How to Find Someone’s Address: Expert Tips and Tricks

Cindy Ellis - September 12, 2022

You may think that finding someone’s address is an impossible process, but uncovering this information doesn’t need to be as confusing as you are expecting. There are a few different methods that you can use to discover an individual’s address and allow you to stay informed. Our article discusses these methods and gives you tips on how to find someone’s address for a variety of reasons easily.

Why Would You Need to Find Someone’s Address?

Though it may seem strange to some, there are several reasons why finding someone’s address is necessary. We list these reasons below so you can understand what you may do with the address information you gather.

Long-Lost Relatives and Friends

From time to time, relatives and friends seem to drop off the map for a while, and you lose track of their contact information or address. If you want to get back in contact with an individual or are interested in locating a long-lost relative or friend, you can use our methods below to safely find their address and send them letters or request more information about them so you can rebuild your rapport.

Legal Issues

Civil issues handled in state or county courts, such as child support cases, debt collection, and missed payment collection, typically need an address for both parties involved so proper court documents can be served. Knowing the other party’s address is also essential if you want to collect any debt, child support, or unpaid monies. It can understandably be difficult to ask an individual what their address is directly when you are involved in a civil case with them, which is why you can use our more subtle steps to locate their address below.

Returning Items

If you’ve recently experienced a breakup with a partner or had a roommate who moved out, you may have some of their items in your home and need to return them. However, it can be uncomfortable to reach out and request someone’s new address, and the person may not even respond. Of course, you could always throw away or donate items left behind, but if you want to return them, you can follow our steps below to locate a person’s address.

Remember that it is illegal to use the information you find to harass, stalk, or otherwise plan and commit a crime. Only locating individuals, sending lawsuit or court information, or returning items are safe ways to use the address information you find.

The Best Ways to Find Someone’s Address

Finding someone’s address can be done via a variety of different methods. If one of these search options doesn’t work, make sure you try them all before giving up to give your address search the best effort possible.

Use a People Search Tool

A people search tool can be helpful in a few different ways when you are looking for someone’s address. You can search using a person’s name or phone number to pull up a report on the individual in question. This report will list all of their last known addresses, any known relatives or associates you may be able to reach out to, and other phone numbers to contact the person.

Plus, this report uses information pulled from public records and compiles the information you need to know in no time at all, enabling you to discover someone’s address and reach out to them as soon as possible.

We suggest using the tool on Information.com to get started finding someone’s address.

Is It Legal to Use a People Search Tool?

Using a people search tool may feel sketchy to some as they often turn up a lot of information about a person without that individual even knowing you searched for them. However, all of this information is collected from public records and accessible third-party sources, making it legal to view. The search tool simply compiles a report and makes the information you learn easy to review, saving you from making individual searches yourself.

However, you cannot use any of the information that you find on a people search tool to plan or commit crimes, harass an individual, or engage in stalking. These are serious criminal acts and may result in felony convictions depending on what you do with the information you learn.

Therefore, when you use an information tool, the information you find should be kept to yourself and used to gain contact or vet the safety of an individual – not to harm or harass in any way.

Ask Mutual Friends or Family

Occasionally, you will have mutual friends or family members that know the address of the individual in question. You can speak to them about what the person’s address may be so you can reach out to them yourself or send them important items.

However, you should note that speaking to mutual friends and family can often get back to the individual in question. So if you don’t want someone to know you are asking about their address (this may be especially important with a lawsuit), then you should try one of our other listed address search methods first.

Check Social Media

Social media often has a host of information about people, including vital information like addresses. Facebook is the most likely culprit for hosting someone’s address, but other websites such as Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn might also hold this information.

Keep in mind that you will most likely need to have an account on these websites to search for the individual’s address properly, and you might also need to be ‘friends’ or ‘connected’ with the person in question to access all of their information without issue.

Use the Post Office

Utilizing the post office to find someone’s address is a highly effective and often very subtle way of discovering this important information. The best method to use is to submit an Address Correction Request (also known as an ACR). This can be done by sending a piece of mail to an individual’s last known address with “address correction requested” written on the piece of mail. If the individual has a forwarding service available (this is obtained through the USPS and lasts up to a year after moving addresses), the mail will be forwarded on to the individual, and you can pay extra for USPS tracking to make sure that you are also informed about what the new address is.

Alternatively, you can use the “return service request” option on the piece of mail that you send. Write those words on the envelope, and then send it to the individual’s last known address. The mail will be returned to you with the forwarding address on it, allowing you to figure out the person’s address and keep it a secret that you now know the address. This can be important if you are planning to send legal documents or court orders to the person in question in the future.

Hire a Private Investigator

A more extreme but reliable method of finding out someone’s address is to hire a private investigator to do the searching for you. The private investigator will track down vital information about the person in question, including their address, and submit it to you so you can use it.

You should keep in mind that hiring a private investigator can be expensive, as most charge upwards of $100 an hour for their services, but if you really need to find someone and have a reliable address for collecting on debt payments or child support, a private investigator might be worth it.

Finding the Information You Need

Finding someone’s address can seem like an overwhelming task at first, especially if you aren’t sure where to begin and don’t know which search methods are available to you. Fortunately, our article gives you tips on where to start your search for someone’s address and why it can be helpful to have this information in the first place. Make sure to try all of the available search methods, and you’ll find the information you need in no time.