FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

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. Should I contact the Attorney if I cannot find the PR’s name and address?

My advice is no.  I have never found the attorney’s to be helpful.  It would seem they would want to forward your interest to the PR but I’ve never found that to be the case.  They’ve been especially uninterested if they are the appointed by the court to be the PR of the estate.

5. 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.

6. 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.

7. How can I purchase Probate Properties if I don’t have any money or if my credit could use some help?

Since this is my most frequently asked question, I recently wrote a second book on this very topic and you can find it at:

http://www.MakeAFlippinFortune.com.

It deals specifically with this question and also addresses other types of RE Finance questions.

8. How does your course vary from the expensive seminars I see advertised?

I have a recorded message on my site right now about this very topic so my first advice would be to go to my site, http://www.BuyProbateProperty.com and listen to my audio recording.  Since Probate investing is such a specific topic the methods of locating the properties will be the same.  This is such a unique market, that none of us that teach about this subject have any secrets the other two or three don’t know.  It really boils down to two questions. How do you learn best and how much do you want to pay.  If you will do some research on the internet, you will soon find out which courses are well thought of and which ones are not.  I guess this probably gives you a little hint as to  where I rank or I wouldn’t send you there, would I?

9. Do I have to go to the Courthouse to do my research?

Since this is a States Rights issue meaning the federal government does not have jurisdiction over any Probate court, each of the 3o77 counties have developed their own methods for handling Probate so it’s not possible for me to know exactly how your particular county works.  What I give you in the book is the various methods that I know of and you need to determine which one applies to your county.  Research at the county court house is always the default method.

10. Can I get my Probate information on line?

See question # 9. 

11. Do you provide sales contract forms?

I do not provide forms as each area of the country uses different ones.  In order for you to be in compliance with your state regulations, I suggest you visit a company in your area that specializes in helping owners to sell their properties without using a Real Estate agent. The name of the company will be something like “For Sale By Owner” company.  They will have a forms packet with instructions designed to make sure you are following local regulations.

12. How can I be certain I don’t get stuck with a house I cannot sell?

If you buy the house at the right price, you will never get stuck.  This means you must be through in your homework before you purchase.  The only time you will get stuck is if you overpay and the only way you can overpay is if you have not done proper research as to market value and fix up costs.  If you build your buyers list and have 5-10 knowledgeable buyers available before you purchase and you buy correctly, there will always be a buyer for your property.

13. What if the house still has a mortgage on it?  Am I responsible?

No you are not.  Liens (a mortgage is a lien) do not pass with title consequently the seller will have to pay off any liens at closing.  Be certain you use a reputable title company and you purchase title insurance and you will be protected.

14. Can I  buy Probate houses throughout the country?

Theoretically you can but I never have.  I have so many opportunities within 30 minutes of where I live that there is no need to.  Besides, I would never buy  a house I could not inspect.  Please remember that prior to 2006, Probate was a far bigger market than foreclosures.  Once we get through this current foreclosure crisis, Probate will return to being the larger of the two again.  The Probate market is HUGE