Are Probates working?

Probate is a good investing strategy, however, here is the problem. It takes a ton of time to get your leads! If you're just starting out, I doubt you can outsource the research, so you're going to have to do it yourself. That means looking through the newspaper, writing down the probate information, driving down to the court house, logging into their computer system, locating the probate and seeing if they owned property. Then you you write down all the information, send out letters and hope they respond. It could take 3 to 6 months to see results. If you have that kind of time... go for it! There are not many investors who are doing this because of the work involved. This is one of my strategies for the future when I have money allowing me to outsource it.

KimmyJ
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Probates are very easy to do. I Have been marketing to the executors of estates by letters.

Some Executors are very sentimental to the property and will not sell for a low price. Some have no interest in the property and cannot wait for you to take it of their hands. I prefer Probate instead of Foreclosures. Lots of equity (haven't had one with a mortgage yet!) Usually little to no fix up needed. Sometimes a real bad condition property comes along, so far only one out 5 responses has happened to me so far.

I have been working Probate for 4 months now, I have yet to put a property under contract but I have been to 3 properties and have made five offers.

Propbate is another way to get the opputunity to make offers! You can work the MLS, Foreclosures, FSBO, rentals, and probate. The point is to create a volume of offers so that the Law of averages works in your favor.

Kimmy,

You have good points about the downside of probate I did not mention.

I personally haven't experinced alot of those problems. In my first 7 letters mailed out I had 2 responses in 1 week. IT did slow down for a bit, but it has sped up again. My courthouse though is also very friendly and has no objection to what time of the day, how many, or how long I look at Probate Case Files. Also there are no computers, it is all on paper. I spend about one minute average when I find a file that has what I need to write down all pertninent information.

Some weeks though I only have about 7 files to look at, other weeks I have 55 to go through. If you are starting out in Investing do not look as probate as your only and best way to find deals and help people to close the estate. It is simply another way to increase the volume of properties you can put offers on.

Have you ever heard of the 100 to 30 to 10 to 1 rule? If I put out 100 offers I should have about 30 accepted/countered offers, 10 of those shold be some really good deals and one of them will be the deal of a lifetime. But if I can get 100 offers out every month then I can have the Deal of a lifetime every month. It is simply the law of averages you have to make it work to your advantage.

There has been some tips provided already for working with probates. I would also offer another suggestion. Have your realtor pull any MLS listing that has the words "estate sale" or "probate sale" or "requires court apporval" in your local area of interest. These sellers may be motivated and you might be able to get a lower offer accepted because they could be motivated to sell the property. I hope this helps. Good luck with probates. Believe and Achieve! - Joe

Thank you so much for your inputs, but what about searching for probate attorneys? I wonder if they would be of a good resource to go to

Probate attorneys could be a good resource to contact. You may need to send more than one contact over time. If you can reach the executive assistant to the probate attorney they could assist you with getting a meeting with the probate attorney or provide valuable information on the overall process. Believe and Achieve! - Joe

They're a good source, just be aware that some attorneys keep the sweet deals for themselves. If you're going that route, you may want to offer a finders fee for deals you close on.

KimmyJ
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Aren't finders fee illegal in California? I was told by a realtor that a finders fee is a big NO NO! is this true?

Probate offers the investor some good opportunities. By accessing the court records for the executor and contacting them quickly, you beat most of the competition who wait for public notice of pending sales. If the executors are out of the area they are much more likely to make a deal. Being an executor long-distance is similar to being a long distance landlord. They may not be familiar with the local pricing. That can be a plus or a minus, depending on where the executor is located.

real estate agents. A real estate agent cannot take a finder fee. However, you could give your agent a "bonus" in a transactions via the broker. Only the broker can take in monies and distribute them to agents. As far as attorney, I have not heard anything regarding not being able to accept finder fees as long as it is not a conflict of interest.

KimmyJ
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