Finding probate properties and their owners

Successful real estate agents and investors who flip many houses know where and how to find good properties to purchase. You can find houses to flip if you network and work hard enough. There are various ways to find these houses, including a short sale, foreclosure auction or through wholesalers.

Additionally, you can search and find a property by purchasing probate properties. When you buy a house in probate, you are more likely to get a price that is below its fair market value.

Probate properties are on the rise to being one of the largest and fast-growing niches in the real estate industry. This is mainly attributed to the huge proportion of the aging population and the growing number of people passing down estates and homes. Young people who inherit these properties are not willing to live in these houses due to various personal and professional reasons.

In cases where there are surviving spouses, they tend to sell the properties as they may not be able to keep up with the maintenance costs. Others prefer to downsize into something more ideal for their preference and needs.

What is Probate?

Probate refers to the legal process of reviewing a will to determine its authenticity and validity. It is also defined as the general granting of a deceased person’s will or their estate in the absence of a will. If you are a real estate agent, you can capitalize on unwanted probate properties since they are ideal investment properties.

When a house owner dies, several things can happen. First, if the deceased left no heir or will, the house or estate usually goes to a probate court to be sold. The state oversees the sale of the property.

Although the court will find the highest price possible for a probate property, it will still sell below market value. This is a perfect opportunity for you as a real estate agent to get a valuable property to flip at a cheap price.

If the deceased left a will, the property is handed down to the heir. You may get a chance to buy the property, especially if the heir is unwilling to live in the property. An heir may not be willing to take care of the property, or they may already have a home. In this case, they end up selling the property to avoid losing profit through taxes, maintenance, insurance, and other related costs.

How to Pull Probate Lists

You can easily access probate records since they are available for public access. The basic information is offered for free, although you may need to buy other records. The information provided includes the attorneys, executors, judges, creditors of the estate, and even the beneficiaries. You can find these records at the local probate clerk’s office in the county where the person last lived or online.

Finding Probate Leads

You can find probate leads using innovations in data sourcing and tracking the property owners. A probate list will include the mortgage information, ownership information, and the contact information of the property owner.

Local newspapers are also sources where you can find probate lists. Probate sales are usually listed in the newspapers by executors who are aiming at selling the house. The obituary section contains useful information as the death of the property owner determines probate sales. Online bulletins and social media also offer probate listing.

Probate property is also sold through local home auctions. Auctions can easily raise the prices to fair market value during the bidding process. This makes auctions an expensive method of buying probate property.

Buying Probate Property

After you have found the ideal probate property, it’s now time to buy it. You should anticipate delays since the court process is lengthy. It can take anywhere from 18 to 36 months to finalize the purchase. You will be required to make a down payment of 10% after making your offer and then wait for a confirmation from the court.

After the court accepts your offer, you can request an inspection of the property. Although you cannot back out of the purchase for any reason, it’s a good idea to have the house inspected. This will enable you to know the actual condition of the house and how you can cut losses.

Cons of Probate Properties

As much as probate property is sold cheaply, it does have its disadvantages. Buying a probate property through a probate court takes a lot of time, usually up to several months. The processes involved in a probate court are time-consuming, especially if a person did not leave a will.

Probate property is not ideal if you are looking to buy property fast since it can take years compared to other methods that take a few days. But, they are still a good option if you are willing to wait it out. The court process can go faster if you prove to the court that you have funds and then offer a cash purchase. This will get the attention of the probate court and the personal representative, especially after paying a 10% deposit.

Before buying a probate property, ensure that you get as much information as you can about it. Check whether it has any debts attached to it as you will be forced to pay for it. You can buy the probate property if you anticipate that you will make a fortune from it. Most probate properties do not have debt attached to them, making them a great buy for a real estate agent with access to a lot of cash.

Skip Tracing

Skip tracing refers to tracking down and finding property owners. You can use it to find probate properties. There are three approaches to skip tracing, including the DIY approach, using specialized tools, or hiring a professional skip tracing company.

When you choose to do skip tracing by yourself, you have to check through local records to find property owners. You can also find more information from the county tax assessor’s office, including information on the property owner.

However, the DIY method tends to bring in mixed results. There is usually little information to work with, and finding the property owner’s contact and address is a daunting task.

Another way you can do skip tracing is by using specialized tools. There are innovations in real estate investing tools. The tools are designed to aid in the process of finding probate properties and performing investment analysis.

Hiring a Professional Skip Tracing Company

Hiring a professional skip tracing company is an efficient way to save your efforts and time. Skip tracing specialists can help you identify property owners in a fast and efficient way. There are various companies offering skip tracing services, but none compares to the efficiency and accuracy of Clear Skip.

Clear Skip offers intuitive and straightforward solutions that yield results that matter. We always meet your needs with our able customer service team. Clear Skip provides the most up-to-date and accurate data possible and responds to all your concerns and questions.

Clear Skip is the number one skip tracing service in the world, offering a 2-hour delivery turnaround time. With an average hit rate of 95% for accurate information on leads, you can save time and money and make more money. We also offer free sorting of data records and updated information such as Email, phone number, and mailing address per record.

If you are a real estate agent currently closing about one or two deals a month and your skip tracing is 40% accurate, you can effectively double your monthly deals with a skip rate of 95% from Clear skip. You will get exceptional service from an experienced team with a premium nationwide skip tracing database.

Clear Skip will help you turn those dead records into motivated leads. We are an industry-leading company offering clients the best service. Our focus is on attaining the best reputation on tracing deliveries and quality customer service.