probate list

Hello friends:

Can somebody kindly help out with how do we get the probate list? Can we use realquest.com/any listing company to get the probate list? Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much! :biggrin

If it were that easy, more people would be marketing to probates :beer

In most places (as far as I’m aware), you have to work to get probate leads… either you or someone you hire will have to make frequent trips to the local probate court to dig through probate case files and copy down information yourself…

I’ve been a few times and I’m getting the hang of it, but I bought a used copy of Probates by Preston which I’m waiting for currently, just to learn more about it and perhaps save myself some time and aggravation.

What I’ve been doing though is going to the probate court, going to the probate desk and asking to see the book with all of the current probate cases, and copying down file numbers and names of all the cases in towns/cities I’m interested in. I learned on my last visit that you can tell what type of probate case it is by the last two letters in the case number which will save me some time (no more guardian of minor cases for me!), but then you have to have the files pulled (where I am they limit it to 10 per day which kinda sucks…), figure out if the person owned any real estate, who their heirs are and how to contact them, who the lawyer in charge of the case is, who the petitioner/executor/rix of the estate is and how to contact them, and THEN you start marketing to them.

I did figure out that I can get all the names from the “black book” that I’m interested in, then go on to the registry of deed’s website and search the names to see which names owned real estate BEFORE having the files pulled, but even then it’s hit or miss…

ChrisPaysCash, that’s a really good info. I really appreciate it! :smile

Glad to help! I was confused as hell about “probate investing” until I just went to the courthouse on a whim, not really knowing what to do or look for, and worked my way through the process. Pretended I knew what I was doing, and after looking through a few probate files that I had pulled I could pretty much understand everything. It’s all right on the papers… names, addresses, how they were related… and you can look over the paperwork to see if any real estate is mentioned and if so, what’s supposed to happen to it…

Seems like fun to me, I’m enjoying learning it! I know that if I stick with it I’ll have a few paydays at some point along the way. I don’t know of ANYONE around my area who’s doing probates (And I know a lot of people!)

Let us know what sort of progress you make! Good luck!

Did any leads call you?

Nothing yet, but then again I only began this a couple of weeks ago and haven’t been religious about going as much as possible (It takes me about 40 minutes each way going to/coming from the court house and I’ve had other stuff going on lately, but I’m starting my twice-a-week plan this week!), so I haven’t sent many out (yet!)

Going tomorrow, gonna see if I can bribe the guy pulling the files with a $15 Dunkin’ Donuts gift card, maybe he’ll be willing to grab a few more than 10 files that I’m supposedly limited to… I want to really attack this, but would be maxed out at 50 files per week if I went every single day… and I don’t know how enthusiastic I’d be about that… I’ll go a few times a week if I have to, but I want to figure a way to go less often :stuck_out_tongue:

Also, inquire if the probate list might be available online. Each county is different, so you might or might not be so lucky. I happen to be able to get all I need for probate leads in my county’s website. Another suggestion, one thing I always strive to do, is to weed out any cases which name a spouse as a beneficiary. The odds that the spouse will want to sell the house where they spent their lives with their loved ones, is not that great. It is a bit more labor intensive, but unless you’re ready to deal with the angry phone calls you’ll get from time to time, then it shouldn’t matter. I, for one, am pretty aware of the negative speculations that come attached with the title “investor”, (unfortunately, some with good reason), so I always look for ways of doing things in the most ethical form as possible. Just my 2 cents…Good luck!