We all need a place to live. With just a few of my tips, you stand a strong chance of settling in a decent place and not a dump. Maybe you have sold your house, kicked your ex to the curb and need housing in a hurry or just need a change of scenery. As […]
The consumer review site Yelp has now somehow “filtered” three additional 5-star reviews of my business, bringing the total to five. I used to be a Yelp advertiser and since I stopped paying them, they have essentially removed five legitimate reviews while letting two negative reviews remain. For the record, I turned down the people […]
With new friends at Edna Brewer Middle School, Oakland For the last couple of years I have gone back to school. I join other professionals at local middle and high schools for career day. I love these events for their energy and good feelings. I encourage other professionals and my fellow private investigator colleagues to […]
I have always tried to explain how I work in hopes that I clear up misconceptions about what I do as a private investigator. In many ways a private investigator is like a building contractor or many professional trades-people. I have regular clients, specialties and skill sets. When I am busy with regular clients, mostly […]
When the person we are about to follow flies into town our margin for error flies out the window. If we don’t know where they will be staying–which is most of the time– getting on them after they land is our only opportunity. The stakes are high. A client has paid his or her retainer […]
I just returned from Monterey from a panel of private investigators at the Left Coast Crime conference, a shindig for mystery and crime writers. I rubbed elbows with accomplished writers. It was intimidating and inspiring. I think often about aspects of my job, pondering common traits among peers. I wandered the hospitality suite looking at […]
I break my “locates” into three categories: Normals, Marginals and Hard Cases. Like many investigations, a locate assignment or finding someone is a function of time and money. I do most of these locates for law offices, finding defendants and witnesses for service of process, but sometimes I do them for family members. ( I […]
We know many of the questions potential clients ask. (I have done this work for about 20 years.) We want to clear misconceptions and better explain the job. We do video surveillance on people from all walks of life and in all places. Is it legal? In most cases, yes. The phrase that comes up […]
(In almost 20 years of this work I have allowed exactly two clients to join me on a case. The second client tells her account. I wanted a real, human voice behind why a woman would hire a private eye for a domestic case. I asked her to write this.) The question of hiring a […]
I have always thought that the Yelp “model” works more or less for high volume businesses such as restaurants where over time fairness and averages reflect consumer experience. Where Yelp tends to fail is with service businesses such as ours. Keep in mind that for employing private investigators, not a lot of consumers want to […]
