Probate question!

[Corey Hassan]

I have been doing some research on the BP forums trying to find some answers for this.  I did some digging and was able to find a list of probates and Fiduciaries from the past year for my target market which I am looking to reach out to.  

Questions being it has the name of the deceased and the Fiduciary (typically the son/daughter/spouse of the deceased), and I have been doing a reverse lookup of the deceased to see where they were living.  I am now about to send out letters to the Fiduciaries inquiring about the property.  My only concern is that if they haven't lived there for awhile or the information is inaccurate I will come off as unprofessional.  I have no problem sending the letters anyway because I want to try to uncover any opportunity that may be out there but I wanted to see from some users with more experience on what your thoughts were.  Should I mail out to the fiduciary inquiring about the last place of residence of the deceased?  Any help would be great.

Thanks!

[Ned Carey]

Just ask if the estate had any property to sell. You don't have to know WHICH property just to approach them. 

[Joseph Ball]

Go to County Property Appraiser website, and enter name of deceased.

[Jeanine P.]

You can go to the tax assessor and see if enter the name of the decedent, if they owned property the property will show up. Another thing, Google the decedents name and see what comes up. You can also do a search online for the heirs. Use 411.com to search for heirs phone # or address. Hope this helps a bit.

[Rick H.]

Originally posted by @Corey Hassan:

I have been doing some research on the BP forums trying to find some answers for this.  I did some digging and was able to find a list of probates and Fiduciaries from the past year for my target market which I am looking to reach out to.  

Questions being it has the name of the deceased and the Fiduciary (typically the son/daughter/spouse of the deceased), and I have been doing a reverse lookup of the deceased to see where they were living.  I am now about to send out letters to the Fiduciaries inquiring about the property.  My only concern is that if they haven't lived there for awhile or the information is inaccurate I will come off as unprofessional.  I have no problem sending the letters anyway because I want to try to uncover any opportunity that may be out there but I wanted to see from some users with more experience on what your thoughts were.  Should I mail out to the fiduciary inquiring about the last place of residence of the deceased?  Any help would be great.

Thanks!

 If you are trying to determine if the decedent owned real property, you'd search public records for properties in their name, if not available in court recirds.

[Corey Hassan]

@Rick H. 

Thank you all for the help!  I kept digging and found the online tax assessor site for each of the towns I was looking for online.  I had to do a lot of digging once on the sites to decipher who actually owned the property.  I was able to weed out a lot of people on my list and have qualified contacts on my list as well.

Thanks for all your help!

[Jeanine P.]

@Corey Hassan

Try to Google the decedents name, you may find the obituary online. There are a lot of online sites who pick up the obits. I have found many heirs searching the decedents name online through the obituary. Look and see what relatives are attached to the decedent.

[Corey Hassan]

@Rick H. 

I've been following the forums and notice you seem to be an expert in the field of probates.  I'm doing more and more research and have mailed out to my first list of probates.  I am looking in the next county over now and wanted to ask your opinion on this.  If the deceased spouse still lives in that property, do you mail them asking if they are looking to sell the property?

I feel like its a thin line and don't want to upset the spouse but was wondering your thoughts on this.

Thanks!

[Rick H.]

@Corey Hassan If you nail offering to be of service rather than pitch the idea of selling, you can certainly contact a surviving spouse, IMHO. 

You WILL get people who are upset. You didn't make them that way, they're just mad at life and pissed off at the world. What surprises me us that I'm beginning yo enjoy talking to people who are upset. Why? Because people who are in an emotional state are preferable than people who are indifferent. 

Survivors are a different lot. Many want limited or no contact with outside world and prefer to be hermit-like much of the time. Their personal space requirements are much larger but you can have a powerful impact if you learn how to penetrate their barrier(s). 

Mail 'em. Call 'em. Knick in their door and learn the skill of power-listening.

[Corey Hassan]

@Rick H. 

Awesome, thank you for the advice.  The good thing is I've been in sales for awhile now so I'm used to some SERIOUS rejection, however it was just the delicate situation of dealing with someone who recently lost a love one that was causing me to hesitate.  I'll put together a custom mail piece to send to these people being a bit more delicate.

Thanks!