“How To Use Jay Conner’s Probate System To Close More Real Estate Deals” By Jay Conner

At my recent mastermind meeting I held earlier this summer, we identified over 100 different ways we find deals! Not that you have to use all 100 ways, but it’s good to keep in mind that foreclosures, though they do account for 25 percent of our deals, aren’t the only thing real estate investors should keep their eye on. In fact, a good 15 percent of deals I do in my business are through the probate process.

Just so we’re all on the same page: When the owner or part-owner of a property has passed away, the property goes into an estate or probate process. This gives companies and individuals time to place any claims to money the estate may owe them. It’s during this process that we as real estate entrepreneurs are able to market to the heirs of the estate to possibly provide a solution if the executor or new owner of the estate wants to sell the property.

When it comes to probate deals, I had to learn a lot of things the hard way. This month, I’m going to show you how to avoid the mistakes I made in the past and start getting probate deals yourself.

The Big Secret About Probate Lists 

Years ago, when we started marketing to people in the probate process, I used to go down to the courthouse and look up records myself. This is what I call the “hard way.” Over time, I learned how to streamline the process and now I get my probate list from a very valuable website. This website is one of my big secrets. I usually only share it with the students who attend my live events. But to help you get started working with probate deals today, I’m going to encourage you to visit UsLeadList.com.

Once a quarter, this website generates a list of estates that have gone into probate in your area. Though they won’t tell you how recent the names are or when the person on the list passed away, you can use this list to reach out to people in the probate process who may be looking to sell the estate. This subscription is not that expensive; I pay around $250 a year for lists I get every 90 days.

The Right Way to Reach Out to Someone in Probate

How you contact the names on your list is very important. I use a letter I crafted myself. It’s personalized, right down to the envelope. The envelope is hand-addressed with a live stamp.  Inside of the envelope, the tone of the letter is really soft, but I lay it all out for them. I’m upfront with how I got their information, I express sympathy for their loss, and I acknowledge they may not be interested in selling the property right now, if ever. But if they are thinking about selling, I let them know I’m here to help.

I include the benefits of doing business with me — for example, not having to deal with a bunch of people from the real estate community dig through their relative’s home. If they want to close quickly, the letter lets them know we can close in as little as seven days and that we can make an offer on the property with no loan contingencies, no inspections, and no appraisals. And I make a point to mention that I buy properties in any condition.

If you know anything about my foreclosure system, you know I use sequential letters when trying to close foreclosure deals. I do not do that with probate deals. Probate letters are soft. I don’t want to be hitting these people over the head. But the thing is, I don’t have to send multiple letters in a probate deal. What I’ve found with these people, the executive or heirs of the estate, is that they will hang onto the letter. Some people will call me right away, but there are others I won’t hear from until a year later.

Now this is really important: If you are working in a small area, do not automate the letters going out to the people on the list you get from UsLeadList.com before you get a chance to review the recent list. You don’t want people you know closely getting the letter right after you saw them at their loved one’s funeral.

Never Mail a Yellow Letter

If you don’t know, a yellow letter is just that: a yellow letter with a message that basically says, “I want to buy your house!” in what looks like handwritten font. A yellow letter may work well for most other leads, but for a probate deal, oh my lands, don’t even think about it. Yes, this is another thing I learned the hard way.

I made the mistake of sending yellow letters to the names on my probate list, and it was horrible! Once, I got a voicemail from a young lady who happened to be a distant relative of mine. She was so angry and upset, and I was so embarrassed, I sent her an actual handwritten letter to apologize. Save yourself the trouble and don’t bring yellow letters anywhere near your probate deal.

Don’t Automate Your Responses

Here’s yet another lesson I had to learn the hard way. When you put your contact information in the letter your sending to the names on your probate list, do not include a number that sends them to a 24-hour hotline or an answering service. Much like with yellow letters, while answering services work in other deals, they are bad news in the probate process.

If a person has lost a loved one, especially an elderly person whose spouse recently passed away, they don’t want to talk to an answering service; they want to talk to you! The probate letter is the only piece of marketing I have going out that has people calling me on my personal cell phone number.

Ask the Magic Question

When I get calls from the probate letter, I start the call by saying, “First, before we discuss your desires and the situation regarding your property, I want to express my condolences. I’m sorry for your loss.” Remember, it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. You cannot come off like a salesman. You need to be sincere and genuinely sorry for their loss. Be sure to pause and give the other person time to respond. Then, after you’ve talked about that for a moment, I ask the magic question: “Tell me about your situation.”

This is an open-ended question, and that’s a good thing. They will immediately go to their hotspot and talk about what is most important to them. If they start talking about the property and the house, mentioning repairs, you know immediately that they’re worried they’ll have problems selling the house or listing it with a realtor.  They may also start to talk about the person who passed away, and you should engage in that conversation a little longer.

“Tell me about your situation,” is such a good question because it gets to the heart of what this person wants and lets them feel like they are leading the conversation — though we know the person who asks the questions is really leading the conversation.

After they answer the question, I’ll get into talking about the property. Keep in mind, discussing how much they want to sell it for comes last. Engage in the conversation in a warm and welcoming way so they want to talk to you.

Probate in Action

Dealing with probate can be challenging, but when you pull it off, it’s worth the effort. Take a recent probate deal I had. After I sent the letters out to the names on the list from last quarter, I received a call from a woman’s son-in-law. Turns out, he’s a well-known realtor in the area and a broker in charge of an independent firm, but the family didn’t want to list the property in the multiple listing service. Instead, they wanted to work with a real estate investor and just be done.

When the son-in-law called, we had a conversation like what I outlined above and set an appointment to check out the house. Right away, I could see why they didn’t want to bother with the MLS. Though the house sat right on a golf course, it was built in the 1980s and needed a lot of updating.

When I left, I did my research and came back with an offer. I bought the house for $140,000 and ended up putting $30,000 into the rehab process. When we were ready to list it for sale, it went on the market for $300,000. In the end there were four winners:

• The heirs who got what they wanted and were able to close the deal quickly.
• The next family who will move into that house.
• The private lenders who funded the deal got a nice rate of return, safe and secure.
• And I win, because I orchestrated a successful deal.

Much like foreclosure, probate is a tricky topic. When you do these kinds of deals, it’s important you come from a servant’s heart. You need to come from a place of wanting to help people. People can tell when you are just trying to buy their house and get a good deal for yourself. When you’re in the mindset of wanting to help people move forward in their life and have a win-win-win-win situation, that’s when these deals happen.