When Do You Stop Contacting Probate Leads?

[Alvin Grier]

When you're mailing probate leads, obviously it's vital to contact them over-and-over, and not just once.

But at what point do you just move on and assume that the PR/Executor simply has no plans on selling the property?

I've heard some investors say that they just keep mailing to the lead until they discover that the property has been sold.  

I completely understand that logic, but seems like you could be spending a lot of money sending subsequent mailings to someone years down the line that has no intent on selling the property and just never took the time to contact you to tell you.

So again, at what point do you just move on from a particular lead, or do you just keep mailing and/or calling until you find that the subject property is sold?

[Rick H.]

Unless you are willing to scrub your list by monitoring either the case file or property records, you're stuck with mailing.

How long? Maybe 12 - 18 months. 

If you can imagine a timeline whereby PR decides to sell property for a variety of reasons, the early sellers will be picked off by many different buyers competitions for the low hanging fruit deals. Some estate reps start off cocky and optimistic that things are "under control" then discover that there are other problems, like foreclosure, defaulted property taxes, tenants, etc. that were not initially apparent. 

If you want to get the juiciest deals, IMHO, you'll need to track for an extended period of time. Also, cross reference your list with other distress lists. Lastly, 'inherited' properties, those that have been distributed to heirs after probate completed, ought to be a separate list and treated with a different message.