probate marketing

[Aaron Shehan]

Hello My name is Aaron. I just started wholesaling after taking an expensive course in December of 2015. Probate marketing seems like a niche I want to go for. So far Ive purchased 4 months of data from us leads list and have gotten zero deals and just a few calls (Maybe 3). My other direct mail campaigns get terrible responses also. I would be extremely appreciative for some help on these matters from someone with real experience.

[Sharon Vornholt]

@Aaron Shehan -  

There are a lot of folks in this thread that know direct mail.  The one thing you need to understand is that direct mail is not something you do a few times and you're done.  It's a long term strategy. You need to mail to those folks every month until the house is sold. Something like 85% of your deals will come at or beyond the 5th mailing. You haven't mailed nearly long enough to get discouraged.  

In general have found the leads from list brokers to be pretty poor when it comes to probates. Often they are actually working obits which is not what I recommend you do.  

You need 4 pieces of information to be successful in this niche; the name and address of both the deceased and the executor.  You will most likely need to get that information locally rather than from a service for best results, and that will take a little detective work.

I start mailing as soon as the notice comes out.  That may be a recent death or it may have taken place many months ago.  You really don't need to know that information.  When the probate is opened that is an indication that they are ready to move forward with the sale of the house.  As I said for some folks this is immediately, but for others it may be as long as a year.

With probates you are looking for the ones that have some sort of problem which is no different than any other group of sellers.  Some houses will be sold retail and that's OK.  We are looking for those that need repairs, updates or have some other sort of problem that makes an investor deal look more attractive to them than listing the house.

As someone said, no matter how you get your leads you will need to verify that there is real property.  I do that on the county tax assessor's site for each and every lead.

I do know that some areas in Texas have the information online so check there. Google probates + your county.

One last thing to remember; working probates is pretty simple but it's not always easy.  Most people will quit so hang in there.  Be a 1%'er.

Best of luck.

Sharon