How to offer motivated sellers vertically-integrated solutions without risking your own money.
When you’ve completed your probate training and are ready to begin marketing to probate leads, you might wonder how you can offer the services a probate seller needs without requiring upfront payment. This is a common concern even though it’s entirely possible to get probate services done without coming out of pocket.
The best way to position yourself and your probate brand is to do something your competition can’t (or won’t!). But how can you provide a wide-array of services when you’re just starting out? How do you respond to a client who asks “How much is this going to cost upfront?” And how can you protect yourself from risking your own capital when a motivated seller needs repairs, cleanouts, rehabs, and other services?
This probate real estate training playlist is a selection of tips from Chad Corbett about building a probate vendor team and marketing yourself to personal representatives as a vertically-integrated probate business.
Check out the 20-minute playlist
1) How to talk to probate leads: “Do I have to pay for this all up front?”
Probate objections about the cost of vendor services are common, both when cold calling probate leads and speaking to probate sellers in person. Offering someone help navigating all the necessary tasks involved with probate property cleanouts, repairs, and relocations will likely prompt the seller to ask, “How much does this all cost?”
How can you offer solutions to families in probate that will allow them to get more for their probate property sale without either of you paying up front?
In this highlight, Alesha has recently completed the probate certification course and is ready to offer probate leads all of the services they need to navigate probate and prepare inherited property for sale. When cold calling probates, how can she arm herself against common probate objections about cost of services?
Once she has handled those objections, how can she find the right vendors to have on her probate team? Is it important to find real estate vendors that will allow invoicing at closing?
In most cases, vendors will get paid after they’ve done what they promised anyway, but Chad offers additional tips for offering clarity and building rapport with probate sellers.
Watch this probate coaching clip
2) Marketing to Probate Leads: Offering probate real estate services without upfront payment to probate vendors
Building a vendor team is a great probate marketing strategy, but some probate sellers might think the probate USP sounds too good to be true.
When probate sellers don’t have capital to pay for estate cleanouts, repairs and remodels, or various other services upfront, what can you do to help them get the most out of the estate without risking your own capital? How can you find vendors for probate services and get those probate vendors on board and build probate business offerings? And how can you improve your probate script and language for explaining these services to personal representatives?
In this probate coaching clip, Susan from the Bay Area, California builds on what Alesha asked in the above highlight about cost objections when calling probates
Susan put her capital on the line to help a family prepare to sell probate property, but got burned in the end. What can Susan do to continue to provide all the services she’d like to offer probate sellers without risking her own capital when the personal representative can’t afford to pay for services out of pocket?
Chad Corbett first recommends real estate agents and investors never to put themselves in the position to risk their own capital by providing the services themselves (though he describes how he has made exceptions twice with elderly clients). Chad discusses how mechanics liens on probate properties work. He also shares how estate clean-out companies and other vendors can write their own agreements OR how the probate seller can leverage a lender who will take a premium to hold the risks through to closing. Chad gives advice for finding estate advance companies that can help multiple probate scenarios.
Watch this probate coaching tip
Building a probate team: How to leverage probate vendors and protect your time with probate leads
In this clip, Chad explain how to find good real estate vendors for your probate team and make sure you aren’t getting dragged into work you’re not being paid for.
In this highlight, a probate mastery student asks about drawing the line between her probate marketing strategy (to market to probate leads as an all-in-one probate specialist), and the workload involved with offering and providing services to personal representatives.
Some probate leads need more help than others (e.g. an out-of-state personal representative), and other probate properties need more intensive work and coordination among vendors to prepare for the sale of probate property.
How can a probate real estate agent or investor protect their time, offer options, and get needed probate repairs and cleanouts done?
Chad Corbett says the answer here is to find the right vendors for probate jobs, set proper expectations, and position yourself to only handle the real estate services within your probate business. Everything else can be handled by your probate team.
4) LIVE PROBATE ROLE PLAY: Probate scripts for handling objections about cost when cold calling
In this probate coaching highlight, Rich is seeking advice for handling seller objections when cold calling probates. Many times, probate sellers assume that you’re trying to sell them probate services, or that probate help without upfront costs is too good to be true. When you recognize a probate prospect thinks and feels this way, your first step is to understand.
“I think what I’m hearing from you is you’re concerned we’re going to charge you some upfront fee or exorbitant fee. There is not one single service or function that I will talk to you about that you don’t get delivery on what we promised before anyone gets paid. So, does that make you more comfortable, knowing that we don’t get paid?”
Probate COLD CALLING Scripts
How should you handle common probate real estate objections about all these probate services you and your probate vendors offer?
Chad Corbett jumps into a probate scripts role play with Rich to demonstrate how to use tactical empathy and follow-up questions to keep a personal representative on the phone long enough to build trust and interest. Chad demonstrates how to talk to probates in a way that addresses concerns and offers clarity on how we your probate USP is not too good to be true.
Check out the live probate role play
These highlights were put together to help motivate and refresh probate real estate agents and investors on a common obstacle in probate prospecting and transaction engineering. We hope they helped you, and encourage you to jump in our Facebook group if you ever find yourself needing a push.
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