Not many real estate investors are interested in dealing with inherited properties because the process can be emotionally charged. But if you have no problem dealing with this and the multiple players usually involved, inherited properties can offer you lots of great opportunities.
To find inherited properties, you can connect with probate court records, buy leads from a paid lead provider, search the word “estates” in local property records, read obituaries, contact the personal representative of the deceased or their family members, work with probate attorneys and real estate agents, and check out inherited listings.
Ready to start your search for inherited properties? Let us guide you through the tips we’ll share below!
There is no difference between an inherited property (inheritance) and a probate property as the latter only indicates whether the inherited property will undergo distribution by the court.
Put more simply, when a family member dies and left a will, the probate court will examine the validity of the will and help ensure that the debts of the deceased loved one are all paid before the assets are distributed according to the state law.
If there is no will, the court will assign an administrator or executor of the estate to locate and identify heirs. In most cases, the heirs are asked to provide their social security number for identification and to establish their relationship with the owner or owners who passed. The inheritance is then divided among the legal heirs.
To avoid the full probate process and state law for an inheritance, most people or home owner write a living trust and hold the property jointly with survivorship rights so the property is automatically transferred to the loved ones they left.
Inherited property deals are everywhere. You just have to find the right connections and look into the right resources. Here are some tips to find the best inherited property leads.
The civil court system is required to process inherited properties that go through probate. The court documents are often open to the public so you can get access to it to find leads to contact.
In order to obtain a list of ongoing probate court case in your county, contact or go personally to your neighborhood courthouse. If you are an established real estate investor, chances are, they’ll let you view the records immediately.
For real estate investors who want to find inherited property or unclaimed property leads fast without checking out going to the probate court, checking out obituaries, etc., a great alternative would be to pay for leads from lead providers online.
Most of these lead providers charge per lead and do not require their customers to be locked into a contract. These leads also sell below market value.
Note that in choosing a paid lead provider, you should ensure that they sell leads exclusively.
On the website of the county’s tax assessors or property appraisers, information on inherited homes is typically available. If there is none, you might be able to obtain inherited property or unclaimed property data via your MLS or businesses like Property Shark.
Search for the word "estate" in the online database because often, inherited residences that are owned by a certain estate appear in the search results. The only challenge with this is that there are so many results that would come up in a multi state search that sorting through them can be a pain.
Obituaries, both published online and on paper are a great resource for inherited properties. They mention the details of the deceased loved one and sometimes, they even include phone numbers and a mailing address. The best part, this is free. So you won't end up paying cash for information on probate assets.
When you reckon that the emotional pain of the relatives has already subsided, you can get in touch with them and pitch the idea of a sale. Since this may mean you’re the first to contact them and talk about them about ownership when they inherit a property, you need to pack a lot of patience due to the circumstances they are in.
A personal representative is someone who is appointed by the deceased loved one to carry out their will when they are gone. In most cases, when no personal representative is determined by the deceased person, the probate court will assign an administrator or executor who will distribute the assets and find the rightful heir.
To locate personal representatives, administrators, or executors of assets including the house and funds of the deceased person, you can directly ask the probate court. They’ll happily connect you with some because the sale of an asset is necessary for the probate legal process.
You don’t have to look very far when searching for inherited property leads. As sad and tragic as it sounds, people join our Creator every day and that means there may be someone in your community who recently inherited an estate and is selling their inherited house.
You can hire bird dogs to give you a tip about a will executor. But you also have to be respectful of their grieving process. Don’t contact family members right after the funeral.
You might also want to try establishing a connection with probate attorneys who manage unclaimed funds, forgotten funds, abandoned accounts, and other assets (house and money) and law involvements of the deceased person.
Typically, if you established a great relationship with them, you can even come to an agreement about joint marketing efforts!
If you are not associated with any probate attorney yet, try to leave promotional materials in their workplace. Offer the probate attorney a certain amount of money if they make any referrals and you’ll find yourself handling more than one inherited property deal in no time.
The MLS is filled with inherited property listings. You just have to know where to look. Since the MLS is not available to the public and only to licensed real estate agents, you can partner with an agent to get access to it.
Of course, if it is currently listed, the heir must want to sell at a higher price. But if the listing has been already around for a long time, the heir may agree to negotiate for a much cheaper price.
As mentioned, you can partner with a real estate agent to get access to the MLS and search leads on owners of inherited properties and their other assets. But apart from accessing the MLS, working with a real estate agent has a lot of perks.
For example, if an inherited house deal is too complicated for them to handle (the title has complications, the estate plan does not make sense for selling, etc.), they can pass it to you for a faster sale.
Establishing a great relationship with a real estate agent means getting a steady stream of transferred inherited home leads. But of course, you have to pay good money so they can tip you about who's selling their assets.
Contacting the probate court, sorting obituaries, and all the other methods we shared above on how to find inherited property leads may require a lot of work.
If you want to find inheritance leads fast, why not buy an inherited home list from reputable sources? Check out these four best sources.
With the use of Leadvine's data, you can identify the most opportunities with highest value in your area including inherited property leads. Through this, you can streamline your marketing while cutting expenses.
Leadvine’s inherited property leads include pre-inherited leads, widow leads, and pre-probate leads. Apart from inherited property leads, they also have divorce and tax-delinquent leads.
BatchLeads pull inherited property data from USPS servers to assist real estate investors as well as other real estate professionals in identifying the greatest investments. This platform is run by the same company that is behind Batch Dialer, Batch Skip Tracing, Batch Data, and Batch Service.
The main goal of Batch Leads is to facilitate the lead-generation process of real estate investors so they can scale up.
Any property that appears on USLeadList’s pre-probate process list is only sold a maximum of three times, so their customers have less competition. They also allow investors to buy all three so they get sole marketing rights on an inheritance.
While many other lead providers buy inherited properties list that are overly saturated and then resell them, USLeadList creates its own list using its own procedures.
ForeclosuresDaily.com provides the hottest off-market real estate leads in the industry since 2004. In fact, their data is cross-referenced and given in most states in a single day.
Currently, they offer leads on foreclosures, inheritance, probate, pre-probate, eviction, code enforcement, divorce, etc.
Inherited properties and assets are a lot more challenging to process since you also have to deal with the high emotions of the heirs.
But if you do want to try out this niche in real estate investing, the tips above can significantly help you in finding the right deals. Be sure to check out LeadVine, BatchLeads, USLeadList, and Foreclosures.Daily.com.
Meanwhile, if you decide that investing in inherited properties is not for you, check out Property Leads. We generate leads from SEO and sell them exclusively! We guarantee a high success rate since our leads have little to no competition. You can easily grow your business and our money in the bank if you buy leads from us.
Start getting your first batch of leads from us by filling out the form below.
30 N Gould St Ste N
Sheridan, WY 82801
(207) 309-3949
sales@propertyleads.com
