Wholesaler · Burleson, TX · Member since 2016 · 6 posts · 2 votes
Hello My name is Aaron. I just started wholesaling after taking an expensive course in December of 2015. Probate marketing seems like a niche I want to go for. So far Ive purchased 4 months of data from us leads list and have gotten zero deals and just a few calls (Maybe 3). My other direct mail campaigns get terrible responses also. I would be extremely appreciative for some help on these matters from someone with real experience.
There are a lot of folks in this thread that know direct mail. The one thing you need to understand is that direct mail is not something you do a few times and you're done. It's a long term strategy. You need to mail to those folks every month until the house is sold. Something like 85% of your deals will come at or beyond the 5th mailing. You haven't mailed nearly long enough to get discouraged.
In general have found the leads from list brokers to be pretty poor when it comes to probates. Often they are actually working obits which is not what I recommend you do.
You need 4 pieces of information to be successful in this niche; the name and address of both the deceased and the executor. You will most likely need to get that information locally rather than from a service for best results, and that will take a little detective work.
I start mailing as soon as the notice comes out. That may be a recent death or it may have taken place many months ago. You really don't need to know that information. When the probate is opened that is an indication that they are ready to move forward with the sale of the house. As I said for some folks this is immediately, but for others it may be as long as a year.
With probates you are looking for the ones that have some sort of problem which is no different than any other group of sellers. Some houses will be sold retail and that's OK. We are looking for those that need repairs, updates or have some other sort of problem that makes an investor deal look more attractive to them than listing the house.
As someone said, no matter how you get your leads you will need to verify that there is real property. I do that on the county tax assessor's site for each and every lead.
I do know that some areas in Texas have the information online so check there. Google probates + your county.
One last thing to remember; working probates is pretty simple but it's not always easy. Most people will quit so hang in there. Be a 1%'er.
Investor · Baltimore, MD · Member since 2008 · 17k+ posts · 13k+ votes
10y
Look for posts by @Jerry Puckett and @Michael Quarles they have both written some excellent stuff on direct mail. People will tell you all direct mail works best with multiple mailing to the same people. I think that is especially true with probate.
How many pieces have you mailed; Dozens, hundreds, or thousands. If it is not thousands you have not done enough.
Specialist · Portland, OR · Member since 2015 · 1k+ posts · 231 votes
10y
I doubt it's your mailing pieces. It's important to obtain quality data. In my opinion fresher is better, especially with probates. Also, you should only obtain probate data where title was checked to insure the decedent or the heirs own it and not a third party. Otherwise you're just wasting your time. A lot of properties go through probate. Other cases do also. A lot of companies sell bulk, aged data to whoever will buy it, therefore resulting in all of you who purchased it competing with each other. You need to know what you're looking for.
Lender · Greater LA/Orange County area, CA · Member since 2012 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
10y
What the other posters have not told you is that most probate are not distressed sales.
Consequently, you need to understand the mindset and the pain points of the personal rep's and the timeline.
Using the timeline you'll better understand how and when to a certain message is more likely to appeal to your prospect.
In my experience i've learned that you need to hunt for estates with big problems that you can solve. For instance, open probate with a defaulted reverse mortgage in foreclosure. That's a balloon payment requiring payment in full. Most estates don't have that kind of cash laying around and must sell.
After nearly 2,000 closed probate deals I've become a specialist in working pre-probate and missing owner deals and substantial experienced with clearing messy titles and probate puzzles.
Los Angeles, CA · Member since 2014 · 2k+ posts · 515 votes
10y
Hello @Aaron Shehan and welcome to BP. BP is a great place for real estate investing. At BP, you can get the answers you are looking for while connecting with other investors. You came to the right place and I wish you all the best.
There are a lot of folks in this thread that know direct mail. The one thing you need to understand is that direct mail is not something you do a few times and you're done. It's a long term strategy. You need to mail to those folks every month until the house is sold. Something like 85% of your deals will come at or beyond the 5th mailing. You haven't mailed nearly long enough to get discouraged.
In general have found the leads from list brokers to be pretty poor when it comes to probates. Often they are actually working obits which is not what I recommend you do.
You need 4 pieces of information to be successful in this niche; the name and address of both the deceased and the executor. You will most likely need to get that information locally rather than from a service for best results, and that will take a little detective work.
I start mailing as soon as the notice comes out. That may be a recent death or it may have taken place many months ago. You really don't need to know that information. When the probate is opened that is an indication that they are ready to move forward with the sale of the house. As I said for some folks this is immediately, but for others it may be as long as a year.
With probates you are looking for the ones that have some sort of problem which is no different than any other group of sellers. Some houses will be sold retail and that's OK. We are looking for those that need repairs, updates or have some other sort of problem that makes an investor deal look more attractive to them than listing the house.
As someone said, no matter how you get your leads you will need to verify that there is real property. I do that on the county tax assessor's site for each and every lead.
I do know that some areas in Texas have the information online so check there. Google probates + your county.
One last thing to remember; working probates is pretty simple but it's not always easy. Most people will quit so hang in there. Be a 1%'er.
Wholesaler · Burleson, TX · Member since 2016 · 6 posts · 2 votes
10y
thank you! Im getting my fort worth list from a broker currently. I will cross reference it with county records. I did notice that the property in the list is the last known address of the decedent and that leads me to believe a portion of the data isn't real property. hmmm...
I just started researching a smaller county in my market and I notice that real property doesn't show up until inventory is posted in the records and that can be months after the probate is filed. The records have the name of the PR/plaintiff and not their address most of the time. Will the address of the PR show up in county records?
Thank You very much for the qualified information. I hope to one day sell my other business and rely on real estate as my business.
Investor · Fort Worth, TX · Member since 2016 · 1 post · 0 votes
9y
@Aaron Shehan, how is it going with your probate property search? I'm a Fort Worth local, and fairly new to the probate property philosophy, however I'm intrigued. I've done title work for an O&G company for several years, so I know my way around the Tarrant/Dallas County records pretty well. I'm gathering my data from local sources, being the Commercial Recorder and the classics (county probate records). I'll be doing my first mailing this week with letters, and following up with 5.5" x 4.2" magnet postcards. I hope you're finding some success! Thanks to everyone on this thread for your insight!
Wholesaler · Burleson, TX · Member since 2016 · 6 posts · 2 votes
9y
ive mailed professional letters consistantly for 6 months. 0 deals and a few leads. In my opinion its the most competitive list to go after. its fair to say that my negotiating and comping are better than day 1 so im sticking with it. There are def more qualified people to ask about this subject. Best Wishes!!
Rental Property Investor · San Antonio, TX · Member since 2014 · 44 posts · 14 votes
9y
@Aaron Shehan Another six months have passed. How'd the marketing go? I'm in Baltimore and starting my marketing campaign in April We are mailing to 7 counties, but based on some local mentorship, I may pair it down to 5. We'll see. In Md, I scrape the Register of Wills website, get my list, and then go to the courthouse to do my research. I look at every inventory sheet to see if there's property involved. If so, I copy down the number of heirs (kind of a data junkie...not sure if this really means anything - more heirs = tougher negotiations? maybe?), the tax sheet assessed value, and appraisal if there is one. I used to take down the address, but with the amount of records I wanted to get through (2500), it was bogging me down.
@Sharon Vornholt I'm not sure if I can do it any more efficiently, as I don't want to pay the fee for online searches. $1 per viewing? EEK! By going to the courthouse I can get through about 300 cases in just an hour. The ones that don't yet have inventories I mark to use in a later mailing.
We are planning 7 mailings per campaign, but may change that if I hear better strategies. Our goal is to do 1000 mailers per drip of "qualified" leads, meaning those that actually have properties.
Goshen, KY · Member since 2009 · 835 posts · 683 votes
9y
Andrew - you need to mail everyone, every month as long as the house is available. Why quit at 7? A lot of people don't sell until around he year mark.