Wholster Guide
Best Real Estate Skip Tracing Services for Investors in 2026
Updated August 2026 · By Jarred Sleeth
Skip tracing is the process of finding contact information associated with a property owner so an investor can attempt to reach them directly. And today, real estate investors have more ways than ever to skip trace a property.
Some services are built specifically for high-volume list enrichment. Others include skip tracing alongside property data, list building, driving for dollars, or broader lead-generation tools. More specialized services focus on deeper individual research when an owner is difficult to locate.
That makes choosing the right service less about finding a universal “best” provider and more about understanding where skip tracing fits into the way you find deals.
For this guide, we compared six real estate skip tracing services across the parts of the workflow that matter most to investors: individual property research, bulk skip tracing, motivated seller targeting, contact-data signals, DNC information, pricing, and the workflow surrounding the data. The result is not a ranking from best to worst. It’s a comparison of where each service is strongest, what it does differently, and which type of investor or workflow it makes the most sense for.
Best real estate skip tracing services at a glance
| Feature | Wholster | PropStream | DealMachine | BatchData | Skip Genie | REISkip |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Best for Where each service stands out | Motivated seller discovery + contact data | Deep property research + tracing | Mobile lead generation + tracing | High-volume enrichment | Hard-to-find owners | Focused skip tracing + list building |
| Single-property lookup Retrieve contact data for one property at a time | — | |||||
| Bulk skip tracing Enrich multiple property records at once | ||||||
| Motivated seller targeting Build property lists using potential motivation signals | — | — | ||||
| DNC information Identifies phone numbers associated with DNC records | Optional | Unclear | ||||
| Pricing model How contact data is billed | Single lookup included + per match in bulk | Included or per contact | Subscription + included credits | Per match or subscription | Subscription + per search | Per match |
The six services here take distinctly different approaches. PropStream and DealMachine are the broadest lead-generation platforms in the comparison. PropStream leans heavily into property data and research, while DealMachine combines property search, list building, contact data and marketing with a highly developed mobile prospecting workflow.
BatchData is built around enrichment at scale. Skip Genie is better suited to deeper research when an individual owner is difficult to locate, while REISkip pairs a more focused skip tracing service with property list building and motivated seller targeting.
Wholster takes a more focused approach to property discovery. Instead of trying to offer the largest possible set of filters, its search experience is organized around signals of potential seller motivation. Those signals can be searched individually or stacked together before owner contact data is retrieved. The goal isn’t to build the biggest list. It’s to build a more actionable one.
Best for: Motivated seller discovery + contact data
Wholster combines property discovery and skip tracing in the same workflow. Investors can search by location, property characteristics, ownership, equity, and signals of potential seller motivation, then retrieve owner contact information without moving the list to another platform. That keeps the emphasis on filtering for who is worth contacting before paying to retrieve the contact data.
Wholster also supports natural language property search, allowing investors to describe the types of properties or owners they want to find instead of building every search manually through filters. A search could combine location, property characteristics, ownership criteria, and motivation signals in a single request.
Motivated seller targeting
The quality of the list starts with the properties on it. Accurate contact information is useful, but the underlying properties still need to be worth pursuing.
Rather than trying to offer the largest possible number of filters, Wholster organizes much of its search experience around signals that may indicate seller motivation. Investors can combine those signals with location, ownership, equity, and property criteria to build a more targeted list before paying to enrich it.
This is an area where broader platforms such as PropStream and DealMachine offer substantially larger filter libraries. Wholster’s approach is intentionally more focused: the goal isn’t to build the biggest list. It’s to build a more actionable one.
Skip tracing and contact data
Wholster supports both individual property lookups and bulk skip tracing. Contact information for an individual property can be retrieved directly inside the app, while larger searches can be enriched in bulk and prepared for export.
Contact data is retrieved on demand when a lookup is requested. The lookup uses multiple data signals associated with the owner to return the highest-confidence contact information available at that time. Phone results also include DNC information where available.
As with any skip tracing service, a successful match doesn’t guarantee that every returned phone number or email address will be current or reachable.
Pricing
Wholster’s skip tracing tools will be available with Wholster Pro when it launches. Individual property lookups are included with the subscription, while bulk skip tracing is billed per successful match, so records that don’t return a contact match aren’t charged.
Wholster Pro is currently pre-launch. Investors who join the priority list will receive access to priority pricing that can be locked in for future renewals when they subscribe.
Join the priority list →
Where Wholster fits
Wholster is best suited to investors who want property discovery, motivated seller targeting, and contact data connected to a broader workflow for finding deals and reaching buyers to move them.
Investors who need hundreds of highly specific property filters or deeper historical property research may prefer a broad platform such as PropStream or DealMachine, while difficult individual-owner searches may be better suited to a specialized research service such as Skip Genie.
Best for: Deep property research + tracing
PropStream combines skip tracing with one of the more extensive property research and lead-generation platforms in this comparison. Investors can search nationwide property data, build targeted lists, research individual properties, and retrieve owner contact information within the same platform.
Its strength is depth. Property records can include ownership, mortgage and lien information, sales history, tax data, foreclosure activity, MLS information, and other details that can be used to research properties or narrow a prospect list before tracing the owners.
Property research and lead targeting
PropStream gives investors a large set of filters for building highly specific property lists. Property characteristics can be combined with ownership, equity, financial, distress, and other criteria, making it particularly useful for investors who want granular control over how a list is constructed.
That breadth is one of PropStream’s biggest advantages, although it also makes for a more complex research environment than a platform built around a smaller set of targeting signals.
Skip tracing and contact data
PropStream supports both individual and bulk skip tracing. Investors can trace a single property or select multiple contacts from a list, including imported lists, with no minimum order size.
Its updated skip tracing system uses multiple data providers and prioritizes returned phone numbers to help identify stronger contact matches. Results can include multiple phone numbers and email addresses, DNC and known-litigator flags, and contact information associated with corporate-owned properties.
Pricing
PropStream currently starts at $99 per month for its Essentials plan. Skip tracing on Essentials is $0.12 per contact, while higher-tier plans include skip tracing subject to their respective usage limits. Pricing and included features vary by plan.
Where PropStream fits
PropStream is a strong fit for investors who want extensive property research and list-building capabilities alongside skip tracing. Its biggest advantage is the amount of information and control available before deciding which owners to contact.
Investors who primarily want a simpler path from motivated-seller targeting to contact data may not need that depth, but for detailed property research, PropStream is one of the strongest platforms in this comparison.
Best for: Mobile lead generation + tracing
DealMachine combines property data, list building, skip tracing, driving for dollars, and direct mail in one platform. Its mobile roots remain a major strength, but the product now extends well beyond identifying distressed properties from the road. Investors can search nationwide property data, build targeted lists, research individual properties, and reveal owner contact information within the same system.
Property search and prospecting
DealMachine offers extensive property and owner data with a large filter library for narrowing searches by characteristics such as ownership, equity, property status, and potential distress. It also supports natural-language search, allowing investors to describe the types of properties or owners they want to find without constructing the search entirely through filters.
Driving for Dollars remains one of its clearest differentiators. The mobile app lets investors scout neighborhoods, track routes, identify properties in the field, add them as leads, and access owner information without moving into a separate prospecting tool.
Skip tracing and contact data
DealMachine supports individual and bulk skip tracing. Contact information can be revealed for a single owner or across a larger list, with results potentially including multiple phone numbers and email addresses. Phone records can also include confidence and DNC information.
DealMachine cross-references multiple data providers to help verify contact information. Investors can also upload existing property lists for enrichment rather than relying only on leads generated within DealMachine.
Pricing
DealMachine’s Basic plan currently starts at $99 per seat per month and includes 10,000 monthly data credits. Pro starts at $149 per seat per month with 20,000 credits, while Scale starts at $599 per month with 100,000 credits and support for larger teams. Annual billing is also available.
Revealing contact information uses data credits, with one credit charged per unique person rather than per individual phone number or email returned. Other actions, including some exports, can also consume credits depending on the data included.
Where DealMachine fits
DealMachine is particularly strong for investors who want to move between property search and prospecting in the field. Its combination of extensive property data, list building, Driving for Dollars, contact enrichment, direct mail, and mobile tools covers a large portion of the lead-generation workflow within one platform.
Investors who don’t need that breadth or field-prospecting workflow may find a more focused platform sufficient. But for investors who want property discovery and skip tracing combined with a mature mobile prospecting experience, DealMachine is one of the most complete options in this comparison.
Best for: High-volume enrichment
BatchData is built primarily around data enrichment at scale. Rather than centering the experience on investor prospecting or field workflows, it focuses on taking property records and returning owner contact information through individual searches, bulk uploads, or API integrations.
BatchData is part of the same company behind PropStream, but the two products serve different purposes. PropStream is built around property research, lead generation, and investor workflows, while BatchData is more focused on data enrichment and infrastructure.
Skip tracing and enrichment
BatchData supports both individual and bulk skip tracing. Users can enter a property manually, upload existing lists, or connect directly to BatchData through its API. Results can include phone numbers, email addresses, mailing addresses, carrier information, and other contact metadata.
Contact information is cross-verified using multiple data sources, and BatchData provides confidence information to help prioritize results. Phone data can also include DNC status, with additional compliance tools such as litigator scrubbing available within the service.
Built for volume
Scale is where BatchData stands apart in this comparison. Its infrastructure is designed to process anything from individual records to very large datasets, with API access making it particularly useful for businesses that want skip tracing embedded directly into an existing CRM, application, or data workflow.
That flexibility also means BatchData is less focused on the prospecting experience itself. Investors generally need to know which properties they want to enrich before using the skip tracing workflow, rather than relying on BatchData as the primary tool for building a motivated-seller list.
Pricing
BatchData offers pay-as-you-go skip tracing as well as subscription options for higher-volume users. Pay-as-you-go pricing is based on successful matches, so records that don’t return contact information aren’t charged.
Pricing decreases with volume, while larger subscription and API plans are designed for businesses processing substantially more records each month.
Where BatchData fits
BatchData is a strong choice for investors, teams, and real estate technology companies that already have lead lists and place a premium on volume, flexible data delivery, and integration.
Investors looking for a guided property-discovery or motivated-seller prospecting experience may prefer a platform built around those workflows. But when the primary job is enriching an existing set of records efficiently, BatchData is one of the more scalable options in this comparison.
Best for: Hard-to-find owners
Skip Genie takes a more research-oriented approach to skip tracing. Rather than pairing contact data with a large property-search platform, it is designed to help investors investigate individual owners, relatives, associated people, and addresses when locating the right person requires more than a standard property-to-phone-number match.
That makes it particularly useful for difficult leads such as inherited properties, deceased owners, outdated ownership records, or situations where the person connected to a property is no longer easy to locate.
Individual research and skip tracing
Skip Genie’s individual search tools allow users to search for a person and review available phone numbers, addresses, relatives, and other associated information. The ability to follow connections between people can be valuable when the property owner can’t be reached directly and additional research is needed to determine who may be connected to the property.
This is a different workflow from platforms built primarily around generating large prospect lists. Skip Genie generally makes the most sense once an investor already knows who or what they are trying to investigate.
Bulk skip tracing
Skip Genie also supports bulk skip tracing for larger lists, so it isn’t limited to one-off investigative searches. Users can submit property and owner records for processing rather than researching every lead individually.
Its deeper individual-search tools, however, are what most clearly distinguish it from the broader list-building and enrichment platforms in this comparison.
DNC information
DNC and caller-ID scrubbing are available as an additional service through Skip Genie’s Smart Skip feature. This can add DNC status and other phone information to results when needed rather than being included as part of every standard search.
Pricing
Skip Genie uses a subscription model that includes a set number of searches each month. Additional searches are billed separately, while optional services such as DNC and caller-ID scrubbing use additional credits.
Because the model is based around searches rather than simply charging for each successfully enriched property, its pricing structure is somewhat different from the per-match services in this comparison.
Where Skip Genie fits
Skip Genie is best suited to investors who occasionally need to dig deeper into an owner or the people associated with a property. That can make it particularly valuable for probate, inherited-property, absentee-owner, or other situations where the obvious contact information doesn’t lead to the right person.
Investors primarily trying to generate and enrich large motivated-seller lists may be better served by a platform designed around property discovery or high-volume enrichment. But for more difficult individual searches, Skip Genie’s research-oriented workflow gives it a distinct role in this comparison.
Best for: Focused skip tracing + list building
REISkip started with a more focused skip tracing workflow but has expanded into property list building and lead management. Investors can upload existing property lists for enrichment or use REISkip’s List Builder to identify properties and owners before retrieving contact data.
That puts REISkip somewhere between a standalone skip tracing service and the broader property-data platforms in this comparison.
List building and targeting
REISkip’s List Builder gives investors access to property records and filters that can be combined to create targeted prospect lists. The platform specifically positions the tool around identifying homeowners who may be receptive to investor marketing and also supports searches such as cash-buyer targeting.
The list-building environment isn’t positioned around the same breadth of property research as PropStream or DealMachine, but it gives REISkip users a way to generate leads without needing to bring every list in from another source.
Skip tracing and contact data
REISkip’s core skip tracing workflow is built around enriching property records with owner information. Results can include phone numbers, email addresses, property data, demographic information, and social profiles. The platform uses what it calls Skip Trace Triangulation to prioritize phone numbers within the returned data.
Bulk lists can be uploaded directly for processing, and REISkip also includes basic lead-management functionality for organizing lists, tracking outreach, and moving data into other systems.
Pricing
REISkip currently charges $0.15 per successful match, with a 50-match minimum for its standard bulk tier. Higher-volume and custom options are also available. REISkip states that users are charged only for matched records rather than every record submitted.
Unlike several of the broader platforms in this comparison, a paid monthly software subscription isn’t required to access its standard skip tracing workflow.
Where REISkip fits
REISkip is a good fit for investors who want straightforward pay-per-match skip tracing but would also benefit from property list building and basic lead-management tools.
It doesn’t offer the same breadth of property research or prospecting workflows as the largest platforms here, but it has grown beyond being simply a place to upload an existing CSV and get phone numbers back. For investors who want a focused skip tracing product with some of the surrounding lead-generation workflow built in, REISkip occupies a useful middle ground.
Skip tracing is only one part of the lead-generation process. The right service depends on who you’re trying to reach, how you build your lists, and what you need to do with the data afterward.
The best skip tracing service isn’t necessarily the one with the most data. It’s the one that gives you useful contact information with the least friction for the way you actually find deals.
Updated August 2026
A more actionable list starts before the skip trace.
Wholster Pro connects property discovery, motivated seller targeting, and owner contact data in one workflow. Find properties worth pursuing, narrow your list using signals of potential seller motivation, then retrieve contact data when you’re ready to reach out.
Wholster PRO is coming soon.
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