Mailing address or property address: which to skip trace

Skip trace the mailing address, and add the property address when you have it. The mailing address is where the owner gets the tax bill, so it follows the person you are trying to reach; the property address points at the parcel and whoever lives there, which for a rental is the tenant.

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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: 2026-09-25

The short answer

Lead with the mailing address. It is the owner's address on the county record, so the owner's name and the address describe the same person.
Add the property address as a second block. It is the parcel's own address, and it is the right one when the owner lives there.
One complete block is the minimum. Skipmatch needs the owner's name and at least one full address, street, city, state and ZIP, before a list can be priced.
Fix three kinds of row by hand: rentals, LLC-owned parcels and inherited property. In each, the property address points away from the person you need.

Situs address vs mailing address

A county keeps two addresses for every parcel. In the words of Pima County, Arizona, A parcel's street address is its situs address: the place the property is. The assessor separately keeps the owner's mailing address, which differs from the situs address whenever the owner gets mail, including the tax bill, somewhere else. The same page notes that the post office does not deliver to every situs address (Situs (Property) Addresses, Pima County (opens in a new tab), checked 2026-09-25).

Other counties use other labels, such as site address, property location or physical address, but the split is the same everywhere: one address for the land, one for the owner. The glossary defines both.

Mailing address vs property (situs) address for skip tracing
Compare	Mailing address	Property address
What it is	Where the owner receives mail, including the property tax bill	Where the parcel is: its street address on the county record
Also called	Owner mailing address, owner address, mail address	Situs address, site address, property address
Who is usually at it	The owner, or whoever handles the owner's mail	Whoever lives there: the owner, a tenant or no one
Owner moved or rents it out	Moves with the owner, once the owner updates it with the county	Still the same house, and whoever lives in it now
Vacant land	Where the tax bill goes, usually a full street address	Often a road name alone, a lot number or a 0 for the house number
LLC-owned	The company's office, its manager or a registered agent	The parcel, which tells you nothing about who runs the company
Inherited	Can still be the late owner's address, or an estate or executor	The house, empty or with an heir living in it
Needed for a Skipmatch upload	One complete block of either is required; both is better	One complete block of either is required; both is better

For an owner who lives at the property, the two are the same place. For vacant land, the mailing address usually carries the lookup: skip tracing vacant land owners.

Why the mailing address finds the owner

Contact data is kept about people, not parcels. A phone number or an email in a data source is attached to a person, and that person's record lists the addresses where they have lived or received mail. A skip trace uses the name and the address on your row together to find that person.

The owner's mailing address is one of the owner's own addresses: it is where the owner told the county to send the tax bill. So the name and the address agree, and they point at one person. The property address is only the owner's address when the owner lives there. On a rental, a vacant house or a lot, it is somebody else's address, or nobody's, and the name and address on the row pull in different directions.

That is why an absentee list, where the two addresses differ by definition, should be traced on the mailing address: absentee owner skip tracing.

The three failure cases

Skipmatch's upload checks which columns you mapped, not what each row holds. It confirms there is a name and a complete address block, and notes when only one block is mapped. It cannot tell that a particular row is a rental, a company or a late owner. These three cases are the ones to catch yourself, before you upload.

1. Tenant-occupied: the property address is the tenant's home

A rental's street address is where the tenant lives, gets mail and is on record. Trace a landlord on the property address alone and the address belongs to someone else, which is why property-address traces turn up tenants. If your file has only the property block mapped, the upload says so with the note quoted below. Fix: add the owner's mailing address from the county record as its own block.

2. LLC-owned: neither address leads to a person

When a company owns the parcel, the owner name is the company, the property address is the parcel, and the mailing address is usually the company's office, its manager or a registered agent. The upload accepts the row: a name column is mapped, and when one full-name column is split, a name containing a marker such as LLC, Inc, Corp, Trust or Holdings is kept whole instead of being split into first and last. But a skip trace looks for people, so the row has no person to find. Fix: look the company up in the state's business records and put the manager, member or registered agent on the row with that person's own address: how to skip trace an LLC-owned property.

3. Inherited: the owner on record may have died

The county record can keep a late owner's name, and sometimes the late owner's address as the mailing address, long after the death. The property may be empty or have an heir living in it, and a split full-name column keeps a name written as "Estate of" whole, like an LLC. Every column is filled in, so the upload has nothing to flag. Fix: put the heir or the executor on the row, with that person's address as the mailing address: probate list skip tracing.

What our validator tells you

When you map the columns of an upload, Skipmatch checks the mapping before the list is priced. These are its exact words for each address combination. A note does not stop the order; a problem does, until you fix the mapping.

What Skipmatch's upload says for each address combination
You mapped	Can it run?	What the upload says
Mailing address only	Yes	Only the mailing address is mapped. Adding the property address usually raises the match rate.
Property address only	Yes	Only the property address is mapped. The mailing address is the stronger signal for owners who moved.
Both, complete	Yes	No note.
Mailing address, with "Same as the mailing address" ticked	Yes	No note.
Neither block complete	No	Map one complete address block — street, city, state and ZIP — for either the mailing address or the property address.

A block is complete when street, city, state and ZIP are all mapped. The check is on columns, not on each row, so a row with an empty address cell is not flagged: fill it in or delete it.

Those notes carry no number, and neither does this page. Skipmatch publishes no contact-rate or match-rate figure for either address, and no one can tell you in advance which rows will come back with a phone or an email. What the notes do tell you is the direction: add the property address to a mailing-only file, and add the mailing address to a property-only file.

Tick Same as the mailing address only when the owner lives at the property, such as an owner-occupied list. It fills the property block from the mailing block, so the file carries both. You can see the notes for your own file before you create an account: the skip trace CSV checker reads your header row and runs the same check.

Where the mailing address comes from

The owner's mailing address is on the county assessor's or tax office's record for the parcel, next to the owner's name, because that is where the tax bill goes. County parcel exports and list platforms carry it as its own set of columns, usually labelled mailing, mail or owner address. It is only as current as the owner kept it: an owner who moved without telling the county still has the old address on file. It can also be a PO box, or a property manager, attorney or tax service taking mail for the owner.

Keep both sets of columns when you export. Column names do not have to match a template: the upload proposes a field for each header and you confirm it. The table shows what it proposes for common headers. A column headed just "Address" is read as the property address; if it holds the owner's mailing address, change the mapping before the list is priced.

Which address block the upload reads common column headers as
Header in your file	Read as
`Mailing Address`	Mailing address: street
`Mail Address`	Mailing address: street
`Owner Address`	Mailing address: street
`Mail City`	Mailing address: city
`Situs Address`	Property address: street
`Site Address`	Property address: street
`Property Address`	Property address: street
`Address`	Property address: street
`City`	Property address: city
`Zip`	Property address: ZIP

Capitals, spaces and punctuation are ignored. Every recognised spelling is on the CSV checker page, and the rest of the file layout is in how to format a CSV for skip tracing.

Questions

Should I skip trace the mailing address or the property address?

The mailing address, and add the property address when you have it. The mailing address is where the owner gets the tax bill, so it points at the owner. The property address points at the parcel and whoever lives there. One complete address block, street, city, state and ZIP, is enough to run a Skipmatch upload.

Why does skip tracing the property address return the tenant?

Because the tenant is the person who lives there. Contact data is kept about people and the addresses they live at, so a rental's street address belongs to its tenants' records, not the landlord's. Put the owner's mailing address on the row and the name and address point at the same person.

What is a situs address?

A situs address is a parcel's street address on the county record: where the property is. The owner's mailing address is kept separately and differs whenever the owner gets mail somewhere else. Vacant land often has no house number, so its situs address may be only a road name or a lot number.

Do I need both addresses to skip trace a list?

No. Skipmatch needs the owner's name and one complete address block, mailing or property, and flags a file with neither before it is priced. Both is better. If the owner lives at the property, the two are the same place: map the mailing address and tick "Same as the mailing address".

Does adding the mailing address improve results?

Yes, as the upload's own note says: when only the property address is mapped, it notes that the mailing address is the stronger signal for owners who moved. Skipmatch publishes no percentage for how much either address changes results, and no one can say in advance which rows will come back with a phone or email.

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

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