@skye - Ive learned to look for a) the ones that dont look like husband and wife where the survivor is still living at the property and make sure none of the admistrators are living at the property. b) To look instantly for the ones that have real estate listed as assets c) The ones that don't have a lot of people listed as heirs.
Not sure why the office worker is saying that the probate records dont have property in them yet. Maybe your county is different but in my county the person filing for the letters of administration has to list if there are real property assets in the estate to specify what the value of the estate is. In my county that sheet is called the "petition for administration". That one form tells me a lot of information. Who the executor is probably going to be and their address, Co-executors, date of death, domicle of deceased (usually the property that the deceased owned but not always), heirs. Once you get that document and it may be called something else at your office, u can quickly determine if there is even property there, where that property is in case you wanted to do a drive by. I always google the properties im interested in first to make sure they arent listed. I've gotten all hot about a property and when I drive it there is a Realtor sign in the yard already! I know you dont need to waste your high priced gas doing that. :roll:
Check my post in this thread on 1/03/2011 that talks a little about how I work through the process.