Am I missing something here? At the Probate courthouse?

Question

Hello there! I am new here, this is only my second post. I was wondering if any of you wholesale probate properties? I am asking this because I went down to the courthouse to find the leads and I could not find the decedents address. I found the personal representative's address but not the decedents.The documents I am finding this information on are application of informal probate and the will. The only thing listed in the will is the county the person expired in, not the personal property (at least all of the ones I've seen).I am in Albuquerque, NM. Am I missing something? Do I just have to dig deeper? I'm not sure if it's even possible to retrieve these leads in my county. Any feedback is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Steve Babiak · Answer

Maybe you can look up decedent names in the recorder of deeds, and then also check out Google, white pages, etc.

Ricco R. · Answer

I personally have went to the County Accessor office here in Albuquerque, NM and found probate listings. There were very few for the months Jun - Sep 2015 but it is very possible. As Rick H. mentioned you need to look for Inventory. If you click on a decedents name and it has a document filed called "Inventory" be sure to check that. That is where you'll find property if any.

Guy Olds · Answer

@Vincent Herrera @Matt Gee

As @Gerry Rae noted about Arizona that it is a "closed" state. So is New Mexico and I believe Texas as well. When I lived in Albuquerque a few years ago and tried my hand going downtown to the courthouse to research probate leads I discovered that no real estate was mentioned anywhere. And certainly not on any inventory filing. In a "closed" state most real estate records are hidden from the public's view.

So, if you do move forward with probate mailings in Albuquerque you do so blind in a way. You have the PR address but no clue if there is property. So your response rate will be very low. HOWEVER, if my memory serves there were only about 500 new probate cases per year in Bernalillo County so if you just mailed to everyone you won't be out too much money.

In Southern California were I do my probate marketing there are 500 new probate cases a month. I do know where the decedent lived when he/she died but I have no idea if that property is for sale. All I can do is check to see if the dead person was on title but that doesn't tell me if they own other property.

In Albuquerque you may be flying blind with your probate marketing but I bet that means you will have a lot less competition if you follow through month after month.

Jeff Cubinski · Answer

Even if the state is closed all you have to do is take the deceased name which I assume you have and cross reference the name to tax records which I believe are public in all states - could be wrong.  I guess that is a plus being a Realtor - I have assess to that information directly.

Gerry Rae · Answer

Some States are "closed" e.g. Arizona, where I live. They do not disclose the decedent information publicly. Other states are "open". Find out which kind your State is. Call the court admin folks to find out.

Jeff Cubinski · Answer

Ask at the courthouse if they have a way to look up the address by name - they could have a computer look up.  The other would the assessors office or if they use an appraiser.  Otherwise here if you have access to the MLS you can look it up - that is what I do since I am a Realtor as well.

Matt Gee · Answer

Looking in the inventory I filed, there wasn't even a plat, or physical address for some land that I had to list.  Just a vague description of what city/ area it is located.

Matt Gee · Answer

Sadly I've had to deal with this on the other side recently.  On the probate papers I'm looking at I'm not seeing any address other than mine or the lawyers.  You'd have to do a look up on the decedent.  There isn't a way that I know of to find out what all they might own, you can however use the assessor site for bernalillo to find out who owns a property you have identified.

Vincent Herrera · Answer

@rickharmon Thanks for the info Rick. so do you think I should just be looking for the inventory document to find the decedent's property address?and if it doesn't have it, Just skip to the next file?

Vincent Herrera · Answer

@jeffcubinski can you explain to me how to look that up?

Am I missing something here? At the Probate courthouse?

Most Popular Reply