Probates- Never heard of

[Michelle Sinclair]

Let me start by saying I am new to investing so learning all the different strategies has been fun and challenging. Probate Investing immediately interested me but I'm about ready to pull my hair out. After talking to several county people I managed to get a list of open probate cases for $5. Looking at my list I'm having a hard time believing no one in my county has died since 2009. So, now I'm question the integrity of my report. I went to courthouse today and requested to research to probate cases I received. I was told I'm unable to do so on my own, I have to pay a $5 research fee +$10/Hr and $0.75 per page. Like me, they have never done this before so have no clue how long it will take or how many pages it may be. Good news is there seems to be opportunity here, bad news is no one knows what I'm talking about and I feel I'm being way over charged for something that's a public record. Any help/ advice is greatly appreciated.

[Guy Olds]

@Michelle Sinclair

Probate investing is not the easiest niche to start in but as long as you're here let's see if I can shine some light.

First, congratulations on discovering that nobody in Mesa County has died in 6 years. If news got out - boy oh boy. Of course you're right something must be wrong.

Based on the population of Mesa County (150k) you should get on average of 3-5 new probate cases per month which is not a lot to work with.

With such a small population in the county it's possible the records are not digitized. I don't know where you looked before but you should have gone to the county courthouse, and then to the probate court (not sure what it is called in Mesa County), then there should be a Clerk of the Probate Court. Because your courthouse is so small a clerk may actually cover many courts. Usually the clerks of the court are very helpful. 

Probate cases are filed in sequential numbers so once you figure out one case number you'll know the next file to ask for. You should be able to visually see each file either physically or on a computer and not have to pay to copy pages. You will have to have a system to keep track of all info you need to collect.

File number. Decedent Name, Decedent's property address (this is what you want to buy), Name of executor or administrator. their address and/or phone number, attorney name and phone, what kind of authority the executor/adminisratator has, info on at least 2 heirs.

There's plenty of info on this site to fill in all the rest. Good luck.