Do you know how to find the name/contact info of a landowner

[Blessed]

We've leased land to hunt/fish/camp on for 7 years from an individual who lives out of state. The past 3 years we've had accessibility issues because access is via an easement and there is a big ditch that cuts right across the access road. That ditch is eroding and the sides are washing out and it's not safe or easy to get across. Last year we put a temporary bridge across it and that worked, but it won't work again this year so we asked the landowner for permission to cut the ditch, at our expense, - basically make it a gradual slope down in and back out again so that we could access the property. We also offered to put in a culvert and fix the road so that it was a straight across access - if we'd put in the culvert he would have needed to let us do that in exchange for our lease payment this year. It's supposedly registered as a "tree farm" (I haven't tried to figure out how to check that) that will be harvested in 7 years - at which point the road will have to be fixed. We contacted the landowner in May and had no response, again in August and had no response and then last Friday he finally replied to us and said that if we wanted to lease again we needed to contact him ASAP so we did on Saturday and explained the situation to him at which point he said send me pictures, etc... so we did that within 2 hours of our conversation, but we never heard back so we contacted him again yesterday - at which point he said. "I'm sorry I leased that to someone else before you got back to me." Long story short - we have no where to hunt this fall, my kids are upset, my husband is grumpy and he wants me to figure out who owns the land on the other side of this property.

We're pretty sure it's US Fish and Wildlife, but it's not posted. This is river bottom land - so no buildings/houses/etc... I've been trying to figure out who owns it, what the address/lot/parcel number is so that I know who to ask! If anyone has any ideas I'd appreciate it. I'm not really sure where to start digging...

Thanks!

[Brian Altenhofel]

In most states, assessment is done by the county. If you can describe to someone in the county assessor's office (or equivalent - might be a "land office", "tax office", etc) where it's at or show them on a map, they should be able to tell you. It's public record, but definitely an inquiry best made in-person.

The other method I've used to determine ownership is to ask around.

I'm glad I don't lease the land I hunt. I always hear horror stories from those who lease. I just maintain friendships with landowners.

[Freelancier]

It's public record, but definitely an inquiry best made in-person.Many counties have this online now. You just enter a plat number or an address or something and it'll pull up the records for you to examine. Look either for the assessors office or the tax collector's office, both should have that info available. If it's not online, then you'll probably have to call around to find someone to help you.

[Blessed]

Thanks guys!

My problem has been that it's hard to determine the plat number/address because there aren't any houses and etc... - but in person with a Map will probably work, now to make some phone calls to see when i can do that!

And trust me Brian, we'd much rather just maintain a friendship with a landowner than lease! That is what we do for the fields we get to goose hunt on, but so far, everyone we know who has land for deer and turkey hunting also hunts and so does their family so they keep it to themselves. Can't blame them! One day we'll have a spot like that...

[MyITGuy]

Most property appraiser sites have this information online, and have a map that you can zoom/scroll through with the plats/property boundaries shown and can be selected.

If you want to share the county and a road name or etc I'll see what I can dig up.

[Blessed]

Thanks Jeff!

It's on Edgerton Junction Road in Platte County Missouri
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Edgerton+Junction+Rd,+Dearborn,+MO+64439/@39.4739003,-94.6882842,15z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x87c0417fdbecb79d:0x1cae29e08f2eb aaa

The 70-100 acres we leased was right in the "horseshoe" of the river (husbands words...)

My brother-in-law is a licensed realtor and traced the adjacent land to being donated to the state or the US Fish/Wildlife in 2010... he thinks, but he can't remember for sure and he's working 12-16 hours a day, 7 days a week, on the pipeline out in West Virginia right now - so he's not much help right now.

I'm having to wait until next week to try to go into the local county office - just no way to make it work this week between the kids school and my deadlines...

[MyITGuy]

That was an easy one ;)

If its the "horseshoe" near Edgerton Junction and Buena Vista, then there are three parcels:
To the west: 09-6.0-24-000-000-003.000
To the east: 09-6.0-24-000-000-001.000
Inside the horseshoe: 09-6.0-24-000-000-002.000

Plug those #'s in at the site below and you can see the owner name/address and etc...
Platte County Collector (http://www.plattecountycollector.com/realsearch.php)

If thats not the address, then plug in Edgerton Junction at the site below and locate the property you're interested in:
Platte County GIS Viewer (http://maps.co.platte.mo.us/)

Hope this helps!

[MyITGuy]

Just did some comparison based on the data you shared via PM...looks like I was just a tad bit to the North.

The property you leased before was:
09-7.0-25-000-000-002.000

The property on the other side of the river is:
09-7.0-25-000-000-001.000

The property to the north, but on the east side of the river is:
09-6.0-24-000-000-006.000

[Blessed]

Thanks Jeff - that did help immensely!

Now, the part I'm familiar with - cold calling and sales, except this time I'm trying to sell them on leasing land to us instead of on buying some advertising :) wish me luck!