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Alvin Grier
  • Detroit, MI
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Probate Marketing - When is the Best Time to Contact the PR?

Alvin Grier
  • Detroit, MI
Posted Jun 11 2015, 07:40

FYI, I'm trying to make our probate marketing efforts more financially efficient, which is the basis for this thread.

I gather my own leads at the county.

My questions:

Quite often the inventory for the estate isn't filed and placed into the case files until 6 or 8 months (if not more) after the case is filed at the county, so...

Question #1 - Is there a way to identify when the best time is to start mailing the PR (Executor) of the probate case (if at all)?

For a while, we were mailing to PR's right after the case opened, trying to "get in early" on starting the conversation with the PR about the property.

Question #2 - But after thinking about it more, it dawned on me that that may not be smart, because if there's real estate in the estate that's going through probate, the PR can't sell the property until the probate case is closed, right?

Being early is one thing, but if they can't sell 'till the case is closed, mailing/calling over the course of 6-8 months (in some instances) before they can actually sell can be somewhat of a waste.

I've seen instances where the property that was in the name of the Decedent is sold before or shortly after the probate case was opened.

Question #3 - Does this mean that the property that belonged to the Decedent doesn't always have to be included in the probate case?

I've tried to get a little smarter, so I recently decided to start waiting to contact the PR until the estate inventory form gets filed (so I can verify that the property owned by the Decedent is even involved in the probate case).

But if I decide to wait, I began to think that I could be missing out on a chance to get dibs on the property, since the PR is likely still influential on what happens to the property (even if it's not included in the estate that's going through probate).

Question #4 - Would you agree or disagree with that line of thinking?

Question #5 - If the Will designates the party that gets the property upon the death of the Decedent, does that prevent the property from being included in the probate proceedings?

In other words, could that property be sold before the probate case is closed, if the descendant (that inherited the property via the will) chose to do so?

I've been wondering if I need to start reading the will that's in the file to get a clue if there's property involved in the estate or not.

Sorry for the length of this post.  Just trying to get a clearer understanding of how this all works.  

Thanks for your time and help.

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