How You Can Become Your Own Private Investigator

There is no law against it.  No license required.  However, I strongly suggest that you never represent yourself as a "private investigator." 
Most of the information you will ever want or need to know about any person or property is public information located in your city or county halls of records or county courthouses.  You just need  to know where and how to look.
The following list details what information can be gathered and from whom.

• Alumni offices of colleges and universities will usually confirm the graduation or attendance of a particular individual, including year of graduation and degrees, if any.
• Medical associations will confirm an individuals license to practice and the specialties in which subject has been board certified.
• To obtain information from a credit bureau you must be a subscriber with appropriate code to give them.  Be prepared to pay a fee.
• Of course there is always local court records.
• Bureau of vital statistics catalogs birth, death, and marriage records.
• Although unlisted numbers are not included, if you have a phone number, you can look up the subscriber and their address by acquiring a reverse directory from a phone company.  They're not free of course.  You can also get a phone number, and a name by looking up the address.
• A good place to look for records concerning the responsible party for payment of taxes on real or personal property would be the tax assessor/tax collector.
• There is one property records office per county.  Here you will find information relating to real estate, such as judgements, tax liens, records of deeds and so on.
• For a fee of $3, any post office will supply the name, address and forwarding address (if they have moved within one year) of any particular box holder.  The Freedom of Information Act made this possible.
• Another source of information is The Department of Motor Vehicles.  You can obtain the identification of all vehicles owned by an individual as well as the person's driving record, including all license suspensions and a copy of all ownership records.
• One of the very best sources of information is The Registrar of Voters, aka the Board of Elections.  A person's date of birth, height, color of eyes, place of employment, previous address, immigration information, and even unlisted phone number is available through here.

     Not only can you find out about someone else, they can find out about you!