How to Find a Residential Phone Number

1. Write down the name of the person whose residential phone number you are trying to locate. This should include the full first name, surname, any middle initials they may use and if they are a Ms, Miss, Mrs., Mr., or Dr. If you are not sure of the spelling of the name, write as many variations that you can think of. This is important because if you cannot find the number with the first spelling, you can trying looking for the other spellings straight away, and not have to waste time thinking of different ways to spell the name.
2. Look in your address book to see if you have the person's address, as a street address can be very useful in finding a phone number. If you don't have the address, write down the city and state they live in.
3. Locate the telephone directory that the phone company would have left at your front door. This is only useful to find people located in the area served by the phone book, as these directories only contain numbers for people in your area. Look for the listing based upon their last name. For example, if you are looking for Jane Smith's phone number, look up Smith first and then go to first names beginning with J. However, if you do not see a match for Jane Smith at all or not at the correct address, there are other options you can try.
4. Call 411 or your local directory assistance number. The directory assistance representative will ask for the name and city and state of the person you are trying to locate. If you only know the state, he or she can look for just the name and state, but if the name is pretty common, it will be unlikely that he or she will be able to give you the correct number. These are directory assistance workers and not detectives and are unlikely to spend a lot of time trying to dissect the basic information given to them.
5. Go online and be a residential phone number detective yourself. There are many free sites that are useful in finding home phone numbers such as whitepages.com. These sites allow you to input the information you know in as many different ways as you can to try and locate the phone number. Also, this is helpful because if you are not sure which state the person is in, you can different states with their name. Again, depending on how popular the name is, there may be pages to wade through to find the correct listing. Hire a search company if you are not having any luck. You may not be able to find the number because the person has the number unlisted through the phone company. A search company such as Intellis will do a search for you for a price and as long as you have an accurate name, the firm should be able to find something; even if the address is incorrect because old addresses are usually listed in people's reports.