Skip tracing

A search, priced per person

Skip tracing is a search for information on one individual. Basic skip tracing is $50. Comprehensive skip tracing is $200. The price is per individual, so two people are two fees. It is not an attempt at a door, and it does not include the four visits that come with a process serve.

The search uses credit, application, and utility history. We are licensed and bonded, and the office is in San Diego County. We run the search you order. We do not tell you that the address we return is valid for service. Whether you may serve there is a separate question, and it is not one we answer.

Basic and comprehensive

A basic search looks for addresses, phones, emails, and relatives. That is the $50 product. Order it when you need a short list and you already know the person’s name and some identifying detail. A name alone, with nothing else, is a thin start. Put any date of birth, last known city, or prior address in the order.

A comprehensive search is $200 and goes further: addresses, phones, emails, relatives, employment, vehicles, licenses, criminal history, property, judgments, and business affiliations, as the records return them. It is still one person, one fee. It is not a surveillance job. Sitting outside an address is a stakeout, billed by the hour on top of a serve.

Refunds, old addresses, and no promise

If the search returns no results, you are refunded in full. That is the rule. Keep the distinction tight: no results means the search comes back empty. It does not mean you disliked the addresses, and it does not mean the person was not home when a server went out later.

There is no refund if the search returns addresses that are out of date. There is no guarantee a current residence exists in the data. An old apartment can be a real record and still be the wrong door today. We do not refund that outcome, and we do not re-run the search for free because the first list was stale.

A trace is not a serve

After a trace, a serve is a new order. Standard service is $150, next day is $175, and same day is $195, each with four attempts at the address you then choose. We do not automatically drive to every address a trace returns. You pick the address. We attempt that one.

If four attempts fail, a declaration of due diligence records the trips. The trace does not replace that declaration, and the declaration does not replace a trace. Read the guide that compares the two before you buy both on the same afternoon. Extra-rural addresses still need a call before a serve is ordered, even when a trace names the town.

What to send, and what we will not do

Send the full name and any middle name or suffix. Add a date of birth, a last known address, a phone, or an employer if you have them. The office is open Mon–Fri, 7am–5pm PST. Orders placed after closing are processed the next business day. A trace is not a same-hour product, and it is not email service.

Service attempts are also made outside of these office hours.

We do not serve someone in custody from this page. Incarceration service is not on the order form. We also do not stake out a house as part of a $50 search. If you want both a trace and a later serve, order them as the two jobs they are. Call if you are about to trace several people and you want the per-person math confirmed.