Probate Buys

[Jon Gillman]

Any one know of a great system for finding and buying probate homes?

[Peter Giardini]

As I mentioned in another post on probate... this is a great way to find motivated sellers.

The challenge of course is consistency and follow-up.

Let me explain...

By consistency I mean that you have send out a fair number of letters every week. These letters have to be focused on the issues the heirs may be facing... and the less you talk about yourself, in my opinion, the better.

Continuing with the consistency theme... you should plan on sending a follow-up letter 6 -8 weeks after the first one was sent.

Now for follow-up. I have seen on many occasions where an investor will speak with the executor/heir and at that time the investor could not get the price they needed... and moved on to other deals... only to find out a month later someone else got the property.

Always... always... always... follow-up. This is as true with probates as any other seller. Situations and circumstances change.. so you want to follow-up to make sure that when they do... you are there to capture the deal.

One other thing about dealing with estates... remember that your number one job in this negotiation is to solve the estate's problem. In many cases this can be as simple as taking the property will all of the contents and disposing of them for the seller (remember many heirs are from out of town/state) and the last thing they want to have to do is clean out a house that has 30 years of accumulated stuff.