Inherited homes offer a great opportunity for real estate agents. The only problem is that you need to find these properties before other agents do. If you are thinking of getting into the selling of inherited properties, you need to know how to find these listings and the opportunities they can offer you.
Look At County Property Records
The first method that you can use to find inheritance properties is by looking at the county property records. You should head to the local property appraiser websites and enter the zip code for the area you want. You should then enter the search term ‘estate’ and get the listings.
You will then find a listing of all the properties with the term estate, but you have to be careful. You will want to avoid any life estates because this means that the person owns the house while alive and gets passed to the person named on the estate when the person passes away. You will need to look at regular estates instead.
Once you have only the regular estates, you need to download the list into excel. You can then sort and order the list as you want. You should also look at deleting any properties that do not match the criteria that you have.
You will now be ready to find the heir to the estate and this can sometimes be more difficult than you may think. The first place to look will be the property tax and who pays for this. If you cannot find this information there, you will need to check the county court records to see who now owns the house. Once you know who owns the property, you can contact them about the property.
The County Court Records
You can also go to the local courthouse to find out about inheritance properties. Any estate that goes through an inheritance will need to have a court filing and this will generally be in the court where the property is located. Getting the court records will actually be easier than you might imagine as everything can be done online.
To start you should complete a Google search for probate records in the county you want to focus on. You can click here for where to find inheritance leads online. This will generally bring up the exact page that you need on the county court website. However, you might still be directed to the homepage of the county court website and need to navigate to the probate section yourself.
Once you have a listing of the probate court cases in the county, you should cross-reference the listings with that of the appraiser’s website. You will quickly find out if the estate in probate included a home or not. All you need to do is type in the name and you will get all of the information that you need. Once you have this information, you will need to filter it until you have only the properties that match the criteria you have.
Build A Relationship With Probate Attorneys
When a person passes away, their estate will go through probate and there are specialist attorneys who deal with this. Building a relationship with these attorneys can increase the chances of you getting an inherited home listing. The best solution will be to find the probate attorneys that operate in the county that you want to target.
Once you have a good relationship with them, you will often be able to leave promotional materials in their waiting rooms or with their staff. The best way to start the relationship will be to offer the attorney a fee for any referrals they send your way. Most attorneys will not say no to this type of agreement as all they have to do is have your materials in areas where clients will see them.
Target Out Of State Executors
When you are looking at the listings that you have, you should consider focusing on their out of state executors and heirs. These people are generally more motivated sellers and will generally be looking to sell. After all, most people will see a home in a place they do not live as an additional expense that they cannot cope with.
Out of state heirs and executors will also be looking to sell the property and move on as quickly as possible. If you can offer them that service, you will generally be able to get the listing. However, you do need to be flexible when contacting these people as they might see the new property as a rental opportunity. In these cases, you might want to consider if you are willing to take on the job of rental agent instead.
Handy Tips For Getting Listings
There are some tips that you should know about which will help you narrow down and win the listings you want. The first is that you should be avoiding inheritance properties where the heir to the estate is the spouse of the deceased person. Losing a partner is hard and you do not want to be the person calling them and offering to sell their house at this time.
Another tip is to not mail any materials to the property address. You need to get in contact with the people who actually own the house. If they are not in the county, they will generally not get the materials. Any materials that you do send should be going directly to the heir or the executor of the estate.
If you cannot find any of the probate information through the county court website, you should not give up. Either call or visit the courthouse to get this information. The people you speak to will generally be able to point you in the right direction and show you how to find exactly what you need for the future.
If you have some heirs who want to sell and others that do not, you should not put too much time into the property. There is always a chance that the people who do not want to sell can convince those that do. Ideally, you should only work on leads where everyone is open to selling the property.