How to Successfully Invest in Probates!

Probates….Probates….Probates….I have been extremely captivated by this niche of real estate investing ever since the first time I was introduced to it back in 2003. Since that time I have given probate investing a shot a few different times…the first couple times didn’t result in any deals and ultimately left me frustrated and wondering why in the world anyone would want to pursue this not so glamorous niche. But on my third run at it I finally got some traction and ended up landing a “subject to” deal after running my first direct mail campaign…..and since then I have gone on to do a whole bunch of probate deals, all of which have made my company large sums of money. In fact today the main focus of my business is on probates (REO’s are a close 2nd) mainly because the potential profit margins can be huge and the competition is extremely limited.

So what is it that allowed me to achieve success the third time around that I couldn’t find on the first two tries? Well in hind site there were a number of things and all of them were small details, but those small details are what can make or break your business when it comes to probate investing. With that said I am going to go over a few of the smaller details to probate investing that are often overlooked or not focused as much as they should be:

#1. Some people are not going to have nice things to say about the fact that you want to buy the house of their deceased family member. This is one aspect to probate investing where you just need to have thick skin and get over it. I don’t like to deal with these types of people as much as anyone, but you can actually set up your marketing systems to limit any interaction with them. By doing this it will make your life much much easier and make probate investing a heck of a lot more enjoyable for you. It’s amazing how getting bitched out by an angry seller can really affect some people….I used to absolutely hate it, but now I have learned to embrace it. In fact we save all of our angry messages from perspective sellers and we call them “direct mail’s greatest hits” around the office….its a good way to make light of it. In fact maybe someday I’ll put them on our membership site so that everyone can have a laugh at what comes out of some peoples mouth over a non threatening letter. Anyway the bottom line is that you need to set up a screening system for your leads so that these angry sellers don’t steal your motivation to invest in probates.

#2. This niche has very little to do with the actual property and a lot more to do with the rapport you build with a seller! When I first started going out to probate appointments I was striking out constantly because I was so focussed on the actual property and not nearly as focused on my relationship with the seller or their attorney. Now’a days I always go out to view properties with my marketing manager so that while one of us is building rapport with the seller the other can thoroughly check out the property. Recently we just purchased a property from a seller who also showed the property to the “phoenix redevelopment” guy in our city, and we ended up with the property even though our offer was less than what Phoenix offered. The only reason this happened is because I took the time with talk with the seller about his situation and what he as the personal representative has had to deal with….and in return we ended up building a solid friendship through the purchase process. Now I’m not saying you need to become friends with every seller, but remember whenever you go check out a property it’s like a sales call, so build some rapport and start selling yourself….but make sure to ask questions and listen! If you do this I guarantee you will like the results.

#3. You have to create a system for getting your marketing letters out on a weekly basis! In my business I have actually hired and trained someone to research all of the new probate listings as they come out so that we can market to them on an weekly basis. If you don’t have a system in place that makes you (or someone you hire) accountable for getting your marketing letters out every week then your chances of success will decrease dramatically. I believe momentum is the most important factor in real estate investing (and in life for that matter) so if you loose your momentum with probate marketing it’s extremely hard to get it up and going again….trust me I know from personal experience! Just make sure you create a marketing system before you start and stick with it! This is probably the biggest reason why people fail at probate investing….remember 75% of success is just showing up.

#4. Don’t rely on just one way to generate Probate leads! It has been taught in every Probate home study course that you need to mail the Personal Representative….and this is true, but that doesn’t mean you need to stop with just mailing PR’s. I am a huge fan of marketing one time and getting deals from that source for a long time to come (sort of like our bank REO strategy of marketing REO listing agents). So with that said we put the same amount of effort (if not more) into marketing Probate Attorneys as we do marketing Personal Representatives. Once you get a good relationship with a Probate attorney they can send you great deals with NO COMPETITION for years to come!! I just purchased a probate deal last month from an attorney who was the sole decision maker for accepting offers on a property that needed a good amount of work. I made an offer that I knew was ridiculously low, but since nobody really cared how much money they got for the property (since it was in bad shape) they accepted my offer. I was then able to wholesale that particular deal for a 15K profit in under an hour from the time I singed the contract. As you would suspect I will be continuing to build my business relationship with that attorney (through marketing) and many others in order to keep growing the probate side of my REI business.

Buying probate properties has become my absolutely favorite way to get deals for my real estate business…..but it wasn’t always this high on my list that’s for sure. However by making a few small changes to the way I approached probate investing it dramatically changed the amount of success my business was having. Keep an eye out later this year for our educational marketing product that is dedicated entirely to generating more probate leads than your business can handle. We have spent the time in the trenches perfecting the best forms of marketing for this niche and very soon we will be making all of this valuable money making information available to you! I hope you enjoyed this article and hopefully it will help you with your future probate investing.

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