack, and usually gets contacted first.
Skipmatch's upload removes exact duplicate rows (same owner name and addresses) before the order is priced and shows how many it removed; the same owner spelled or addressed differently on two lists stays in.
Absentee owner: An absentee owner is an owner whose mailing address is different from the property's address: a landlord, an out-of-state owner or the owner of vacant land. For a skip trace, the mailing address is usually the better one to supply, because it is where the owner gets mail.
Absentee owner skip tracing covers where these lists come from and which address to upload.
Probate lead: A probate lead is a property whose owner has died and whose estate is going through probate court. The people to reach are the personal representative (the executor or administrator) and sometimes the heirs, not the deceased owner.
Probate list skip tracing covers whose name and address to upload.
Tax delinquent: A tax delinquent property is one whose owner is behind on property taxes. Counties keep delinquent lists, and many publish or sell them, which makes them a common starting point for investor mailing and skip tracing lists.
Tax delinquent list skip tracing covers turning a county list into a file you can trace.
Driving for dollarsAlso: D4D: Driving for dollars is driving or walking neighborhoods to note vacant, run-down or otherwise distressed properties, then looking up and contacting the owners. The drive gives you addresses; the owner's name and mailing address still have to come from the county record.
A Skipmatch upload needs an owner name on every row and one complete address (street, city, state and ZIP), so an address-only driving list needs the county lookup first. Driving for dollars to skip tracing.

Addresses: situs, mailing and APN

The three ways a county record points at a property and its owner, and which one a skip trace needs.

Situs addressAlso: Property address, Site address: A situs address is the physical location of a parcel: the property address in county assessor records. Vacant land often has no house number, so its situs address can be a road name alone, a lot number or a 0 in place of a number.
Skipmatch's upload reads a column headed Situs Address, Site Address or Property Address as the property address.
Mailing addressAlso: Owner mailing address: A mailing address is where the owner receives mail, including the tax bill: the owner's address in the assessor record. For an owner who lives at the property it matches the situs address; for an absentee owner it does not.
When a file maps only the property address, Skipmatch's upload adds this note: “Only the property address is mapped. The mailing address is the stronger signal for owners who moved.” Mailing address or property address: which to skip trace.
APNAlso: Assessor's parcel number, Parcel ID, PIN, TMS number: An APN (assessor's parcel number) is the ID a county gives each parcel of land. Counties name and format it differently, as a parcel ID, a PIN or, in South Carolina, a TMS number. It identifies the parcel, not the owner or a phone number.
A Skipmatch result returns your APN column unchanged with the rest of your columns, but the trace itself needs an owner name and an address on each row, so a parcel-number list starts at the county. How to skip trace by parcel number.

Phones: line type, mobile, landline and VoIP

The labels on the phone numbers a skip trace returns, and what each one means before you call or text.

Line type: Line type is the kind of service a phone number is on: mobile, landline or VoIP. It tells you which numbers can take a text and helps you decide the order to call in.
A Skipmatch result file has room for up to 10 phones per row and gives each one's line type in the Phone1Type to Phone10Type columns; the sample file shows Mobile, Landline and VOIP rows. Mobile, landline or VoIP covers texting and calling order.
MobileAlso: Cell phone, Wireless: A mobile number is a cell phone number on a wireless carrier. It is usually carried by one person rather than shared by a household, and it can receive texts.
Landline: A landline is a fixed phone line at an address from a traditional phone company. It often rings a whole household and usually cannot receive texts.
VoIPAlso: Voice over IP: A VoIP number is a phone number carried over the internet: a cable or internet provider's home phone, a business phone system or an app-based number. Whether it can receive texts depends on the service behind it.

Compliance terms: DNC, TCPA, litigator list and FCRA

What each term refers to, described and not interpreted. This is general information, not legal advice.

DNCAlso: Do not call, Do-not-call registry: DNC is short for do not call and refers to the do-not-call registries: the National Do Not Call Registry run by the Federal Trade Commission, the lists some states keep, and a company's own internal list of people who have asked it not to call.
Skipmatch does not scrub results against the do-not-call registries or litigator lists.
TCPAAlso: Telephone Consumer Protection Act: The TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act) is the 1991 federal law behind the rules on telemarketing calls, on calls and texts sent with an autodialer or a prerecorded voice, and on calling numbers on the do-not-call registry. The FCC writes the rules under it, and it lets people sue over violations.
Litigator list: A litigator list is a privately compiled list of phone numbers belonging to people who have filed lawsuits under telemarketing laws such as the TCPA. It is not a government registry; some marketers scrub their call lists against one before dialing.
FCRAAlso: Fair Credit Reporting Act: The FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) is the federal law on consumer reports: information used to decide on a person's credit, insurance, employment or housing. Skipmatch results are not a consumer report and must not be used for any of those decisions.
Every Skipmatch account accepts the permissible-use terms before its first order.

These entries describe what each term refers to. They are general information, not legal advice; see permissible use.

Questions

What is a hit in skip tracing?

It is a returned row with some contact data on it, and what qualifies depends on the service. In a Skipmatch result file, the HitFlag column reads HIT for a record that came back with at least one phone number or email and MISS for a record with neither, so you can filter the file down to the rows worth working.

Is bulk the same as batch skip tracing?

Yes. Both mean running a whole list of owners in one upload and getting the file back with phones and emails appended, as opposed to a single lookup of one owner at a time.

What is a situs address?

It is where the parcel itself sits, as opposed to the mailing address, where the owner gets the tax bill. The two are the same when the owner lives at the property. For a skip trace, supply both when you have them; if you can map only one, use the mailing address, because an owner who has moved no longer gets mail at the property.

What does line type mean?

It tells you how to work each number: text the mobiles and the VoIP numbers that accept texts, and call the landlines. Many investors also dial mobiles first, since one person usually carries them. A Skipmatch result file gives each phone's line type in the Phone1Type to Phone10Type columns.

What is a good hit rate?

There is no fair benchmark, because published hit rates are not comparable: services count a hit differently, test on different lists, and a hit is not a right-party contact. The useful test is to run the same records through two services and compare what comes back. Skipmatch publishes no hit rate.

Price your list before you pay for it.

Create an account, upload the file, and see your total before you pay. Records with no phone and no email are never charged.

Price your list