How to format a CSV for skip tracing

A skip tracing CSV needs a header row, the owner's name (first and last, or one full-name column) and one complete address: street, city, state and ZIP, for the mailing address or the property address. Add the other address if you have it. Everything else, such as APN or acres, is optional and comes back unchanged.

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: 2026-10-08

The short answer

Save the list as a .csv file with a header row. Export or save the list as CSV (not .xlsx). The first line must name the columns.
Give every row the owner's name. Use a first-name column and a last-name column, or one column with the full name, which the upload splits for you.
Give every row one complete address. Street, city, state and ZIP for the mailing address or the property address, in four columns or in one ("123 Main St, Atlanta, GA 30301"), which the upload splits for you. Use the mailing address, and add the property address when you have it.
Put a person on entity-owned rows. Replace an LLC, trust or estate with the name and address of a person behind it, or take those rows out of this file.
Check the file, then upload it. Run it through the free CSV checker, upload it, and confirm the column mapping before the list is priced.

Want to see how your own file maps before you upload it? The skip trace CSV checker reads the header row and shows which columns it takes as the name and each address, using the same rules as the upload.

Required vs helpful columns

A name and one complete address block are the minimum. Column names do not have to match any template: the upload reads your headers, proposes a match for each field, and you confirm or change it before the list is priced. A field you leave unmapped is simply left empty.

An address-only list cannot be run. The upload will not price a file until a name column is mapped, because the search is for a person, not a parcel. If your list has addresses but no owners, look the owners up first, for example on the county assessor's site, and add them as a column.

Which columns a skip tracing CSV needs
Column	Needed?	Why
Owner first name and last name	Required (or one full-name column)	A name must be mapped before a list can be priced. One full-name column is split into first and last for you.
Mailing street, city, state, ZIP	Required unless the property block is complete	Where the owner receives mail. The stronger signal for owners who moved.
Property street, city, state, ZIP	Required unless the mailing block is complete	Where the parcel is. Added alongside the mailing address, it usually raises the match rate.
APN, acres, list source, notes	Optional	Not used for the lookup, and not compared when duplicates are removed. Extra columns come back unchanged, in their original order.

The full list of header spellings the upload recognises is on the CSV checker page.

Names: first, last, full and "JOHN & MARY"

Separate first-name and last-name columns are the cleanest input: they are used exactly as written. If your file has a single name column instead, the upload offers to split it, and it splits the way the table below shows. The split works on the words in the cell, so two layouts need a fix before you upload:

Last name first with no comma, as some county exports print it ("SMITH JOHN"). Add the comma ("SMITH, JOHN") or split the column into two in your spreadsheet.
Two owners in one cell ("JOHN & MARY SMITH"). Only the first-listed owner is kept. To trace both, add a second row with MARY SMITH at the same address; it is a separate record.

How a single full-name column is split into first and last
Name in your file	First	Last	What happened
`Dana Whitfield`	Dana	Whitfield	Two words: first and last.
`DANA R WHITFIELD`	DANA	WHITFIELD	The middle name or initial is dropped.
`WHITFIELD, DANA R`	DANA	WHITFIELD	A comma means last name first.
`JOHN & MARY SMITH`	JOHN	SMITH	Only the first-listed owner is kept.
`SMITH JOHN A; SMITH MARY`	JOHN	SMITH	County order (last name first) is spotted from the whole file: a ; between owners or a middle initial at the end.
`SMITH JOHN`	SMITH	JOHN	Two words with nothing else in the file to go on are read first name first: add a comma (SMITH, JOHN) or split the column.
`OAK HOLLOW LLC`	(blank)	OAK HOLLOW LLC	An entity name is kept whole.

The same rules apply whether the name is in capitals or not. With separate first and last columns nothing is split.

Addresses: mailing vs property

Each address block is four columns: street, city, state and ZIP. One complete block is enough to run the file; both is better. If your list has only one address, map it under the block it really is, mailing or property. Tick "Same as the mailing address" only when the owner lives at the property.

What each address combination means for a skip trace
Your file has	Can it run?	What to know
Mailing address only	Yes	Adding the property address usually raises the match rate.
Property address only	Yes	The mailing address is the stronger signal for owners who moved. Vacant land and rentals often point away from the owner.
Both	Yes	The best input: the owner's mailing address plus the parcel's own address.

Why the mailing address finds the owner, and the cases where the property address fails: mailing address vs property address.

Entity-owned rows: LLCs, trusts and estates

Skip tracing looks for people, and a company is not a person. Skipmatch has no step that finds who is behind an LLC, a trust or an estate. When a full-name column is split, a name containing a marker such as LLC, Inc, Corp, Trust, TR, Estate or Holdings is kept whole in the last-name field instead of being split, and the row counts toward the price like any other row.

For those rows, the useful fix happens before the upload:

LLCs and corporations: 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 address.
Trusts: put the trustee's name on the row; the trustee is often named on the deed.
Estates: the executor or the heirs are the people to reach.
Or leave them out: if you cannot find a person, take entity rows out of this file.

The step-by-step lookup is in how to skip trace an LLC-owned property.

Things you do not need to fix

The upload handles these on its own, so do not spend time on them in the spreadsheet:

Header spelling and order. The common export spellings are recognised, ignoring capitals, spaces and punctuation, the columns can be in any order, and you can map any other header by hand.
Extra columns. APN, acres, list source and anything else ride along and come back unchanged.
The delimiter. Comma, semicolon, tab and pipe separated files are all detected.
A byte-order mark. UTF-8 files with or without one read the same.
State names and ZIP+4. "South Carolina" becomes SC, and 29403-1234 becomes 29403.
Empty lines. Lines with nothing on them are skipped.
Duplicate rows. Rows with the same name and address are removed before the list is priced, ignoring capitals and after the state and ZIP clean-up above. Your other columns, such as APN, are not compared.

Things you do need to fix

ZIP codes that lost their leading zero. Excel turns 02903 into 2903, and it is not padded back. Format the ZIP columns as text, or re-add the zero, before you save the CSV.
Rows that are only commas. When cells are cleared instead of deleted, Excel can save rows such as ,,,,,,. They are not skipped: one of them survives as a blank record and is counted. Delete those rows in the spreadsheet.
Rows with a blank name or address. The check is on columns, not on each row, so a row with an empty name cell is still counted. Fill it in or delete it.
Accented letters. If names such as Muñoz or Peña are in the file, save it from Excel as "CSV UTF-8" so the letters reach the search intact. A plain "CSV" save on Windows can turn them into unreadable characters.

What the result file looks like

The file you get back has every row you sent, less rows with the same name and address (your other columns are not compared), with contact columns added after your own. These are the columns of the sample result.

Columns in a Skipmatch result file
Column	What it holds
`Your columns`	Every column you uploaded, unchanged and in its original order. Rows with the same name and address are returned once (your other columns are not compared).
`Phone1 to Phone10`	Up to 10 phone numbers for the owner, ranked.
`Phone1Type to Phone10Type`	The line type of each phone: Mobile, Landline or VOIP.
`Email1 to Email3`	Email addresses where they exist.
`HitFlag`	HIT when the row came back with at least one phone or email, MISS when it did not.
`Record status`	New, Updated or Previously purchased, from your own order history.
`Absentee owner to Years owned`	Free owner signals worked out from your own columns: Absentee owner, Out of state owner, Owner type (Person, LLC or company, Trust, Estate or Unknown) and Years owned (only when your file has a sale or purchase date column).
`Census match to Census longitude`	Free address check of the property address against the U.S. Census Geocoder: Census match (Exact, Non-exact or No match), county, county FIPS code, latitude and longitude.
`Soil map unit, Soil drainage class`	Free dominant soil name and drainage class at the property point, from the USDA soil survey. Blank where the survey has no data.

See every row of it on the sample file page.

One consequence for land lists: an owner with several parcels at one mailing address comes back once, with the first of those rows, unless the property address is mapped too. That is one more reason to map both address blocks.

Skip tracing CSV template

The template is one header row with the columns the upload recognises straight away, plus APN and Acres as examples of your own columns. Fill it in, or copy the headers onto your existing sheet. The sample input has the same columns with ten invented owners filled in.

OwnerFirstName,OwnerLastName,MailingAddress,MailingCity,MailingState,MailingZip,PropertyAddress,PropertyCity,PropertyState,PropertyZip,APN,Acres

Blank template (CSV)Filled-in sample (CSV)

Lists exported from a data platform do not need to be rebuilt into this template first; upload the export as it is and confirm the mapping. Some platforms publish their own steps for this, for example Land Portal's help article on bulk skip tracing (help.landportal.com: how to bulk skip trace (opens in a new tab), checked 2026-09-25).

File limits

Skipmatch upload limits
Limit	Value
File type	.csv with a header row (.xlsx is not read)
Fewest records per order	50
Most records per order	100,000
Largest file	50 MB

Records are counted after rows with the same name and address are removed (your other columns are not compared). Split a larger list into more than one order.

Skip tracing CSV format FAQ

What columns do I need to skip trace a list?

A header row, the owner's name (a first-name and a last-name column, or one full-name column) and one complete address: street, city, state and ZIP, for either the mailing address or the property address. Every other column is optional and comes back unchanged in the result file.

Do I need the owner's name or just the address?

You need the name. Skipmatch will not price a list until a name column is mapped, so an address-only list cannot be run as it is. Look the owners up first, for example on the county assessor's site, and add them as a column.

Should I use the mailing address or the property address?

Use the mailing address, and add the property address when you have it. One complete address block is enough to run the file. The mailing address is the stronger signal for owners who moved, and vacant land often has no usable street address at all.

How do I split full names into first and last?

You usually do not have to. When a file has one name column, the upload splits it: "First Last" and "FIRST M LAST" become first and last with the middle dropped, and "LAST, FIRST" is read by the comma. Fix names written last-first without a comma, such as "SMITH JOHN", before you upload.

What do I do with LLC-owned rows?

Replace the company with a person where you can. Skip tracing looks for people; an LLC row goes through with the company name whole and counts toward the price like any other row. Find the manager, member or registered agent in the state's business records and put that person on the row, or leave entity rows out.

How big can a skip tracing file be?

One .csv file of 50 to 100,000 records, up to 50 MB, with a header row. Records are counted after rows with the same name and address are removed (your other columns are not compared). Split a larger list into more than one order. Excel .xlsx files are not read; save the sheet as CSV first.

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