Individuals that inherited or will inherit houses are perhaps the most consistently motivated seller group. Although it can be delicate time to pitch home selling services, marketers need to be in front of the best prospects. In any case, I’ve been marketing directly to probate leads for 3 years and I’ve never once had a person complain my mailer was intrusive (though certainly, requests off my mailing list!). Here’s an example of the “white business letter” I mail with business card.
Probate mailing has also been my best dollar for dollar marketing. For every dollar spent, I’ve made about five. The majority of leads intend to sell. The sale can in some cases be over a year away. Early in probate litigation, the personal representative is in most cases not authorized to sell. The court may also need to approve the sale being at fair market value. The lead takes more time than usual to nurture. Even though the pay-off is down the road, it’s still worth contacting the lead early in the process before competitors build the relationship earlier.
For those who haven’t firmly settled on a probate strategy, here’s how you can connect:
Court Records: Probate litigation typically goes through the county court house. Courts either maintain online or in-person records of probate filings. The filings typically contain he name and address of the “decedent” (i.e. the prior owner of the property) and name of the “personal representative” / “executor” (i.e. the person in control of the estate).
First question to answer is “did the decedent own property that I can offer services for?” To figure this out, punch in the decedent’s address in the local county property appraiser website to see if the decedent owned the property. If the decedent did own the address, you found a prospect! If the decedent didn’t, enter their name into the appraiser database. You can still find leads when the name is not common or with middle initials.
You have a couple options at this point. Send a mail piece to the personal representative (this is usually my technique). Alternatively, look them up on a service like BeenVerified and call or e-mail the prospect. The bravest could door knock. Whether mail or direct contact, the advantage by contacting at the time of the court filing is being among the first to offer home selling services.
Online Campaign: A LOT of people are calling and mailing probates. It’s nice to connect in a way where the lead contacts you (i.e. in-bound marketing). This not only is a more motivated prospect but it’s a less intrusive since they choose you. Here’s what you can do: (1) create a landing page about selling a probate house, (2) make blogs and online content keyword rich with probate or inherited topics, (3) rank your landing page and blogs in Search Engine Results Pages, (4) create a Google Adwords or Bing Campaign tailored to your landing page. Just be careful what you’re targeting – you don’t want it to be overly general. Stick to people have entered terms that hit on “sell” “house” and “probate”. The volume is fairly small, but you know those are great prospects when they hit.
“Estate of . . .”: Properties often have the term “Estate of . . .” listed as the owner. These are probates that either have stalled or in the process of inheritance. Putting together a list of "Estate of . . " leads requires a vendor or other services capable of pulling all properties with that terminology from county records. This probate method is slower than the court records because you’re not getting in on the ground floor.
Individuals uninitiated with probate marketing often cast side-ways glances at those of us in this niche. I think that’s mostly a misunderstanding: most probate sellers are not off-put by honest professional marketing (in many cases, quite receptive if you are offering real value). Ignore the haters and get those deals!
Comments(2)