Having Issues Searching for Probate Properties in My County

[Alvin Grier]

I've recently decided to implement probates into our marketing.

I've found some instructions on how to go about finding properties from probate.

The first step is to check the daily obituaries (for me, they're located on the right part of the screen on this page: http://www.detroitnews.com/section/obituaries) and gather names so I can check them against the county property ownership records to see if the deceased owned real estate.

No problem there.

The next step is where I'm coming across issues.

Step two, is to check the county property ownership records to see if there's a probate property associated the name of the deceased.

When I for some of the names I found in the obituaries (http://www.waynecountylandrecords.com/RealEstate/SearchEntry.aspx), I'll find other types of records for their names, but I've yet to find any records for these individuals that are of the types "Probate Court Order" or "Probate File."

I can't help but wonder if this might be because the people just passed away.

Isn't it too soon to expect to find probate-related documents associated with someone who just passed away?

[Rick H.]

If you take a step back and look at your system, you'll see that your opportunity at the stage you are connecting the dots are for pre-probates.

A pre-probate, as I define it, is a property owned by a deceased person for which no probate has been filed (yet).

Just because someone dies owning a property doesn't automatically mean that it EVER get probated. Any number of reasons that I won't go into here.