What a skip trace actually returns
The gap between "records returned" and "numbers that reach the right person" is where the real cost of a list hides.
What comes back
A vendor matches a name and address against consumer data and returns contact details — often several numbers of differing age and type. Some are current mobiles. Some are landlines nobody answers. Some belong to a relative, a previous holder of the number, or a person with the same name.
Mobiles are the ones that matter. A landline on a distressed property is frequently disconnected, and calling it is a dial you do not get back.
Why entity-owned property is so much worse
When the owner of record is a company, there is no consumer record to match. You have a name that exists on paper and nowhere else.
Getting to a person means going through corporate registry filings to an officer and then tracing that individual — more steps, more cost, and a meaningful failure rate at every one.
The number to measure
Not the hit rate the vendor quotes. The share of returned numbers that reach the right person and produce a conversation. That figure is always lower, and it is the one your economics actually run on.
Questions people ask
Why do I get several numbers for one owner?
Because matching is probabilistic. The vendor returns candidates ranked by confidence, and it is left to you to work out which is right — usually by calling them.
Does a bought lead include a verified number?
It includes the number the seller replied from, which is verification of the only kind that matters — a message reached it and a person answered.
Related
Every lead on Freedom Leads is a seller who already replied to a text. $5 each, sold once, to one buyer.