Many of the questions I get concerning Probate investing are about the same topics so I thought I would answer a couple today that might be in your mind.

Here’s five of the most popular.

1. How do I find the newspaper that carries my counties Probate Notices?.
Since there is no single national resource for locating a paper in your area (providing you have one). Please review pages 27-29 of the manual. As I say, you should be looking for a “Legal and Construction Notice” paper. If you cannot locate this paper, call a couple of Probate attorney’s offices and inquire of the staff to see if they might be able to help you. You might tell them someone in your family has recently passed away and you are attempting to conduct probate on your own.
Also, more and more counties are now publishing their Probate records on line and this will become bigger everyday. Check with your county to see if they are now making their records available on line.
2. I can’t find the PR’s address…should I mail to the attorney?
I have not had much luck dealing with attorneys when they are representing the estate. My suggestion is to mail to the PR at the deceased’s address. Most often, the PR is receiving the deceased’s mail so ultimately your letter should end up in the PR’s hands.
3. I live in California and the process seems to be different. Do you have any suggestions?
The major difference that exists in CA has to do with a person dying with or without a will. If a person dies without a will, the court will appoint a Probate Inheritance Referee. If there is a will, no Referee is appointed. If a Referee is appointed, the overbidding process is used. I have placed two resources for you at the bottom of my site under the “Articles” link. One is the CA Probate Code (Free) which contains Sections 10303 and 10305 that deals with the overbidding process and the other is to link for a book that can be valuable to you, “How to Probate an Estate in California”. If I were going to be a Probate investor in CA, I would have both of these. Let me also state the two most successful Probate investors I know of live in CA so that tells me once you learn their system, it can be very profitable.
4. Can you help me find the PR’s phone number?
Since 9/11, PR’s phone numbers have been harder to get. I don’t know of any special method of locating these numbers other than directories both online and offline.
5. Do I need to have professionally printed stationary and envelopes? How about hand addressing?
No you do not. I use nice plain paper and an inkjet printer for envelopes both for the return address and the mailing address.

Another popular topic is start up money.
If I were starting from scratch today and developing my budget to begin my Probate investing, here’s what I would need.
1. Training materials $297, Ron Mead’s “Seminar-in-a-Box”

http://BuyProbateProperty.com

2. Office supplies, (one ream of paper, one box of envelopes, 100 stamps) $60.
3. Subscription to local business newspaper, $30 (not necessary but helpful)
4. Access to $500-$1000 for first earnest money deposit.
That’s it! That’s all you need to get up and rollin’.
In addition, if you were to devote one day to studying my materials, you could be working the next day.
Can’t get much simpler can it?
That’s it for today….tomorrow I will cover some more FAQ’s.
Enjoy your week!

I once heard a speaker ask his audience this question;

“If you were going to open a restaurant, what is the single greatest factor that will affect your chances of success?”

One audience member said your location.

Another said great food.

A third said a well trained and friendly staff.

Unfortunately none of these was the answer the presenter was looking for.

His answer was

“A hungry crowd!”

And I guess he was right to a degree.

A famished crowd will trump all the other answers. …….at least for a while.

But I understood his point.

If your market is starving, don’t try to sell them shoes……give ‘em food.

What if I were to ask that question to a group of potential real estate investors?

“If you could pick a single factor that will impact your chances of success as a new real estate investor, what do you think that would be?”

Some of the answers I’ll bet I would get would be,

-Good training
-A large bankroll
-The economy
-Perseverance
-A secret method nobody else knows about
-An investor/backer

While all of these certainly can help, they are not the key I’m looking for.

Want to know my answer?

Here’s what will give you the greatest chance of success.

MOTIVATED SELLERS!

That’s right, if you have sellers that want to sell their home and right now, you’re way ahead of the game.

Well guess what field has almost all motivated sellers?

You’re right……Probate Real Estate!

99% all the people who have inherited a house, want to sell it……and right now.

Why? Because they want the money, not the house.

And they don’t want the hassle of dealing with it.

That’s why I tell everyone that Probate Real Estate is the absolute best opportunity for those who are just getting into Real Estate investing.

The reason I bring this up is a couple of days ago I listened to a new “Probate Guru”.

He actually called himself that. I never have liked that title…..maybe teacher is a little better, but only if you know your subject.

Supposedly he has years of experience and has made millions of dollars buying and selling Probate houses.

Yet he never mentioned in his tele-seminar the most important reason for talking to the heirs.

They ARE “motivated sellers”.

Makes me kind of wonder about the rest of his presentation but I had no wonderment about his price.

His course is $997….Yikes! ……..now I know he’s out of touch with his audience.

People don’t want to (or do they need to) pay that kind of money to learn how to develop a successful Probate investing business.

I don’t know about you, but to me $1000 seems like a lot of money…… especially right now.

Would you like to learn how to find these motivated sellers that absolutely must sell their houses?

Would you like to learn this at a fraction of the $1000 the new guy on the block is charging?
I’ve got a short video I would like you to watch. After you see it, the only decision you’ll need to make is the format you want. Right now, the “Seminar-in-a-Box” is the most popular.

Why?

From the feedback I have gotten, it’s because you folks like to see me actually DOING a Probate deal from start to finish, not just hearing someone tell you HOW to do a deal.

However, I do offer my course in book format, either delivered digitally or mailed to you in hard copy.

You choose.

Want to see the video?

Here’s where you can find it,

http://BuyProbateProperty.com

And if you are worried about the money, here’s my tip for today. I wrote “Make A Flippin’ Fortune” three years ago and its all about “guerilla financing methods”. The answer to finding the money for your deals is in there.

How do I know?

One of my subscribers just sent me a tip on a guy who is teaching how to find “private money sources”.

I did some research on him and he’s teaching the same idea I talked about 3 years ago.

The biggest difference is he’s blown it up to a massive course….and guess what?

He’s also charging a massive price.

Near as I can figure its about 20 times my price.

So if you would like to check out “Make a Flippin’ Fortune” you can find it here.

http://MakeAFlippinFortune.com

Prefer not to order online?

Sorry but we don’t have a call center in India.

Just call The Darling Bride, Sharon, right here in Orygun.

She speaks American, is really, really nice and sometimes that’s a little breath of fresh air we all need.

Toll free 866.879.8893

Give her a call, she’d love to help you.

Got to go……I need to work on my “Guru” status.

I’ll bet if I look long enough and am willing to pay enough I could probably become a “Certified Guru”.

Get a guru certificate to frame and put on my wall.

Impress my friends!

Naaa, they know me. I’m the same guy that mows the lawn, rakes the leaves and takes out the garbage……….all definitely non guru chores.

I hope all of you had a nice Easter Sunday. Sometimes in the midst of tons of kids, Easter eggs, candy and stuff, the true meaning of the day gets lost.

We went out of town to visit with my sister and brother-in-law for the weekend and while that’s always enjoyable, there’s nothing like your own bed is there?

Many of you have asked about existing mortgages on Probate properties so I thought I would take a moment and explain how all that works.

First of all, all mortgages are liens but all liens are not mortgages.

For example, the county may put a lien on a property for past due property taxes.

Your lender will ALWAYS put a lien on your property if they lend you money on it. You give them a mortgage on the property which acts as their proof of security for the money they give you for the purchase.

So both of these are liens but obviously only one’s a mortgage.

However, there’s really only one thing you need to remember.

Liens do not pass with title.

Let me repeat that.

Liens do not pass with title.

So that means at closing all liens on the property must be paid (by the seller) so that you will receive what is called “clear title”.

That’s why I am so insistent that for closing, you all use a title company or in those few states that still use attorneys, use a real estate attorney.

They will make sure that all liens are satisfied at closing and the property you purchase is “lien free”.

So when you are talking with the PR, you should always ask if there is an existing mortgage on the property. Almost always they will know because if there is, they will have been the one making the monthly payment.

As a sidelight, do you think writing that check every month might be a motivation for the PR to look favorably on your discounted offer?

I guarantee it is!

If a mortgage does exist, ask what the current balance is.

This really won’t affect you unless the balance is more than what you intended to offer.

For example, if you want to offer $190,000 and the existing mortgage balance is $200,000, you are wasting your time because you cannot close unless the seller is willing to bring in the $10,000 difference.

So once you know the existing balance and you determine the approximate price you are willing to pay, you will immediately realize if the property is worth pursuing.

But here’s the great part about Probate houses and why they are so attractive for you and me.

Over 65% of them are free and clear.

They do not have an existing mortgage.

Consequently the PR can be much more flexible when viewing your offer.

They may want to get say $200,000 but may very well accept your $165,000 offer if it’s free and clear. They certainly won’t do that if they have to pay off $175,000 to a lender.

Remember, often times the PR views the amount you are paying as “Free Money”.

This is one of the huge differences in Probate Real Estate and other markets of real estate investing.

See why so many folks think it’s such a great segment of the Real Estate market?

NO other niche has such a high percentage of free and clear homes and that’s a great advantage for you and me working in Probate.

If you would like more information on Probate Real Estate, please visit,

http://BuyProbateProperty.com

Enjoy your week!