In the world of real estate, getting in touch with potential sellers quickly and effectively can make or break your deals. The biggest frustration? People starting a form on your website but leaving it incomplete. They show intent, but not enough to give you all the information you need to follow up. It’s a classic case of “almost there” – they’re interested, but something stopped them short of filling out the entire form.
That’s where address skip tracing and a skip trace API come into play. With the right tech stack, you can grab that incomplete form submission and still make the connection. If you’ve got a partial address, or even just an IP address, you can turn that into a real conversation with a real seller.
Let me show you how we’ve been solving this exact issue.
The Problem: Incomplete Form Leads
We’ve all been there: you spend money driving traffic to your website—whether through PPC, social media ads, or direct mail. People start filling out your form, they’re obviously motivated, but for some reason, they don’t complete it. That incomplete form represents an opportunity, but without their full contact details, it feels like a dead end.
Our team was facing this issue regularly. We knew we had motivated leads coming through, but they were falling off right before providing the key info we needed to follow up. I decided to tackle this head-on by building a system that uses address skip tracing through a skip trace API to recover that lost contact information.
The Solution: Address Skip Tracing with a Skip Trace API
The solution we came up with is a combination of technology and process. Essentially, we built a system that can take whatever incomplete information the lead provided—whether that’s a partial address or just their IP address—and run it through a skip trace API to recover their full contact details, like phone numbers and email addresses.
Here’s a breakdown of how it works:
1. Collecting the Data: Let’s say a user fills out part of your form. Maybe they only gave you a street address or part of an address—no phone number, no email. In many cases, they’ve also left their IP address behind, which is super useful.
2. Validating the Address: We use that partial address or IP address to validate the location through Google Maps. By leveraging Google’s geolocation services, we can confirm whether the address makes sense or not, filling in any missing gaps like city, state, or zip code.
3. Skip Tracing the Address: Once we’ve validated the address, we pass that information into a skip trace API. This API runs the address through a database and returns key contact details, like the individual’s phone numbers and email addresses. These are typically associated with the property they were submitting.
4. Returning the Data: With the results from the skip trace, we can now create a complete lead record—name, phone number, email, and full address. We then pass this data back into our CRM, allowing our team to reach out and re-engage the lead.
This entire process happens automatically. Instead of losing that lead forever, we now have a reliable way to track them down and see if we can help them with their property.
Why Use a Skip Trace API?
So, why use a skip trace API? For one, it’s fast. The second you get a partial submission, the system kicks in and starts looking for the missing data. There’s no manual effort involved. It’s also extremely accurate, pulling from vast databases to ensure you’re getting the best possible contact information.
And the best part? You can integrate this into your workflow seamlessly. If you’re already using a CRM, it’s just a matter of configuring the API to send the skip trace results into your existing pipeline. You’ll be able to treat these leads just like any other.
How You Can Implement Address Skip Tracing
If you’re tired of seeing incomplete form leads slip through the cracks, here’s how you can get started with address skip tracing using a skip trace API:
1. Use the Right Tools: We built our solution using a combination of Make (formerly Integromat) and a reliable skip trace API. The API we chose allows us to plug in partial data and get back full contact info almost instantly.
2. Set Up Your Webhook: Your form needs to send whatever partial data it has (address fragments, IP address, etc.) through a webhook to the skip trace API. This triggers the process.
3. Validate the Address: If the user only submitted part of their address, use something like Google Maps to validate and fill in the blanks. This helps ensure the skip trace API gets accurate data to work with.
4. Skip Trace and Rebuild the Lead: Once you’ve got a valid address, the skip trace API will return the individual’s phone numbers, emails, and other contact details. Feed this data into your CRM and follow up with the lead.
Final Thoughts
Incomplete form leads don’t have to be a lost cause. With the right tools and approach, you can leverage address skip tracing through a skip trace API to recover valuable contact information and turn those partial submissions into closed deals. In a competitive real estate market, this kind of solution is a game-changer—it ensures you’re not leaving any opportunities on the table.
If this sounds like something you could use in your business, I’d love to hear how you plan to implement it. And if you’ve got any questions about how we set this up, feel free to reach out. Let’s turn those almost-there leads into done deals.
Let me know if this is helpful, or if you need more insight into setting up address skip tracing in your workflow!
