Find a firm or individual that will conduct an asset search on 2
individuals and 2 small businesses for under $50 each.

George,

As a private investigator I can almost assure you that you will have a
difficult time finding "quality" work for the price you're willing to
spend.  While I must assume that you are seeking the information for
an important purpose, I would suggest that you seek out a reputable
private investigation agency that will do a quality job.  If, for
instance, you are seeking to enforce a judgment against a debtor and
you find someone willing to do the job at that price you may very well
find out later that the "investigator" missed a key asset that you
would have wanted to know about.

Many items go into a conducting an asset search, not the least of
which is real property, vehicles, boats, airplanes, and businesses or
corporations.  Of course, you would also want to know about
bankruptcies, liens, and judgments, as well as pending litigation,
probate cases, relatives, and much, much more.

Also, please remember that a new law called the GLB prohibits
obtaining financial data from a financial institution or their
customers by the use of pretext.  This has severely limited the
resources of many private investigators who are unable to obtain the
information through legal means.  That's not to say you can't obtain
that type of information, its just much harder.

When dealing with a reputable private investigator be prepared to
explain to him or her why you need the information that you are
requesting, as well as providing proof to him or her of your claim.

I hope that this helps you out and good luck.

10-2-2002

An asset search/financial background check will cost at least
$200-$300 if done through a local private investigator who has
experience in doing such checks, but you will generally get very good
information and you will be surprised at what can be uncovered. 
Sometimes can find out where they do their banking and get a report
similar to what you get from a credit bureau.

If you want to do some preliminary checking yourself, visit the county
courthouse and use their computers to look at doing name searches (of
the individual you are interested in) on property tax and/or land
records ( to see what houses and property they own), civil records (to
see if they have been involved in any court cases).

It would help if you would clarify why you want that information.  If
you want to collect a judgment, then that is what you need to be
focusing in on and finding out steps to garnish the person's wages or
other steps you can take to get them to pay up.

SINCERELY,
4keith-ga