Boston Probate leads - compiling marketing list

[Nick Luongo]

Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with building a Massachusetts probate list. I'm thinking it starts with the MA court website (masscourts .org) then pulling actual files from there.

Do people typically market to only the 'closed' cases? How far back do you go in the records? I heard somewhere 5 or 6 months.

So far I am thinking once a closed case is found on the site, I cross reference with the boston assessor's database to see if the decedent owned any real estate. Then I pull the file, confirm real estate was inherited, and add the petitioners info to my marketing list.

One problem I see with this method is that if I search a county other than suffolk (say, middlesex) I won't know which assessor's database to look up to see if they owned real estate.. and pulling every file to check for real estate would be madness.

I've also head checking obituaries, but I would think they won't end up in probate for awhile after that so I'm still hazy on who you would know who to market to

If anyone has any insight into this process in the MA / Boston area it would be much appreciated