All Forum Posts by: Andrew Christie

Hi Marcia:

I understand the definition of a fiduciary, and I understand that not all executors are fiduciaries. But I do believe that for the purposes of probate, all executors are fiduciaries. I also understand that generally, the term fiduciary is not synonymous with executor, but I suspect that in this specific situation, which is for the purpose of documenting probate cases, it is synonymous. Am I wrong?

Hi Zach:

I appreciate your response. Sounds like good info.

I'm just curious to know what's been most successful for you?

I've only just started in direct mail marketing. So far, I haven't had any success with it, but I know that I haven't given it enough time. What I've been doing is finding evictions through the court records. I weed out the property managers and corporate names, assuming they're more sophisticated and less likely to be motivated. Then I'll mail a "We Buy Houses" postcard to the individual landlord. The hope is that I find some newbie landlord who didn't do proper screening and just had to go through a nasty eviction.

I was planning on mailing to them every week for 3 weeks, but I don't know if that's enough. A read where another investor never stops mailing to someone that's on their list until they either buy the house, are asked by the lead to be removed from the list, or gain some type of knowledge that it's not a good lead. However, she only mails to her leads once every 8 to 10 weeks. So I'm thinking about adjusting my timing so that maybe they get a couple of cards within a few weeks in the beginning, but then after that they are more spaced out.

Back to probates. You say, "But more to your point, I don't weed out the attorneys. I filter by property 1st, then by living spouse, then zip code." Wouldn't you want to filter by zip code first? That's a quick, easy filter and if the property's not in an area you want to work, then the rest of the stuff doesn't matter. Also, how do you know if there's a living spouse?

Hello fellow BPers!

I'm trying to get things going with probates and it's been a slow start. It's not necessarily the easiest thing to figure out. Anyway, when I go to one of my local courthouses, they can give me a summary report for probates that have been filed for whatever date range I choose. This report lists the case number, decedent, fiduciary, the value of property, and value of real estate.

I've noticed that a good number of fiduciaries (which I understand is synonymous with executor) are attorneys. For those of you working probates, do you weed the attorneys out?

Thanks!