A match append is one automated step. A provider matches your owner or property record against its own data and attaches the phone numbers and emails it finds. Skip tracing is the wider effort to locate and reach someone who is hard to find. It can begin with an append and continue into address research, returned mail and manual searching when the appended contacts fail.
\nThe name on a product won't tell you which of the two you're buying. Vendors sell overlapping products under both labels, and PropertyRadar's guide to skip tracing calls its own built-in phone and email lookup a match-append. Compare products by what goes in, what comes back and what you're charged.
\n","summary":"A match append is one automated step: a provider matches your owner or property record against its data and attaches the phones and emails it finds. Skip tracing is the wider effort to locate and reach a hard-to-find person, which can start with an append and continue into address research, returned mail and manual searching. Vendors use both labels for overlapping products, so compare them by input, output and charge.","publishedAt":"2026-09-22T13:40:00","verifiedAt":"2026-10-09T21:34:35.607","editorialStatus":"APPROVED","lastReviewedAt":"2026-10-10T01:20:19.274","nextReviewDueAt":"2027-01-09T21:34:35.607","templateVersion":"v2","aliases":["Is match append the same thing as skip tracing?","Skip tracing vs contact append: which costs less?","What does a skip trace cost per record?","How much does PropertyRadar charge for phone numbers and emails?","Do skip tracing providers charge for misses?","What is a hit rate in skip tracing?","What is a match rate in skip tracing?","Do I need the owner's name to run a skip trace?","How much does PropStream skip tracing cost?","What does Tracerfy charge per skip trace?","How do I calculate cost per returned contact on a skip traced list?","Should I append contacts before skip tracing a list?"],"confidenceScore":80,"confidenceLabel":"Medium","canonicalUrl":null},"contributor":{"id":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","slug":"answer-stack","displayName":"AnswerStack","websiteUrl":null},"contributorOrganizationProfile":{"entityId":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","legalName":null,"description":null,"websiteUrl":null,"imageUrl":null,"slogan":null,"subtitle":null,"facts":[],"coiNote":null,"foundingDate":null,"numberOfEmployeesText":null,"contactPoint":null,"address":null,"headquartersText":null,"organizationType":null},"contributorPerson":null,"sections":[{"id":"9f88e998-e974-46d5-adb3-3a9530d2f056","sectionKey":"why_the_label_tells_you_little","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"Why the label tells you little","introMarkdown":"PropertyRadar calls its phone and email purchase a match-append, and the same guide describes it as basic skip tracing. [Tracerfy](https://www.tracerfy.com/pricing) sells a lookup that takes an owner name and a property address and returns phones and emails for 2 cents a hit. It calls that product a Normal Skip Trace, though the product does the job of an append.\n\nOther products start from less. [REISkip](https://www.reiskip.com/faq) and [BatchData](https://batchdata.io/blog/skip-tracing-for-real-estate-the-definitive-guide-to-contacting-hard-to-reach-property-owners) both take a property address without an owner's name, and both call the result skip tracing. REISkip's FAQ says the person it returns could be the owner or a tenant.\n\nThe input separates these products more usefully than the label does. A product that needs the owner's name attaches contacts to an owner you've already identified. A product that takes an address alone has to identify someone linked to that address first. You then have to confirm that person is the owner before you rely on the contact data. [How to test a skip tracing provider's accuracy](https://www.answerstack.io/q/how-to-test-skip-tracing-provider-accuracy) gives a method for checking any of them against your own records.","introHtml":"PropertyRadar calls its phone and email purchase a match-append, and the same guide describes it as basic skip tracing. Tracerfy sells a lookup that takes an owner name and a property address and returns phones and emails for 2 cents a hit. It calls that product a Normal Skip Trace, though the product does the job of an append.
\nOther products start from less. REISkip and BatchData both take a property address without an owner's name, and both call the result skip tracing. REISkip's FAQ says the person it returns could be the owner or a tenant.
\nThe input separates these products more usefully than the label does. A product that needs the owner's name attaches contacts to an owner you've already identified. A product that takes an address alone has to identify someone linked to that address first. You then have to confirm that person is the owner before you rely on the contact data. How to test a skip tracing provider's accuracy gives a method for checking any of them against your own records.
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":10},{"id":"e4181b56-d416-4768-91e2-441929c801d9","sectionKey":"what_four_vendors_sell_by_input_and_price","sectionType":"table_section","heading":"What four vendors sell, by input and price","introMarkdown":null,"introHtml":null,"outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{"rows":[{"cells":["PropertyRadar phone and email purchase","An owner contact on a property record in your list","The phones or emails available for that contact","Monthly allowance by plan, then $0.08 per additional contact on Solo, $0.06 on Team, $0.04 on Business"]},{"cells":["Tracerfy Normal Skip Trace","Owner name and property address","Phones and emails","$0.02 per hit, no charge for a miss"]},{"cells":["Tracerfy Advanced Skip Trace","Property address only","The owner identified, phones, emails and a current mailing address","$0.04 per hit, no charge for a miss"]},{"cells":["REISkip skip trace","Street, city and state, with owner name optional","Contact data for a person matched to the address","$0.15 per match"]},{"cells":["BatchData skip tracing","Property address, or parcel number with county and state","Phones, emails, mailing details, a phone confidence score, and do-not-call and litigator flags","$0.07 per match cited for high volume"]}],"columns":["Vendor and product","Input","Returned","Published charge"]},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":20},{"id":"37d968eb-ac02-4538-9bc5-f83bc562421e","sectionKey":"one_owner_record_taken_through_an_append_and_then_a_trace","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"One owner record, taken through an append and then a trace","introMarkdown":"Suppose your list holds an absentee-owned house. The record has the owner's name, the site address, a mailing address in another city, and the county and parcel number. Those are the fields worth [collecting before a skip trace](https://www.answerstack.io/q/what-to-collect-before-skip-tracing-property-owner). The record has no phone and no email.\n\nStart with the append. On a plan you already pay for, it comes out of the monthly allowance or costs a few cents per additional contact, and it takes one purchase. In PropertyRadar, a record from a list you built there is already matched. A record you bring in from elsewhere is matched on import. The [import instructions](https://help.propertyradar.com/en/articles/6157304-importing-a-new-list) rank county plus parcel number as the highest-confidence match, followed by a full address. Anything under your match threshold waits for manual review.\n\nBuying the phone from the Contacts tab or the Actions menu ends one of three ways. If contact data is on file, you get the numbers available for that contact, each with a status icon. The contact comes out of your allowance or is charged at your plan's rate. If nothing is on file, PropertyRadar's [help article](https://help.propertyradar.com/en/articles/5881885-unlocking-email-addresses-and-phone-numbers) says no purchase icon or link appears, and you pay nothing.\n\nThe third outcome takes longer to show. You buy the numbers, run them through your [do-not-call and suppression screen](https://www.answerstack.io/q/screen-property-owner-call-list-do-not-call-suppression), call the ones that clear, and end up marking them Disconnected or Wrong Person. That purchase was charged, and purchases are non-refundable.\n\nThe manual follow-up starts when the append returned nothing, or when the numbers it returned have been marked Disconnected or Wrong Person after your attempts. [Why skip tracing returns wrong or disconnected numbers](https://www.answerstack.io/q/why-skip-tracing-returns-wrong-or-disconnected-numbers) covers that second case. Mail that comes back from the tax-record address is another reason to keep going.\n\nFrom here the work costs a person's time, so decide first whether the record deserves it. Check it against the criteria you used to [prioritize the list](https://www.answerstack.io/q/prioritize-off-market-property-list-before-outreach), and set a stopping point for each owner before the research starts.\n\nPropertyRadar's guide lays out the follow-up in order, and it begins by asking whether the owner is a person or a company. For an LLC or a trust, [finding the decision-maker](https://www.answerstack.io/q/find-decision-maker-llc-or-trust-owned-property) comes first. Some products return the individuals behind an entity, BatchData's among them.\n\nFor the absentee owner in this example, the first move is to mail the address on the tax record, which you already have. If the piece comes back, read it. Returned mail can carry forwarding information, depending on the mail service used. Next, look at the other addresses associated with the owner and treat each one as a lead to verify. A rental the owner holds may be occupied by a tenant, so it isn't a dependable route to the owner.\n\nAfter that, run the property address through a product that takes an address alone, such as Tracerfy's Advanced Skip Trace or REISkip. The result is a lead on a person, and it needs confirming. The guide's remaining steps are a search of the owner's name online and on social media, a conversation with neighbors, and a look for relatives through genealogy sites. A background check or a private investigator comes last, for a property that justifies the cost.\n\nThe append returns data or nothing in one purchase, while most of the later steps need a person to judge what a result means. PropertyRadar's guide draws its own line in the same place, between a basic phone and email lookup and advanced skip tracing. Record where each owner's trace stopped so nobody repeats the work. When the trace runs out, [the options for an owner with no valid phone or email](https://www.answerstack.io/q/property-owner-no-valid-phone-or-email-next-steps) cover what's left.","introHtml":"Suppose your list holds an absentee-owned house. The record has the owner's name, the site address, a mailing address in another city, and the county and parcel number. Those are the fields worth collecting before a skip trace. The record has no phone and no email.
\nStart with the append. On a plan you already pay for, it comes out of the monthly allowance or costs a few cents per additional contact, and it takes one purchase. In PropertyRadar, a record from a list you built there is already matched. A record you bring in from elsewhere is matched on import. The import instructions rank county plus parcel number as the highest-confidence match, followed by a full address. Anything under your match threshold waits for manual review.
\nBuying the phone from the Contacts tab or the Actions menu ends one of three ways. If contact data is on file, you get the numbers available for that contact, each with a status icon. The contact comes out of your allowance or is charged at your plan's rate. If nothing is on file, PropertyRadar's help article says no purchase icon or link appears, and you pay nothing.
\nThe third outcome takes longer to show. You buy the numbers, run them through your do-not-call and suppression screen, call the ones that clear, and end up marking them Disconnected or Wrong Person. That purchase was charged, and purchases are non-refundable.
\nThe manual follow-up starts when the append returned nothing, or when the numbers it returned have been marked Disconnected or Wrong Person after your attempts. Why skip tracing returns wrong or disconnected numbers covers that second case. Mail that comes back from the tax-record address is another reason to keep going.
\nFrom here the work costs a person's time, so decide first whether the record deserves it. Check it against the criteria you used to prioritize the list, and set a stopping point for each owner before the research starts.
\nPropertyRadar's guide lays out the follow-up in order, and it begins by asking whether the owner is a person or a company. For an LLC or a trust, finding the decision-maker comes first. Some products return the individuals behind an entity, BatchData's among them.
\nFor the absentee owner in this example, the first move is to mail the address on the tax record, which you already have. If the piece comes back, read it. Returned mail can carry forwarding information, depending on the mail service used. Next, look at the other addresses associated with the owner and treat each one as a lead to verify. A rental the owner holds may be occupied by a tenant, so it isn't a dependable route to the owner.
\nAfter that, run the property address through a product that takes an address alone, such as Tracerfy's Advanced Skip Trace or REISkip. The result is a lead on a person, and it needs confirming. The guide's remaining steps are a search of the owner's name online and on social media, a conversation with neighbors, and a look for relatives through genealogy sites. A background check or a private investigator comes last, for a property that justifies the cost.
\nThe append returns data or nothing in one purchase, while most of the later steps need a person to judge what a result means. PropertyRadar's guide draws its own line in the same place, between a basic phone and email lookup and advanced skip tracing. Record where each owner's trace stopped so nobody repeats the work. When the trace runs out, the options for an owner with no valid phone or email cover what's left.
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":30},{"id":"44244cf2-f2c1-4f3b-a573-42664785bb23","sectionKey":"what_you_receive_and_pay_for_an_append_in_propertyradar","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"What you receive and pay for an append in PropertyRadar","introMarkdown":"Suppose an investor on the Solo plan builds a list of 400 absentee owners in one county. Solo's monthly allowance is 250 phones plus 250 emails, and each additional contact costs 8 cents. From the Actions menu the investor chooses Purchase Phones, then Primary Contact. That buys for one contact per property, where All contacts would buy for every contact on it.\n\nAssume 300 of the 400 primary contacts have a phone on file, each one counts as a single billable contact, and none of the month's allowance has been used. The 100 with nothing on file aren't charged. Of the 300, the first 250 come out of the allowance and the other 50 cost $4.00 on top of the Solo subscription of $119 a month. If all 400 had a phone on file, the overage would be 150 contacts, or $12.00 on top of the subscription.\n\nThe purchase screen shows the count and the cost before you accept. Unused allowance doesn't roll into the next month, and data you've already bought isn't charged again.\n\nEach purchased number carries a status icon in the [owner profile](https://help.propertyradar.com/en/articles/5730803-using-the-property-and-owner-profile): a green check for Active, and a yellow triangle for Opted Out, Wrong Person, Disconnected or Do Not Call. The Do Not Call status appears only if your account has accessed DNC data, so the screen still comes before dialing.\n\nThe 100 owners with nothing on file become the trace list. Both address-only products charge only for the owners they find. At the listed unit rates, 100 successful hits would cost $4.00 at Tracerfy's Advanced rate and $15.00 at REISkip's, before any minimum order or tax.","introHtml":"Suppose an investor on the Solo plan builds a list of 400 absentee owners in one county. Solo's monthly allowance is 250 phones plus 250 emails, and each additional contact costs 8 cents. From the Actions menu the investor chooses Purchase Phones, then Primary Contact. That buys for one contact per property, where All contacts would buy for every contact on it.
\nAssume 300 of the 400 primary contacts have a phone on file, each one counts as a single billable contact, and none of the month's allowance has been used. The 100 with nothing on file aren't charged. Of the 300, the first 250 come out of the allowance and the other 50 cost $4.00 on top of the Solo subscription of $119 a month. If all 400 had a phone on file, the overage would be 150 contacts, or $12.00 on top of the subscription.
\nThe purchase screen shows the count and the cost before you accept. Unused allowance doesn't roll into the next month, and data you've already bought isn't charged again.
\nEach purchased number carries a status icon in the owner profile: a green check for Active, and a yellow triangle for Opted Out, Wrong Person, Disconnected or Do Not Call. The Do Not Call status appears only if your account has accessed DNC data, so the screen still comes before dialing.
\nThe 100 owners with nothing on file become the trace list. Both address-only products charge only for the owners they find. At the listed unit rates, 100 successful hits would cost $4.00 at Tracerfy's Advanced rate and $15.00 at REISkip's, before any minimum order or tax.
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":40}],"citations":[],"revisions":[{"revisedAt":"2026-08-03T13:40:00+00:00","versionLabel":"Originally published","note":"","reviewedBy":null}],"relatedAnswers":[{"id":"00bc94ac-c44b-4508-acb9-c23fc8c90d64","slug":"how-to-test-skip-tracing-provider-accuracy","question":"How can I test a skip-tracing provider's accuracy before buying a large list?","publishedAt":"2026-09-19T13:15:00","confidenceScore":78,"confidenceLabel":"Medium","industry":{"id":"2ca8d285-89d2-418e-86a8-5f0d3639f767","slug":"real-estate-technology","label":"Real Estate Technology","description":"Property intelligence, investment, and proptech"},"topic":{"slug":"skip-tracing-owner-contact","label":"Skip Tracing & Owner Contact","description":"Locating and validating property-owner phone numbers and email addresses, testing skip-tracing providers, and handling records with no usable contact data.","schemaKind":null},"contributor":{"id":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","slug":"answer-stack","displayName":"AnswerStack","websiteUrl":null},"snippet":"Send one frozen sample of owner records to each provider in the same week, call the returned numbers under one written protocol, and count each owner as reached once. Compare providers on the share of owners reached and the cost per owner reached, because a high match rate can still be full of numbers that belong to someone else.","url":"/q/how-to-test-skip-tracing-provider-accuracy"},{"id":"8bcaef42-649a-4177-92d1-6e83c79fd818","slug":"why-skip-tracing-returns-wrong-or-disconnected-numbers","question":"Why does skip tracing return multiple, wrong, or disconnected phone numbers for one property owner?","publishedAt":"2026-08-29T16:40:00","confidenceScore":76,"confidenceLabel":"Medium","industry":{"id":"2ca8d285-89d2-418e-86a8-5f0d3639f767","slug":"real-estate-technology","label":"Real Estate Technology","description":"Property intelligence, investment, and proptech"},"topic":{"slug":"skip-tracing-owner-contact","label":"Skip Tracing & Owner Contact","description":"Locating and validating property-owner phone numbers and email addresses, testing skip-tracing providers, and handling records with no usable contact data.","schemaKind":null},"contributor":{"id":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","slug":"answer-stack","displayName":"AnswerStack","websiteUrl":null},"snippet":"A skip trace typically matches the owner's name and address against contact data and returns the numbers on file for the match. Several come back because several are on file. A number can be wrong because of the identity match, a second contact on the record or a reassigned line, and a disconnected number means the line is out of service now. The pattern across all the numbers on a record shows which explanation to test first.","url":"/q/why-skip-tracing-returns-wrong-or-disconnected-numbers"},{"id":"84f7e21a-08b2-4667-a197-1c5753f8d0cb","slug":"what-to-collect-before-skip-tracing-property-owner","question":"What should you collect before skip tracing a property owner?","publishedAt":"2026-05-27T14:05:00","confidenceScore":82,"confidenceLabel":"High","industry":{"id":"2ca8d285-89d2-418e-86a8-5f0d3639f767","slug":"real-estate-technology","label":"Real Estate Technology","description":"Property intelligence, investment, and proptech"},"topic":{"slug":"skip-tracing-owner-contact","label":"Skip Tracing & Owner Contact","description":"Locating and validating property-owner phone numbers and email addresses, testing skip-tracing providers, and handling records with no usable contact data.","schemaKind":null},"contributor":{"id":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","slug":"answer-stack","displayName":"AnswerStack","websiteUrl":null},"snippet":"Before skip tracing, collect the state, county and APN, the site address with city or ZIP code, the owner name as the county records it, the owner's mailing address and the ownership type for each property. The parcel fields drive the property match, and the name and mailing address are what you check a returned contact against.","url":"/q/what-to-collect-before-skip-tracing-property-owner"}],"contributorStats":{"verifiedAnswers":149,"openDisputes":0},"schemaJson":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Question","name":"What is the difference between skip tracing and contact-data match append?","text":"What is the difference between skip tracing and contact-data match append?","url":"https://www.answerstack.io/q/skip-tracing-vs-contact-data-match-append","answerCount":1,"datePublished":"2026-09-22T13:40:00","author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"AnswerStack","url":"https://www.answerstack.io/contributors/answer-stack"},"about":[{"@type":"Thing","name":"Skip Tracing & Owner Contact"},{"@type":"Thing","name":"Real Estate Technology"}],"acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"A match append is one automated step. A provider matches your owner or property record against its own data and attaches the phone numbers and emails it finds. Skip tracing is the wider effort to locate and reach someone who is hard to find. It can begin with an append and continue into address research, returned mail and manual searching when the appended contacts fail. The name on a product won't tell you which of the two you're buying. Vendors sell overlapping products under both labels, and PropertyRadar's guide to skip tracing calls its own built-in phone and email lookup a match-append. Compare products by what goes in, what comes back and what you're charged.","url":"https://www.answerstack.io/q/skip-tracing-vs-contact-data-match-append","upvoteCount":0,"datePublished":"2026-09-22T13:40:00","dateModified":"2026-10-09T21:34:35.607","author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"AnswerStack","url":"https://www.answerstack.io/contributors/answer-stack"},"citation":[]}}}