In this instructional video, real‑estate broker and mentor Joe Homs explains how to approach probate leads with empathy and professionalism. He defines probate as the court‑supervised process that follows a property owner’s death, outlines why outreach must be delicate, and provides a step‑by‑step walkthrough of the probate timeline—including court appraisal, the mandatory 10% over‑bid rule, and final closing. Homs distinguishes true probate from properties held in a living trust, noting that trusts generally avoid probate but may still require coordination among multiple heirs. He then shares practical methods for obtaining probate leads, emphasizing public‑record searches and a local probate attorney, Paul Horn, who can supply comprehensive lists of decedents, attorneys, and heirs. Throughout, he offers a downloadable script, encourages viewers to watch related videos on seller questioning, and invites further contact for assistance.
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In today's video, we're going to talk about the conversation that you should be having when you're dealing with probate leads. Coming up next. Let's talk about what a probate is. A probate is a legal process where the owner of the property on title has passed away and has left heirs, or maybe not left heirs, But since it was titled in their specific name, the legal process that you have to go through is called a probate. Welcome back to the channel. I'm Joe Holmes. I'm a real estate broker, mentor, and investor. I created the channel for the new and experienced investor, those who want to create the life they've always wanted through real estate. Make sure that you subscribe so that you can help me grow and I can help you. Okay, so let's talk about why probates require a more delicate approach. Okay, now remember, the owner of the property has passed away. So is it kind of difficult to be jumping on the phone, you making contact with the relatives, literally a day or two after that this person's passed away? So that's where the delicate, delicate part comes in. So You know, be kind of sensitive. And then throughout the, you know, calling a transaction, do I, do I call right away? Do I give it a month? Do I give it 2 months? That's really kind of up to you to make that decision. But always remember that when you're dealing with probate, somebody passed away. I usually like to start out a conversation introducing myself and, you know, giving condolences for their loss and asking them, you know, have you thought about what you're going to do with the property? Property? Are you going to keep it? Are you going to sell it? Are you going to rent it? I can provide you a lot of information on how to save money. Was it, you know, financed? Was it not financed? What kind of financing was on it? Was there a reverse mortgage on it, for example, is a good question to ask. So those are the type of things that you need to kind of deal with with a probate. I do have a script for you and you can find it on the link to this video. It's there. It, it goes through some of the questions that I just talked about, some of the laws here in California that you would want to give the relatives because they may not even be here in California. So take a look at that information and if you have anything else, reach out. So let's talk about the probate timeline. And we're talking about an actual probate that needs to go through the court process. And I'll talk about one other after that. But anyways, through the court process, and, and I'm sure this is probably similar throughout the United States, the probate process is a lengthy process. It's a court process. It takes anywhere between, I would say, 9 months and a year. To go completely through that process. And the process is them, them, the courts, sending an appraiser out to appraise the property. And then once they have that information, then they're giving permission to the attorney and the heirs of the property to start selling that property. The reason that they have the appraisal there is because they don't want to accept anything lower than that appraisal. They'll accept something higher. And yes, Sometimes there's issues that nobody wants to offer because the appraiser, you know, because it's just an opinion of one person, the appraiser that went out there maybe appraised it too high. So then they have to go back to the court to lower that appraisal so that somebody can come in and bid at that amount. So let's say somebody's successful and they say, okay, I like that price and we want to tie it up at that price. We make an offer and you usually work through a real estate agent. And so Now we have an offer. That offer has to be presented to the court and the court gets the offer. And let's say we're at $500,000 and the judge will open up the courthouse and say, we're here on this such property, we have an offer at $500,000. Does anybody want to bid higher than $500,000? The law says you have to bid 10% more. Okay, so the next bid has to be $550,000. $550,000. $550,000. So somebody from the audience, even though they don't have it locked up under contract with that agent, can actually do what's called an overbid. So they bid for $550,000. Again, the next person has to bid 10% more than that. So it continues to go until, you know, the court receives the highest bid, which is what they're there for, what the goal is. Okay. So we get the highest bid. If you go in and you have it locked up with the real estate agent at $500,000 and you're there in court and nobody says anything, you get the property for $500,000. Okay, then they give you permission to close a transaction. You go back to escrow, you close the transaction, and then you're done. That probate is done. The, the money that's generated from that probate is doled out to all the heirs, whether there's one or multiple heirs. It is doled out evenly to all the heirs. The A different type of probate I wanted to talk about as well real quickly. Sometimes people mistake a— having a trust on a property, a living trust, for example. A living trust actually avoids probate, and I recommend everybody, if you have a property that's in your name, in yours and your wife's name, that you put that property into what's called a living trust. Once that property's in the living trust, you avoid probate and you avoid a lot of heavy fees that are charged during the probate. process. But sometimes attorneys kind of say, okay, well, even though you have a living trust, we still need to do a probate. Which, you know, they're attorneys, I'm sure they know more than I do because I'm not an attorney. But legally, if you have it in a living trust, you don't need to go through the probate process. Okay, they may tell you, okay, well, you still kind of need to organize all this stuff. And, you know, let's say there's 8 kids, are they all in agreement that they want to sell the property, maybe 4 want to keep it. So there may be some infighting there, which does happen sometimes. So that's kind of like the second type of probate that I'm talking about. It is in a living family trust, but you may have to hire an attorney to help you with the other 7 or 8 siblings that are involved in the transaction. So let's talk about how you find these probate leads. I mean, there's, there's lists out there. Are actually public record, so you can contact the court in your jurisdiction here in Orange County. It's, it's easy to find the probates if you contact the court. If you want some really good information, I'm going to plug one of our local attorneys here. His name's Paul Horn, H-O-R-N, and you can Google him to find his information. He does nothing but probates. He does teaching about probates and what it is and how to do it, and then he also provides the leads as well since obviously He has a direct source into the court, into all these documents. He can give you a list of all these probates that are coming up. The leads include the names of the person that died, the decedent. It includes the attorney that's handling the case. It includes all the heirs. It includes their phone numbers. Remember, all this is public record. So if you're thinking about doing probates, in getting leads, contact Paul. I'm sure he would appreciate it. Or just Google probate leads and there's probably a lot of sources that you can get the same probate information from. So probate leads can be great leads and great sources to acquire properties as a flipper or even a wholesaler. Okay, but again, as we talked, there's some sensitivity that needs to go on with these leads when you're calling people. Remember, somebody did pass away way. And so kind of be sensitive when you're working these leads. Lead sources are easy to get these leads. Just remember, you know, just Google it or contact Paul Horn. But at the end of the day, I would say be sensitive to these type of conversations that you're having with the heirs. If you're new to talking to sellers, click on this video right here. I go over all the questions that you need to ask to see if you have a deal or not. If you need further help, Feel free to reach out anytime. I'm here to help.
