Skip tracing
Skip tracing cost: what a trace costs per owner, and when a plan costs less
Updated September 2026. The free method first, the paid shortcut second.
Skip tracing costs 10¢ to 20¢ an owner on pay-as-you-go services, read in September 2026: 10¢ a match on Propwire, 14¢ on SkipMatrix, 15¢ on REISkip and SmartSkip, 20¢ on Best Skip Tracer’s free plan. Data tools put tracing in the plan instead: DealMachine’s $99 seat covers 10,000 traces. Below about 750 owners a month, paying per trace is the smaller bill. Above it, the plan is.
- Pay as you go
- 10¢ to 20¢ an owner
- In a plan
- From $99 a month for 10,000 traces
- Misses
- Free where a service bills per match
- Turning point
- About 750 owners a month
What your skip tracing will cost, step by step
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Count the owners you will trace in a month
Every price depends on the volume, so start with the list: how many owners a month, after you drop the ones you already have numbers for. A county list of 500 absentee owners, a weekly probate pull and a driving route all trace very differently.
What you come away with A monthly number to price against.
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Check how a miss is billed
Some services charge only for owners they match: Propwire, SkipMatrix and REISkip, and BatchData per matched record. Others price every row or lead you send: SmartSkip per row, Best Skip Tracer per lead, Skip Genie per search. On a weak list, that difference can outweigh the rate.
What you come away with The price of a miss, which is either nothing or the full rate.
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Compare paying per trace with a plan that includes it
At 100 owners a month, pay-per-trace services cost $10 to $20, against $99 or more for a data tool. At 1,000 owners, DealMachine’s $99 seat, BatchLeads at $119 and PropStream with Connect at $129 are at or below every service. Past 750 owners, all five pay-per-trace services here cost more than DealMachine’s $99 seat.
What you come away with Which kind of bill fits your volume.
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Add the extras and the minimums
Look past the headline rate. SkipMatrix needs 100 records an order and bills duplicates, REISkip needs 50 matches, Skip Genie charges 2¢ a number for its DNC scrub and a search for each relative, and SmartSkip’s free plan charges $1 for a manual search. BatchData’s published plans start at $3,000 a month.
What you come away with The whole month, not just the rate.
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Trace by hand while the list is short
For a handful of owners, the free route still works: the county record for the name, a people-search site for the numbers, within each site’s terms. It costs time instead of cents, which is a fair trade at five owners a week and a poor one at five hundred.
What you come away with Free numbers for the owners you can look up yourself.
What the price does not tell you
A lower rate is not a cheaper trace if it misses more owners, and no service here publishes a hit rate anyone can check. Propwire’s “close to 80%” and DealMachine’s “95%+ Match Rate” are their own claims, and we have not run the same list through each of them.
Speed is part of the price as well. Tools return traces in the account, SkipMatrix delivers the same day when paid in business hours, and Best Skip Tracer takes 24 to 48 hours by its own pricing page.
What a trace costs, service by service
Pay-as-you-go services first, then the data tools that put tracing in the plan. Prices from each pricing page, September 2026.
| Tool | Price per owner | How it is billed | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
 Propwire |
10¢ a match | No subscription. Gold at $119 includes 10,000 traces | Try Propwire free |
 SkipMatrix |
14¢ a match | 12¢ from 10,000 records, down to 6¢ at 100,000. Minimum 100 | See SkipMatrix pricing |
 REISkip |
15¢ a match | Marked introductory. Minimum 50 matches | See REISkip pricing |
 SmartSkip |
15¢ a row | Free account. A manual search is $1 on it | See SmartSkip pricing |
 Best Skip Tracer |
20¢ a lead | 12¢ with a $9 membership, 8¢ with $97 | See Best Skip Tracer pricing |
 Skip Genie |
100 in $58 | Then 17¢ a search | See Skip Genie pricing |
 DealMachine |
In the plan | A data credit a trace, 10,000 in each $99 seat | See DealMachine pricing |
 BatchLeads |
In the plan | Contact data on 10,000 leads a month for $119 | See BatchLeads pricing |
 PropStream |
12¢ a contact | On the $99 plan, or its $30 Connect add-on | See PropStream pricing |
 PropertyRadar |
250 included | On the $119 plan, then 8¢ | See PropertyRadar pricing |
The skip tracing services page runs these prices through a calculator for any volume from 100 to 25,000 owners a month.
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Skip tracing cost: questions people ask
How much does skip tracing cost per record?
10¢ to 20¢ an owner on the pay-as-you-go services we priced in September 2026: Propwire 10¢ a match, SkipMatrix 14¢, REISkip and SmartSkip 15¢, Best Skip Tracer 20¢, or 12¢ with a $9 membership. Skip Genie is $58 a month with 100 searches, then 17¢.
Is skip tracing charged per hit or per record?
It depends on the service. Propwire, SkipMatrix and REISkip charge only for owners they match. SmartSkip prices each row, Best Skip Tracer each lead and Skip Genie each search, and none of them says a miss is free.
Can I skip trace for free?
Yes, owner by owner: the county record gives the name and mailing address, and a free people-search site gives the numbers, within its terms. The free method walks through it.
How long does a skip trace take?
Instantly on Propwire and in DealMachine’s app, by their own pages. SkipMatrix delivers the same day when an order is paid in business hours, and Best Skip Tracer’s pricing page says 24 to 48 hours.
Is it cheaper to buy a data tool than a skip tracing service?
Above about 750 owners a month, yes: every pay-per-trace service here costs more than DealMachine’s $99 seat, which carries 10,000 traces. Below it, paying per trace is the smaller bill.
Why do some services charge a monthly fee?
A subscription buys a lower rate or an allowance. Best Skip Tracer’s $9 membership cuts 20¢ to 12¢, and Skip Genie’s $58 plan includes 100 searches. Whether it pays depends on how many owners you trace.
Does a higher price mean more accurate results?
Not on anything we could check. No service or tool publishes a hit rate that can be verified, and a number found for a fee can still be wrong or disconnected. Trace a few owners you can confirm before you pay for a whole list.
How we put this together
| Line | Source | What we read |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Pricing | The pricing page, calculator or FAQ of every service and tool in the table, read September 2026 |
| 02 | Vendor pages | Each price worked out at 100, 1,000 and 10,000 owners from the published rates |
What we did not do. We have not run a list through these services, so nothing here measures how many owners each one finds. Every price is a list price before tax.