Probate lists

[Jack Mastrangelo]

Probate is a niche that I want to add to my existing marketing campaign.  I've read a number of threads on the topic.  There is one post in particular that I want feedback on. Here it is:

This is why you need to do your research before sending letters. If the address is the same it can be for 1 of 4 reasons.

1. the spouse of the decedent is still living in the house (DO NOT send a letter)

2. the decedent was living with a friend or relative and does not own the home DO NOT send a letter)

3. Parent is the deceased, child living in home named as administrator of the estate ( Send a letter)

4. Administrator of the estate wants all information to be sent to the decedents address to make it easier to manage all the correspondence for the estate (Send a letter)

With all of these you need to do your research to find out all the answers to these questions. I have been doing this for years so it only takes me about 30-45 seconds on average to determine if I should send a letter or not.

I know investors quite often have different criteria to go about deciding who to mail and what to mail. I'd like to get some feedback from the BP investors with experience in the niche. Some ideas on where you get your lists from would be great. Regarding #1, I would skip more than 50% of my list by not mailing to spouses. 

[Nuhan Demirkan]

Jack,

The only filtering I would do is to make sure they owned a house in the areas I want to invest in. And I would not assume that the spouse who is still living in the house would not want to sell and move in with family. Probate lists usually are not that big. I would send a letter to deceased who owned a home. Plus, I bought my last three houses from mailers that I sent months ago. People hang on to these types of mailers.