All Forum Posts by: Javier Osuna

Hey everyone!

I am familiar with both scouring the public records at the Bradley building as well as looking thru the newspaper public notices... I have learned to identify which cases have real property attached to them. The part that still troubles me however, is not having access to the specific property information. All I have been able to discern, is the fact that real property exists in the estate but at least in the ones I've looked at, I've found no specific property addresses; only phrases like "all my real estate, I leave to so and so..." So from what I gather, the best way to go about retrieving this info then, is to look up the last known address of the deceased and pull up the tax records for that address to see if I get match? What if there are multiple properties? Would contacting the attorney or executor of the will be the only other alternative? I am hoping there is some way to look up the property addreses in order to do preliminary analysis and get a property profile to establish if the property is something I'd wanna even make an offer on, BEFORE I contact the attorney or executor. Preciate the help! Thank you so much!

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I attend the REI club which meets at the Del Mar Hilton on the first Thursday of every month (F.I.B.I.). Are we talking about the same meetup club?

If so, I have missed the last couple of meetings. I've made a couple of good contacts there, but lately I've been focusing on my business plan, building up my knowledge and on getting leads. I'd like to move forward much faster but there are only 24 hours in a day and I'm having to do this around my work schedule and family. I certainly plan on attending next months meeting.

Well, that's the problem. I did not know and I will obviously have to do quite a bit of learning as I go. So when I look at probate case files from now on, I shall only focus on the 'estate' which deals with deals with the real property and other assets left behind by the deceased and not conservstorship which deals with the taking care of a 'person'. Got it! I will need to brush up on the various most commonly terminology used in probate. You know what they say, the most stupid of all questions is the one you don't ask... Thank you Rick.

Thanks Mike!

The will document would be imaged and attached to the court case file as one of the appendix or exhibit documents? I looked at a couple of cases and found documents such as the hearing notice, appointment of guardianship, representation and contact info., etc, but no will and testament. Am I looking in the wrong place, or perhaps these people did not leave a will and this is precisely the reason their estate must go thru probate?  Thank you again. Do you think I'd be better off payng for ready-to-go probate leads to market to?

Hey everyone,

Well, I have finally transitioned from the analysis stage to the 'doing' stage. Yesterday I made my first trip to the courthouse to get my feet wet. I went in and requested to have access to the probate files, which are considered public record. I was allowed into private room with computers (called a 'kiosk'), where I was able to look up real records of estates going thru this process. This was my first time doing this so please bear with me. I focused on those files whose title read: "Conservatorship of person and estate" and gathered data on these files... My core question is: How does one go about finding out whether a given estate has real property in it? I looked at every screen and document in the files and did not fine this information anywhere. Is calling the guardian or conservator of the estate the only way? an alternative would be to run a title look up based on the name of the decedent, but how would I know for sure if there is more than one person with that same name? Can someone please advise? Much appreciated.

Got it Rick! Awesome. thx. :)

So as a wholesaler, what do we do when there is more one owner on title and we do not want for the deal to "blow up" at the closing table? It is my understanding you or the seller can try reaching out to each of the other owners and get them to somehow agree to the sale. 

Any suggestions on how to talk to or how to negotiate with the other parties on title with a vested interest in the property and what documents would we need to have them sign in order to make the deal work?

Much appreciated!

You have a signature on a contract, I suppose I would look carefully at the contract clauses... the contract is binding, so I suppose you could try and sue for damages if you must. Would I invest time and effort in following that recourse? I wouldn't. The clock is ticking and you still have an contractural obligation to your seller. What I would do is hustle on finding a more serious back up buyer who will follow through on his contract obligations. Also, I would think twice about working with that buyer again in the future... Keep growing your buyers' list and as Wayne said: Take it as a lesson in practice and in the future, do not assign your contract without securing an end-buyer's earnest money deposit.

Good luck!

Purchase J. Scott's "The book on estimating rehab costs" Its available from the Bigger Pockets website. I'm banking on that to help me get a handle on that aspect of my business... I'll be purchasing my copy over the weekend.

Good luck and happy investing.