Probate Leads

[Sharon Vornholt]

In my city, our probate leads are published in the newspaper at the same time each month. I am finding that even in some big cities, folks are still having to trek down to the courthouse.

I was wondering, where all of you "probate investors" get your leads?

[Account Closed]

Interesting question. Petitions to administer estates require publication in an adjudicated (?) paper in CA. So you have to know which paper that is in your county. In some counties, it's the biggest city's main newspaper. In one of my farm counties, there is a legal paper that's only legal notices and it's expensive to subscribe. Some Superior Courts have their indexes and calendars online now, so you can see the names of the cases. But you still have to work backwards to figure out if the estate has real property.

I'm pretty sure that none of the few dozen "probate deals" I've done came from a "probate lead". In every one I can think of, there was always another distress or target that generated the mail marketing or the first call. Vacant, abandoned, code violation, foreclosure, out of area owner, taxes, etc. Sometimes, the heirs and/or the execs. have completed all the court work and they are ready to sell...and my letter arrives in the mail. I love those. Sometimes they've hit a wall with infighting or court appraisal issues or debt issues and those involve problem solving. Those are still fun, but take longer. I've done a few much harder, riskier deals where I find all the heirs, pay up front for assignments of interest in the estate and hire the attorneys. Those are hard core and not recommended for anyone in a hurry and without a lot patience.