by Oberazzi

Article by Simon Macharia

Probate real estate investing, or investing in inherited property, is one of the most profitable real estate investing ventures. Accessing these leads can make you big profits in your real estate investing business.

We look at where to find probate leads and the best ways to market to them.How do you find inherited property?

1) Local courthouse Your county court house is the best place to find probate leads. Probate filings are displayed in all the local court houses. The information included in the filings contains the name of the deceased, the executor, also called administrator or trustee and beneficiaries.

The trustee is usually an attorney. Frequently, one of the beneficiaries takes over the role of administrator to reduce attorney fees.

Beneficiaries are the people who have inherited the property, usually relatives of the deceased.

2) PublicationsIn my local market, there are publications that list all filings in the county court system. These publications also include probates and are good sources of leads.

Such a publication is likely to be found 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 attorneysProbate attorneys could be good sources of leads. In my business, they are not an important source of leads. Even though I have contacted them from time to time, I have not had a single deal that has come from an attorney.

But this may be because I concentrate more on courthouse leads and publications.

4) Realtors Most people first talk to a Realtor when they need to sell their house. Do not be surprised if you find probate deals listed in the MLS as estate sale.

You can easily identify these deals easily if you work with a Realtor.

Marketing to probate leads Once you have the name of the deceased, you then find out if they owned property. You can do this on your local county website.

You may find that the property may still be in the name of the deceased, or their estate such as John Doe estate.

Once you find they owned real estate, you must then reach the beneficiaries. you must remember beneficiaries are grieving and need to be handled with sympathy, not aggression.

I usually send them one letter every month for 6 months. Probate process can drag for a long time but 6 months is good enough.

If you have been consistent in your message, when the time comes to sell, you will be the first person they will think about.

I no longer contact the listed probate attorneys because they rarely respond. Also, in order to save money on attorney fees, the role of administrator is usually taken over by one of the beneficiaries.

If your leads come from a Realtor, then you will need to make your offer through the Realtor. If you send mail solicitations using the name of the deceased, they bounce back with a stamp “Deceased”.

Your best bet in this case will be to work with the realtor if you do not have the addresses of the beneficiaries.