Virtual Assistant · Nigeria · Member since 2026 · 4 posts · 1 vote
Noticing probate seems to take longer to close than other off-market types, but the margins can be better. Anyone else seeing that pattern, or is it market-dependent?
I've heard that on average probate deals take about 74 days to close...I'm sure there are some outliers that get stuck. If there is no will and multiple heirs spread across the country then you might be looking at 10 months or longer.
The slower close is the court calendar, not the house. A better margin shows up only when the personal representative can convey and the price still works after the extra weeks.
Write the delay into the number: MAO = (ARV × 0.70) − rehab − fee, and the fee has to cover the time the file sits. A longer close is not a bigger fee unless the discount is real and written down.
Before treating probate as a better-margin lane, check who has authority to sign, whether the estate is open, and whether any public sale date is still in the future. A passed auction date is not a deal.
— Igor (Coral Springs, FL). I underwrite Broward public-record notices. I do not have a property under contract in this reply.
The margin conversation is missing the part that decides whether you get paid: authority. The house doesn't matter if the person signing can't convey title. Before spending a dollar marketing to a probate lead, pull the probate court docket in the county where the owner died. Three things: is an estate open, who was appointed executor or administrator, and is there a will contest or creditor claims sitting in the file. If no estate is open, the heirs you're talking to can't sell you anything yet, no matter how motivated they sound.
The timeline nobody budgets for is the creditor claim period plus the court calendar. That's the real reason these take longer. Price it in: every extra month in probate is a month of taxes, insurance, and your capital tied up while the court does its thing.
Simple filter: no open estate with an appointed representative, no deal yet. Everything else is just conversation.
That pattern is pretty common. The slower close is usually what creates the margin, because fewer buyers want to wait on court approval or deal with multiple heirs. Timelines vary a lot by state (some require court confirmation of the sale, some don't), so it's very market-dependent. Make sure your holding-cost and financing assumptions account for the longer close, or the margin shrinks fast.
That matches what I hear consistently from my clients — a clean estate with a will and one or two heirs can close in 60-90 days, but add a will contest, out-of-state heirs, or no will at all and you're looking at 8-12 months, sometimes longer if the docket's backed up.
One thing a few of them have mentioned: the slow ones aren't necessarily bad deals, they're often the ones other investors gave up chasing once the file went quiet for a few months. It’s worth keeping an eye on those instead of writing them off.