Are you trying to locate someone but don’t know where and how to get started? Don’t worry. In this post, we’ll show you how to find an address for someone step by step.

1. Search Whitepages

Whitepages is the most popular people search engine for hunting down people online, and it’s FREE to use. The site lets you search for someone using their name, phone number, or their address. In this case, you can search the Whitepages by name or phone number if you know it, and look for the most likely one.

Remember, the first two reports are only available to premium members, so make sure you scroll down to check out the free reports first. And for free users, you can view the person’s current address for free, but if you want to check the whole address history, you need to pay a fee.

2. Send Mail to Their Old Address

If you’re trying to find out the address of someone who just moved might be able to get the updated address through Return Service Requested from the United States Postal Service. The service provides forwarding and address correction services when possible. All you need to do is send a first-class letter to the person’s last known address with the “RETURN SERVICE REQUESTED” service.

If the recipient has an active COA (change of address) on file, the USPS will notify you of the forwarding address on a yellow sticker. Otherwise, your mail will be returned to you with the reason on the piece of mail.

3. Check Public Records

You can also find a person through public records. For example, if the person owns a property, you might be able to get their address through their local county tax assessor.

You can search Google for the name of the county where the person lives, along with “tax assessor”. If you can find the official website of the county’s tax assessor, see if you can search the address info within the site. Otherwise, you’ll need to find the appropriate contact info and make your request.

4. Use An Address Finder

The most effective way to find people’s addresses online is with an address finder. An address finder is a dedicated address lookup tool that lets you search for someone’s address using other information you know about them.

For example, you can search for people by filling in their name and city with Social Catfish.

Or if you know their phone number, email address, social media username, or even just a picture of them, you can use these bits of information to look up the person’s street address.

After tracking down your subject with Social Catfish, there’s a ton of information to sift through, like the person’s address history, phone numbers, email addresses, and possible associates.

5. Hire a Private Investigator

If finding the person is imperative, you might consider hiring a search specialist from Social Catfish. The search experts at Social Catfish are trained in tracking down people using software and technology used by the FBI.

6. Ask Around

Do you have any mutual friends or do you know anyone online that might know the person’s whereabouts? If you have a valid reason for finding the person, don’t be afraid to reach out to their friends or family members if you know any of them.

There are also websites designed to help you reconnect with lost friends and alumni. For example, you can check out lostfriends.org. The site, as its name suggests, is dedicated to reconnecting you with lost friends or relatives. So if you can’t find anyone related to the person and you think that the person might also be looking for you, try posting a notice on this site.

7. Run a General Search

Search engines like Google, Bing, and Duckduckgo are handy resources for finding people for free. They scour a tremendous number of web pages and offer various advanced search commands to help you narrow down the results.

No matter how little you know about your subject, you can always open up Google or any other search engine of your choice, plug in everything you know about the person in keyword format, and see what comes up. For example, type “John Smith” Los Angeles tech writer.

Just write down anything you know about the person: their first name, the school they went to, approximate location, date of birth, company they’re affiliated with, etc. Search with all the relevant information you have on the person to see if you can dig out some useful information.