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Dr. Hess
Dr. Hess SuperDork
6/9/08 12:51 p.m.

Well, I need to find the previous previous owner of my Europa for a bill of sale. I have been hitting the various white page sites, and they all say "We have no record whatsoever of who you're looking for, but here's a place that promises that for only $x to have all your infomation" and that $X is anywhere from $2 to $50. Fortunately, the name is about as oddball as mine (Dutch also, go figger), so there's not a million of them out there. I once saw someone here post a site that had really good results and was free. Does anyone have a link yet? I thought I had bookmarked, but I seemed to have been on a different computer. Or does anyone have a subscription to these services that could run a check for me?

GameboyRMH
GameboyRMH Dork
6/9/08 1:02 p.m.

The places that ask for money are usually useless, so I wouldn't worry about missing out on anything by not using them.

My first good hit was this place.

http://www.numberway.com/

You could email me the information you have on this person and I could try and find it for you...I'm a veteran at tricking search engines into giving me what I want

914Driver
914Driver HalfDork
6/9/08 1:04 p.m.

http://www.anywho.com/

May not get what you need, but it's free.

Dr. Hess
Dr. Hess SuperDork
6/9/08 1:23 p.m.

PM Sent, GameboyRMH. That numberway.com redirected me to whitepages.com. Been there. Also already hit anywho. No good.

grtechguy
grtechguy Dork
6/9/08 7:14 p.m.

switchboard.com?

grtechguy
grtechguy Dork
6/9/08 7:15 p.m.

also, google full name and city, state of seller.

ie Joe Smoe, somewhere, NV

jezeus
jezeus Reader
6/9/08 7:20 p.m.

I think the googling is a good idea. remember lots of people have dropped land lines all together so there is no listing of their numbers.

Dr. Hess
Dr. Hess SuperDork
6/9/08 8:04 p.m.

Tried googling. Tried switchboard.com. So far, the closest I've got is the widdow of the father's cousin.

drc
drc New Reader
6/10/08 1:32 a.m.

publicdata.com ?

jrw1621
jrw1621 New Reader
6/10/08 5:18 a.m.

www.411.com ?

Dr. Hess
Dr. Hess SuperDork
6/10/08 9:57 a.m.

Still no luck. I've checked all my machines and I can't find a bookmark for that free in-depth search page from some time back. Oh well.

toyokogyo12aturbo
toyokogyo12aturbo New Reader
6/10/08 10:15 a.m.

Sometimes if you know the area he lives in you can search the local GIS system for property owners (if he owns land). Sometimes, these will have the phone number or the address of the owner. You can find alot of info on GIS systems. If that doesn't work, you maybe able to find a relative and call them.

drc
drc New Reader
6/10/08 10:17 a.m.

pulling the title information and mailing him won't work?

beaulieu
beaulieu New Reader
6/10/08 10:21 a.m.

is there a way to get the property owners info for free ?

it always seems to be $20-$50 for what I think is public information....

Jerry From LA
Jerry From LA Reader
6/10/08 10:26 a.m.

Why just settle for a phone number? With http://www.zabasearch.com/ you can stalk him as well. You'd be surprised how many famous people have addresses and phone numbers listed by this site. Promise you won't talk politics with the guy though.

Dr. Hess
Dr. Hess SuperDork
6/10/08 11:19 a.m.

The details are: Dis guy sells a Europa to dis other guy, sometime about 20+ years ago. Other guy doesn't ever register it, for whatever reason probably related to the natural state Europas are found in or soon deteriorate to. Other guy sells Europa to me with original title from Dis guy. State of Arkansas sez: You need a Bill of Sale from Dis guy to Other guy and then we'll give you a title. Otherwise, I have to sue the state of Arkansas again and that costs about $175 to file now, I think, plus is a PITA.

Thanks, Jerry, I think it was Zabasearch. Still nothing.

toyokogyo12aturbo
toyokogyo12aturbo New Reader
6/10/08 11:27 a.m.
beaulieu wrote: is there a way to get the property owners info for free ? it always seems to be $20-$50 for what I think is public information....

I've never seen a GIS system that wasn't free. If you physically go to the courthouse, the information should be public and free, if you do the research yourself. The money comes from having them do the work and copies 'n such.

Jerry From LA
Jerry From LA Reader
6/10/08 11:30 a.m.

Maybe dis guy is dead. Maybe dis other guy killed dis guy for whatever reason probably related to the natural state Europas are found in or soon deteriorate to.

Gearhead_42
Gearhead_42 HalfDork
6/10/08 11:41 a.m.

Same shiznit happened to me. Luckily the car in question was only a 4 cylinder Fiero, so after 2 years I just scrapped the pig for a loss at one of the shadier local u-pull-its.

I am useless beyond moral support, sorry.

Dr. Hess
Dr. Hess SuperDork
6/10/08 12:04 p.m.

The thought of Dis Guy possibly have passed on in the past 25+ years did cross my mind, and I asked the AR title people about this. The reply was: Get a copy of the death certificate.

I've done public information searches myself at the courthouse. The county lets you poke around at their office free, but if you want to do it from the convience of teh intranet, yo, then you gotta pay. These information services that charge subscribe to all the county offices then resell it to you. The shiney happy person thieves subscribe to these services and when someone goes into their office wanting to sue someone else, the first thing they do is look up the victim, err, defendant and see if he has anything they can take. Nothing to take, sorry, you don't have a case.

CoryB
CoryB New Reader
6/11/08 8:52 a.m.

I once boug...um had a friend who bought a vehicle in a similar situation - signed title from previous owner but not registered to the guy ...he, bought it from.

What I... um he, did was to scan the original owners signature from the title, manipulate it a bit and print it in a VERY light grey on a bill of sale that was created in MS Word. I... um he then went over the light grey print with a fine tip marker to make it look like an original signature.

Luckily the DMV in Virginia doesn't keep the bill of sale - you just need to show it to get the title changed over.

Now I'm not suggesting that um... my friend did anything illegal. The vehicle legitimately owned by the person from whom ...he purchased it but that person had never bothered to register it because he didn't want to pay property tax on it.

AngryCorvair
AngryCorvair HalfDork
6/11/08 5:15 p.m.
Dr. Hess wrote: State of Arkansas sez: You need a Bill of Sale from Dis guy to Other guy and then we'll give you a title. Otherwise, I have to sue the state of Arkansas again and that costs about $175 to file now, I think, plus is a PITA.

Wow, Arkansas is pretty uptight. Here in MI, if you've got a signed title, you can get it titled into your name no sweat. The guy in the middle who bought the car and then sold it to you without ever having titled it and paid property tax on it is guilty of "bouncing" the title and that's some kind of crime but IDK the penalties for it. Doesn't really matter. MI doesn't require bill of sale.

Got any friends in MI or other no-bill-of-sale-required states?

Dr. Hess
Dr. Hess SuperDork
6/11/08 5:54 p.m.

Well, the state has the title in their hands now. I'd just as soon do it proper. I've sued the state of Arkansas before for a title on the Locost. That's just how you do it here.

I've talked with one sister now. It seems he has had some personal issues since selling the Lotus (Lesson: Never sell your Lotus). I get the impression that he is a street person somewhere in the midwest. I have one more sister to track down.

AngryCorvair
AngryCorvair HalfDork
6/11/08 6:04 p.m.
Dr. Hess wrote: Well, the state has the title in their hands now. I'd just as soon do it proper. I've sued the state of Arkansas before for a title on the Locost. That's just how you do it here.

wow, never heard of that before. in MI currently and in MD from mid'70s to 1993, it went like this:

walk into DMV / secretary of state with signed title. fill out form. give title and form to person behind counter. stand around for a while, get temporary title along with permanent plate and annual sticker. these processes never required leaving without some certificate of ownership.

BOS is only used in MI to "prove" that the purchase price was less than book value, for purpose of reducing ownership transfer tax paid.

hell, here in MI you don't even need a title, as long as the current-condition value of the vehicle is less than, iirc, $2500. i bought a corvair from CO, got a bill of sale but no title. called SOS office, found out what form to fill out and that i had to have an officer of the law verify the VIN on the vehicle, which i think they run to see if it's stolen. if it comes back clean, take the form signed by the cop to the SOS office and get title. a clean, unbranded title. no "rebuilt", no state issued VIN, etc.

Dr. Hess
Dr. Hess SuperDork
6/11/08 7:53 p.m.

Yeah, things are different in AR. I suspect that they do it this way to keep people relatively honest. There's a lot of scamming that goes on and making it difficult to obtain a title reduces the incentive for people to dishonestly obtain vehicles, I would think. I sued the state Pro Se for the Locost title. It was quite a learning experience for me. For example, "court orders" are not written by the court. Who knew? OK, you Esquires, stop laughing. Second court date, I did the lawyer thing and copied someone elses (successful) court order verbatim. Apparently, plagerism is encouraged in the legal profession. The judge goes over it, "Oh, no, I can't sign this. No, no." Scribble scribble, sign. "OK, here you go."

Talked with the other sister. No go. He's not been heard from in years. Given that he's in his mid 50's now, or would be, and a street person, chances are he's about done.

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