How To Market To Probate Leads In Real Estate Investing
One of the most profitable real estate investing ventures is inherited property – probate. Getting access to probate leads can drive your real estate investing profits up.
This article walks you through how to find these probate leads and market to them. How do you find inherited property?
1) Local courthouse
The best way to locate probate leads is the county courthouse. Probate filings are displayed in all the local court houses. Probate filings always include the name of the deceased, the executor, also called administrator and beneficiaries. The executor is usually an attorney. One of the beneficiaries frequently takes over the role of the administrator to reduce attorney fees. Beneficiaries are usually relatives, and are the ones who have inherited the property.
2) Publications
In my local market, we have publications that summarize all court filings in the county court house. These publications also include probates and are good sources of leads. You are likely to have such a publication if you live in a big metro area. You will have less work because you will not need to go to the courthouse for probate leads.
3) Probate attorneys
These may provide you with good leads. In my business, they are not an important source of leads. Attorneys have never been a source of any deals for me, even though I have contacted them. But this may be because I concentrate more on courthouse leads and publications.
4) Realtors
Most home sellers first try to sell through a Realtor. Do not be surprised if you find probate deals listed in the MLS as estate sale. If you work with a realtor, you should be able to easily identify these deals easily.
Marketing to probate leads
Once you get the names of the deceased, the next logical thing is to find out if they owned real estate. You can do this on your local county website. The property may still be in the name of the deceased, or their estate such as John Doe Estate.
You then need to real the beneficiaries. you must remember beneficiaries are grieving and need to be handled with sympathy, not aggression. I send them a nice sympathetic letter every 30 days for 6 months. Probate process can drag for a long time but 6 months is good enough. When it comes time to sell, it is you they will think about first if you have been consistent.
I no longer contact the listed probate attorneys because they rarely respond. Also, the beneficiaries must try to save money by minimizing attorney fees, and usually delegate administration to one of the beneficiaries. If you find probate leads through a realtor, then you must make an offer through a realtor. If you send mail solicitations using the name of the deceased, they bounce back with a stamp “Deceased”. If you do not have the addresses of the beneficiaries, you are best off working with the Realtor.
By: Simon Macharia
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6137393
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