How to skip trace an LLC-owned property
You cannot skip trace an LLC directly, because skip tracing matches a person's name and address to phone numbers, and an LLC is not a person. Find the person behind it first, from the deed, the tax-bill mailing address, the Secretary of State record, annual reports and deed signers. Then skip trace that person by name.
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
- Last updated
Short answer
An LLC has no phone history, relatives or home address of its own, so a person-level skip trace run on its name has nothing personal to match. Some services sell a separate entity or business search, which returns the state filing's listed officers and sometimes a phone number the filing lists; those officers are the people you then trace. The people behind an LLC are on public records: the county's deed and tax records, and the filing the LLC made with the state it was formed in. Work through the six steps below until one of them gives you a person's name, then trace that person with the best mailing address you have.
| Step | Where to look | What you want from it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Run the deed and tax-bill mailing address test | County assessor or tax office; register of deeds | Pull the county record for the parcel. Note the LLC's exact name, the mailing address the tax bill goes to and, from the recorded deed, who sold or transferred the property to the LLC. A residential mailing address or a person who deeded their own property into the LLC is your first lead. |
| 2. Read the Secretary of State record | Business entity search, state of formation | Search the LLC's exact name on the business entity search of the state it was formed in. Note its status, principal office, mailing address, registered agent and any organizer, manager, member or authorized person the state lists. What is listed differs by state. |
| 3. Tell the registered agent from the organizer and the manager | The same Secretary of State record | The registered agent accepts legal papers and is often a paid service. The organizer filed the paperwork and may be a lawyer or a filing company. A manager, member or authorized person is the name closest to the owner. |
| 4. Check annual reports, UCC filings and deed signers | Secretary of State filings and UCC index; register of deeds | Open the latest annual report where the state requires one, search the state's UCC index for the LLC as debtor, and read who signed the deeds and mortgages the LLC recorded. The signer's name and title are on the document. |
| 5. Run the mailing-address overlap test | Your own list, sorted by mailing address | Sort your list by mailing address. Several LLCs sharing one residential or small-office mailing address usually point to one person or one team; the same address on hundreds of entities is a registered agent's office and tells you nothing. |
| 6. Skip trace the person, not the LLC | Your CSV, then a bulk skip trace | Put the person's first and last name in the name columns with their mailing address, keep the LLC name in a column of its own so it comes back beside the result, and run the list. |
Step 1: the deed and tax-bill mailing address test
Pull the parcel on the county assessor's or tax office's site. Copy the LLC's name exactly as it is written, and note the mailing address the tax bill goes to. Then look at that address and ask what kind of place it is:
- A house or apartment: the strongest lead on this page. Look the address up in the county where it sits; the person who owns that home is often connected to the LLC. Treat it as a lead to confirm in Step 2, not as proof.
- A law, accounting or property management office: the LLC gets its mail through someone else. The firm's name is a clue to who manages the property, not who owns it.
- The registered agent's address (you will see it in Step 2): tells you nothing about the owner.
- The property address itself: the owner may live or work there, or the bill may go to a tenant. Check whether a person's name appears on any other record at that address.
Then read the recorded deed into the LLC at the register of deeds. The grantor, whoever sold or transferred the property, matters: when a person deeds their own property into a new LLC, that person is very often behind it. The deed may also carry a "prepared by" or "return to" name and address. For how the mailing and property addresses behave in a skip trace, see mailing vs property address. Skip tracing terms such as mailing address and situs address are defined in the skip tracing glossary.
Step 2: read the Secretary of State record
Search the LLC's exact name on the business entity search of the state it was formed in. That is not always the state the property is in: an LLC formed elsewhere and registered to do business locally has a record in both, and the state of formation holds the fuller one. The record's fields, and how much each tells you:
| Field | What it tells you | As an owner lead |
|---|---|---|
| Entity name and file number | Confirms you are reading the same LLC the deed names. Match the spelling and the suffix exactly. | Identifies the entity only |
| Status | Active, inactive or dissolved. A dissolved LLC's record may no longer describe who runs it. | None on its own |
| Formation date | When the LLC was formed. Compare it with the date of the deed into it. | None on its own |
| Principal office and mailing address | Where the LLC says it operates and receives mail. | Strong when it is a residential address |
| Registered agent | The person or company named to accept legal papers for the LLC. | Weak: often a paid agent service |
| Organizer | Whoever filed the formation paperwork. | Mixed: often a lawyer or a filing company |
| Managers, members or authorized persons | The people who run or own the LLC, in states that list them. | Strongest: trace this person |
| Annual reports | Current principals, in states that require a yearly report. | Strong when the report is recent |
Which states list members and which list only the agent
It differs by state, and there is no rule that holds everywhere. Four states, each from its own filing pages, read on :
| State | What the formation filing shows | Annual reports and other notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delaware | The free entity search shows the name, file number, formation date, registered agent name, address and phone, and the entity kind, type and residency. The Division says "Alternative entities are not required to list members and/or managers." | No annual report for LLCs: "There is no requirement to file an Annual Report." | corp.delaware.gov/faqs (opens in a new tab)corp.delaware.gov/alt-entitytaxinstructions (opens in a new tab) |
| Florida | Articles of organization give the principal office, the mailing address and the registered agent. Names of managers or authorized representatives are optional, and the instructions say "Do not list 'members'." | An annual report is due by May 1st each year and must list at least one principal (officers, directors, managers, authorized persons). | efile.sunbiz.org: LLC filing help (opens in a new tab)efile.sunbiz.org: annual report help (opens in a new tab) |
| Texas | The certificate of formation (Form 205) gives the name and address of each initial manager or, when the LLC has no managers, of each initial member. | The franchise tax Public Information Report, filed with the Comptroller: "Domestic limited liability companies must enter all managers and, if the company is member-managed, list all members." | sos.state.tx.us: Form 205 instructions (opens in a new tab)comptroller.texas.gov: Public Information Report (opens in a new tab) |
| South Carolina | Articles of organization give the designated office, the agent for service of process and each organizer. Initial managers are named only when the LLC is manager-managed. The form has no field for members. | The form explains that the organizer "may simply be an individual who assists in the formation of the LLC without having any involvement with subsequent ownership or operational functions." | businessfilings.sc.gov: Articles of Organization (form F0006) (opens in a new tab) |
Step 3: registered agent vs organizer vs manager
Three names can appear on the record, and only one of them is usually the owner's.
- Registered agent: the person or company named to accept legal papers for the LLC. Many LLCs pay an agent service, whose name and office appear on thousands of records. An owner can act as their own agent, so an individual agent at a home address is worth tracing; a company agent is not.
- Organizer: whoever filed the formation. South Carolina's own form says the organizer may have no part in owning or running the LLC afterwards. If the organizer is a law firm or a filing company, move on; if it is an individual at a home address, it is a lead.
- Manager, member or authorized person: the person who runs or owns the LLC. When the state lists one, this is the name to skip trace.
Step 4: annual reports, UCC filings and deed signers
Annual reports. In states that require one, the latest report is the most current list of the LLC's principals. Florida's is due by May 1st each year and must name at least one principal; Texas's franchise tax Public Information Report must list all managers, and all members of a member-managed LLC (sources in the state table above). Delaware LLCs file no annual report, so there is nothing to open there.
UCC filings. Search the state's UCC index with the LLC as the debtor. A financing statement names the lender and gives addresses for both parties; the same debtor address on filings for other LLCs links them together, which feeds Step 5.
Deed and mortgage signers. An LLC acts through people, and the deeds and mortgages it records are signed by one of them, with a title such as member, manager or authorized signer beside the signature. The notary's acknowledgment usually names the signer again. Pull every document the LLC has recorded in the county, not only the deed for your parcel: an older sale or loan may carry a signer the newer one does not.
Step 5: the mailing-address overlap test
Sort your list by mailing address and look for addresses that repeat across different LLC names. Several LLCs sharing one house or small office usually belong to one person or one team, and a person found for one of them is a lead for all of them. If your county's search lets you look up parcels by mailing address, run the address itself: it can surface every parcel billed there, including ones held in the owner's own name.
The test cuts both ways. The same address on hundreds of entities is a registered agent's or a management company's office, and the overlap tells you nothing about any one owner.
Trusts: trace the trustee
A private family trust does not register with the Secretary of State, so there is no entity record to search. The deed is the record that matters. It often names the trustee, as in "Jane Doe, Trustee of the Doe Family Trust", and that trustee is the person to skip trace, with the tax-bill mailing address. When the deed names only the trust, read the earlier deed that put the property into it: the person who signed it over is usually the one who set up the trust. A trust's name often carries a family surname, which helps you confirm you have the right person.
What a bulk trace does with an entity row
Skipmatch accepts a row whose owner is an LLC or a trust: the upload checks that a name column and one complete address block are mapped, not what kind of name each row holds. When the owner is in a single full-name column, a name carrying a marker such as LLC, Inc, Trust or Holdings is kept whole instead of being split into a first and last name. Every column you upload comes back unchanged next to the results.
We do not claim a Skipmatch trace finds the person behind an LLC or a trust. Until we can say what an entity-only row returns, treat the upload as needing a person's name: put the manager, member or trustee you found in the first and last name columns, keep the LLC or trust name in a column of its own so it comes back beside the result, and use the mailing address from Steps 1 and 2. The CSV format guide covers the columns, and the CSV checker checks a file before you upload it. For the person-level search itself, from name and address to phone number, see how to find a property owner's phone number.
Entity rows count toward the order's row count and its quote like any other row, so resolve them or take them out first. Skipmatch charges per matched record: $0.03 a record at any list size. A 1,000-row list is quoted at $30.00 at most, whatever share of it is LLCs. Minimum charge $0.50 when any record matches. Orders run from 50 to 100,000 records.
Once you have a person's number, calling and texting them is regulated by the TCPA, state rules and the do-not-call registries. This is general information, not legal advice; see the permissible-use terms.
What other services offer for entities
Some services sell a search built for entities. What each one publishes about it, quoted from its own pages as of Sept 2026. Skipmatch is one of the services compared.
| Service | What it publishes for entities | How it bills | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bulk Skip Trace | Lists a bulk business search among its search types."We offer skip tracing services for businesses, including Limited Liability Companies (LLCs), Corporations, and Incorporated entities (Incs), one at a time or in bulk from a business name and state.""A match returns the entity's status and type, filing date, jurisdiction, EIN, up to three officers with their titles, the registered address, and SIC code." | Per match, from a credit balance | bulkskiptrace.com (opens in a new tab)bulkskiptrace.com/pricing (opens in a new tab)checked |
| REsimpli | "REsimpli's Skip Tracing includes LLC and Trust searches, allowing you to connect with business-owned properties and expand your reach." | Monthly plan with included credits; $0.15 per record beyond | resimpli.com/features/skip-tracing (opens in a new tab)resimpli.com/pricing (opens in a new tab)checked |
| Skipmatch | No separate entity or business search. Rows need a person's name for the trace to look for a person. | One price per matched record | Skipmatch pricing |
Questions
Can you skip trace an LLC?
How do I find who owns an LLC that owns a property?
Is the registered agent the owner?
How do I find the owner of a trust-owned property?
What if the state does not list members?
How do I skip trace a list that is mostly LLCs?
Price your list before you pay for it.
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