Killer deals in probate

Hi Mark
I noticed that you said they assessed for $86K to $88K? If you know the assessed value you must have looked it up on the ASSESSORS web site...if so it will also show the owners name on the assessment. What all are you needing to know about probates and what are you wanting to do...offer a cash price to the heirs/executor/executrix?
Sissy

Sorry, maybe I wasn't clear. I already bought those two. My question was, since I have found a couple great deals on probate homes are there any ways to find others that may have not made it to the mls yet, stuck in the court system, etc. ?? Does anyone specialize in finding probate homes?

What do you mean by " Bought " how did you finance them? How did you find those 2 deals? Sounds like you're already ahead of the curve. Just go to your county recorders office and ask someone to help you.

Good Question, That was my homework for today. At least one of the questions I had to solve.

Thanks,

I have also just started with probate real estate. This is what I have found. If you go down to your county court house, there should be a family law room where probate estate cases are held on file. Find that room, and ask for the 20 most recent probate estate records(or however many you have time to research). They will come back with microfiches of the records. Search through the pages of the microfiche and look first to see if there is a property invoved(some do not have real estate), then find the Executor/Administrator on the case. This is the person in charge of the case and the real estate. On one of the pages it will have the address and possibly a phone number of this person. And there is your contact with that probate!

They were both bought with hard money lenders. I put in 60 offers at 50-55% of asking price and these were two of the seven I got accepted. My partner and I decided they were too good of a deal to assign so we searched for financing and found it. County records is what I was looking for. I was also thinking of sending letters to all the funeral homes, estate attorneys, care centers etc. and see if I come up with anything. Thanks for the feedback

Greg, thanks and I will try to give that a shot. My job doesn't allow me any time during the day to do stuff like that so I was hoping for and easier way but I may just have to make it work somehow.

Here's a thought since you can't spend that time at the courthouse - do you know some college students or dependable people that could use a little extra $$ by doing this type of research FOR you?
You'd have to figure out how to pay them and work that out between the two of you. You'd likely want to figure out a way to keep them interested by paying them SOMETHING while doing the research and yet give them the incentive to do a good job by possibly offering either a flat fee or a % of the sale if completed.
Anyway - something I thought I'd suggest. There are lots of folks out there that are looking for ways to make a little cash --- weed 'em out and find those that will do a good job for you.

Good luck and thanks for sharinng this information with the rest of us!

Mike

Jill & I have bought several probates/estates. If you're in an area where
the county is on line, go to the county clerk's website; to official records;
then select the type of document wanted, in this case probate; enter the dates/duration; this will give you all the probate listings; now search the documents to find which ones have real property; then go to the property appraisers website, put in the name to view the type of property(beds/baths),
how much they paid, sq. ft. etc. Also while you're on the clerk's website check to see if there is a mortgage, & if so how much & when it was taken out.
This info tells you if it's a good deal...example- house purchased in 1991 for 35,000 & mortgage was satisfied, & their heirs live 1000 miles away...this would be an excellent candidate !
We usually do not call 1st, we send out a letter with our condolences & explain the negatives of being a long distance owner, with the cost of maintenance,taxes,insurance, repairs & possible vandalism. Then let them know we would be interested in buying the property & let them contract us by email or phone.
I would not recommend calling funeral homes or estate attorneys, I feel that's distasteful & you would come across as a "hearse chaser"

What ever county you live in you should type in google ex: summit county court of common pleas probate division and see what pops up. But obviously put your county there instead of the one I just wrote.

If your county has this site it should show up in the search. Once there go to case access or records and do general index search. Then just imput the dates that you want to search back to. Also input Party type is (decedent), type of case is (estate), status type is (open).

I would only search one month at a time because there will be so many to go through plus I don't think they will be able to show you more than that at a given time.

Then go to tax site and imput property address and see if the decedent owns it. If so you know there is property involved.

Then send out letter like gceriani stated above.

This is the way I do it where I live and works great. Hope it works for you!

Jason B