How To Find The Owner Of A Commercial Property

Unlock your next commercial real estate investment by successfully tracking down property owners and LLC Principal.

Ever spot a commercial property worth your investment dollars but unsure how to find and connect with its owner?

We know this process can be tricky with the added layers of complexity that tenants, LLCs, and potential vacancies can add.

Don't worry – we’re here to help.

In this quick guide, we'll cover:

• How To Find LLC Owners

• How To Find Commercial Real Estate Owners

How To Find LLC Owners

Turns out, LLCs may not be as hard to find as you once thought.

And whether you’re a commercial realtor, real estate investor, or even a small business owner, you may encounter a situation in which you want to connect with LLCs that own one or more commercial properties in your community. 

But you can’t necessarily cold email or drop off a piece of direct mail addressed to a large organization and expect that effort to pay off. Your marketing dollars would be immediately wasted.

The real estate industry is all about making connections and personalizing your approach, after all.

So, what do you do? You find the owner of the LLC. And we’re here to tell you how.

How To Find the Principal Owner of an LLC

1. Use PropertyRadar.
2. Use the Secretary of State Website.
3. Use Corporationwiki.
4. Use OpenCorporates.
5. Use local public records.

Use PropertyRadar.

Follow our step-by-step below to uncover the owner of an LLC with the power of public records data.

1. Search your property within PropertyRadar. Lookup > Mail Address.
2. Find the loan document. Property Info > Property Profile > Transactions > Loan Document.

Click on Doc Detail to download the loan document for a few dollars. This document should have the individual’s name you’re looking for.

From there? Switch over to PropertyRadar’s Lookup > Owner Name function to find contact information and additional details to help personalize your marketing outreach.

PropertyRadar should be your one-stop shop.

With over 150 million properties, 250 million mortgages, and over 250 million people – the individual owners should be captured within our database.

However, if, by chance, the loan document does not feature a full name, take the LLC information you’ve gathered so far and leverage the resources below.

Use the Secretary of State Website.

Looking for the Secretary of State website for your location? Our PropertyRadar resource has them all linked conveniently for you. (Bookmark this link for future use!)

1. Find your State of interest. (Websites vary slightly per State, so don’t be alarmed if you notice minor differences as you navigate ahead. Let’s use California as our example here.)
2. Look up the LLC. Business Search Field > Search > Entity Name.
   

3. Open the entity document. Once you’ve found and clicked on the Entity Name, open the PDF, which will show you the State of Information document. The individual’s name should be captured.

Got your name? You know what to do. Head back to PropertyRadar and navigate to Lookup > Owner Name to retrieve that valuable contact information. 

Use Corporationwiki.

Use CorporationWiki.com just like your own personal LLC Google.

Plug in the LLC information you got from PropertyRadar and go.

Use OpenCorporates.

Another resource worth your attention? That’s OpenCorporates.com.

Use local public records.

Of course, there are local public records, which can be found at city hall or the county clerk's office. There, you’ll be able to access mortgage information and loan documentation for residences in your community that you may have an interest in.

The bad news? This isn’t the quickest or most convenient way to go about things.

We suggest starting with PropertyRadar and dipping into alternate digital resources (listed above in order), if you really get stuck. 

How To Find Commercial Real Estate Owners

Don’t let the above intimidate you. Not all commercial properties are owned by LLCs.

Without the extra legwork to pierce the corporate veil and find the face behind the corporation, finding traditional owners is a walk in the park…if you leverage the right tools.

Use Data-Driven Lead Generation Platforms Like PropertyRadar 

If you’re looking for the owner behind an address, all you have to do is tackle a few easy steps within the cutting-edge real estate data platform PropertyRadar.

1. Search your property within PropertyRadar. Lookup > Mail Address.
2. Find the property owner. Property Info. (While you don’t even need to take the additional step into the Property Profile to find who you’re looking for, we do recommend it to view expansive details like extended transaction history, neighborhood comparables, and more.)

Why PropertyRadar? 

The better question: Why not?

In a quickly changing market, you need reliable, up-to-date data that excels where others cannot.

PropertyRadar is multi-sourced, back-tested, backfilled and boasts machine learning, natural language processing, modern data models, data visualization, criteria-based targeting, and more.

Not sure what that means for you and your business? Check out the 10 Reasons Why PropertyRadar Needs To Be Your Next Real Estate Lead Generation Tool. 

We are the pro tool for data-driven real estate professionals, effortlessly pairing the power of public record data with an easy-to-use customer-first interface. We provide strategy and insights to help you succeed, providing incomparable advantages and best-in-class service.

Eager to get started? Skip the below and take advantage of your free trial right now.

County Tax Assessors

Another option for finding commercial property owners is tracing the taxes. Money leaves a trail and that trail may just be your unlock to finding the individual you need.

If the property owner is paying taxes, the county tax assessor will have the individual on record. 

Your next step? Use Google. Type in ‘county assessor’ + your county (or the county that houses the property you’re interested in). Want to get more specific? Try adding ‘property owner’ to see if your results skip forward a few pages in the process.

County Clerk

The County Clerk (or County Recorder) is the ultimate destination for documents surrounding properties and the people associated with said properties. Think mortgages, bills of sale, tax liens, etc. 

While you can trek on down to your local branch onsite, you can also navigate this source online. However, be warned that there is a tremendous lack of consistency and ease of use across county clerk sites.

For us? The process is usually painful and very, very slow.

Local Title Companies

If you’re in the real estate business, it’s more than likely you have a title rep (or two) you can depend on. You can request a generalized FARM list (which stands for Focused Real Estate Marketing).

You’ll get high level info, such as contact details, transaction history, community info, and the like. While this doesn’t get as detailed as data-driven platforms like PropertyRadar can, it may provide you a free path to what you need.

However, this list is static and won’t update with new information and related properties. And the more outdated lists you begin to acquire, the more confusion and room for error builds up. 

We don’t recommend it.

PropertyRadar offers you the seamless capability to build your own customized lead lists of properties and criteria that matter most to you. Better yet? You can turn on our monitoring feature so your list updates with fresh matches become available.

Want more ways to find the contact information you need? Read our extended analysis and full guidance on finding and contacting property owners.

Looking for more information on everything and anything commercial real estate?

Check out Commercial Real Estate 101 – your ultimate guide to understanding and investing in this profitable real estate sector.

Ready to leverage the power of public records?

Dive into commercial real estate with a free PropertyRadar trial and tap into over 150 million properties nationwide.