Generating leads in probate: Digital marketing, attorney referrals, and branding yourself | Live probate mastermind

This episode is all about generating leads in probate real estate through digital marketing, referral networking, and a solid brand message. The group discusses the criteria for a good marketing message, probate credibility websites from All The Leads, video marketing content, and more.  A key focus was getting probate leads by building a referral network encompassing probate attorneys, referral leads for estate planning attorneys, CPAs, and Registered Investment advisors, as well as other real estate agents and friends you know. Additionally, Victoria shares a real-life example of why probate attorneys need a strong partner who understands probate real estate transactions.

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Episode #53

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Training Topics In Generating leads in probate real estate: Digital marketing, attorney referrals, and branding:

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Resources for this Real Estate Coaching Session:

• Intro to Probate Mastery Webinar: Probate Fast Track Webinar – Probate Mastery
• Take Chad’s Probate Course and get Certified in Probate Real Estate
• Facebook Group: Estate Professionals Mastermind Group
• Alumni Group (For students of the Probate Mastery Course ONLY): Probate Mastery Alumni Group 
• YouTube Channel
• Most recent content:
  1. Episode 52 Live Real Estate Coaching: Pre probate leads, real estate side hustles & more
• Certified Divorce Real Estate Program (CDRE) with Ilumni Institute: Special Offer: Probate Mastery (ilumniinstitute.com)
• Probate and Pre-Probate list providers: Best probate lead companies and how to get probate leads online for free – Probate Mastery
• Networking with Attorneys:
  1. Chad Corbett on the Al Nicoletti (Florida Probate Attorney) show: https://youtu.be/bJoorFQblAA
  2. Also, Ask the Expert with Laurel Starks: Networking with Divorce Attorneys: https://probatemastery.com/divorce-leads-and-listings-real-estate-agent-tips/
  3. Ask The Expert with Rilus Dana: What attorneys want: https://youtu.be/T9CcGiaiPR4
• Probate Credibility Website through ATL: www.probatesuccess.com
  1. Winston Covington shares his probate credibility website: www.OCProbatesolutions.com
• Content marketing prompts: 18 Prompts for YouTube Videos that will Jumpstart your Probate Real Estate Marketing – Probate Mastery
• Recommended reading:
  1. They Ask You Answer- Marcus Sheridan and This video from the author
  2. Story Brand – David Miller
• Tips for building a cash buyers list in real estate 
• Here’s a clip about using Estate Inventory services as a value-add for generating probate leads
• BigVu caption teleprompter for video marketing Auto Captions with BIGVU – Easily Burn in Subtitles with this Powerful Video App
• Learn more about structuring your real estate business: Business Structure Archives – Probate Mastery

EPISODE TRANSCRIPT Generating leads in probate real estate: Digital marketing, attorney referrals, and branding

Kajabi course launch and certificates for Certified Probate Experts [00:00:00] 

 Hello, everybody.

I’m pretending to be Chad today. I got a thumbs up. Awesome. My name is McKenna. I am Chad’s integrator and I just got off the phone with Chad because he is currently driving and some unexpected things came forward and so he’s unable to make it very last minute. He just called me about it. Does anybody have any questions to start with, any discussion topics?

Yeah. Yeah. I got a question. I just finished my course here probably about a week ago. And I was wondering will you receive a probate certification inside the mail? That’s a great question. So, um, right now, today, we are going to be transitioning all of our alumni into a new platform, called Kajabi.

And within that, we can offer certificates. So up until this point, we had a couple of different platforms and unfortunately, we were not able to send certificates through them.

And so we’ve just upgraded into a brand new platform. All of you will be receiving an email here, probably today, with your new login credentials. And then what you can do is just re quiz yourself and then you’ll have access to your certificate that you can edit and it’s also printable for you as well.

Anything else? It can be probate related and maybe all of us can work together, to brainstorm some solutions. 

Generating leads in probate real estate through professional networking [00:01:31] 

Yeah. I’ve got a question I’ve been doing mailings now for about three months and I knew I’ve rented the percentage of return on that would be minimal. But it’s even lower than what I expected.

So I would love to hear if there’s anybody in that group today, that’s been marketing to attorneys, you know, how that’s gone for them. What was the best approach? You know, kind of like good stuff to know, bad stuff to now. I don’t know if Katt has videos that she can recommend to us, but I would love to throw that one out because the mailers, even though I knew upfront, it takes time.

It’s like planning your crop. I expected better. And I’ve been kind of disappointed. So I’ve got to take a more proactive, direct front, maybe go to a better source. So if anybody’s got any feedback or input, I would love to hear it. t has videos you can recommend to us. I would love that as well.

So I’ll make sure I drop a bunch of resources in the show notes, but did you see the most recent ask the expert video with Rilus Dana? not only is he a probate attorney in two different states, but he’s also an estate planning attorney.

So, just like you want probate attorneys to be able to work with you, to bring you referrals, he also understands that a smart, skilled real estate practitioner knows what they’re doing when they come across a distressed property situation or a situation where, you know, maybe a financial plan isn’t in place, he understands the value you can bring not to his clients alone, but also how you can help him build and scale his legal business. That interview, it’s, it’s 50 minutes, it dropped a ton of gems and it really will give you a better understanding of your USP, what you should be saying when you reach out to attorneys, how you can be the real estate practitioner they want to work with, even if they’ve already got two other realtors on their bench.

Okay. And that’s, to me that would be hitting a home run here so we can get that. That would be great. I don’t know if there are other recent interviews with other attorneys. We’ve had a nice blend in maybe some more feedback that I would love that. So thank you.

 Yeah, it was mentioned in previous shows that, um, you know, one way to attract business with attorneys is to go ahead and bring them business. And so, when it comes to probate, it takes time for them to get paid.

However, you could always bring someone that needs a will or living trust, put together some kind of estate plan. Recently I referred four people to attorneys, so we’ll see how that works out, but that’s a good way to kind of get your foot in the door. Cause I only really have a handful of attorneys that I’m talking with right now.

 And so I’m just trying to get my foot in the door. That way. I know Bill Gross is huge on just going after attorneys and that’s who he deals with primarily. And I think that’s a good way to go. you got to think of it, like, like, like they’re the bank so to speak. Like if you go to a bank with listings, they can hand you a whole ton that is in foreclosure or pre-foreclosure or foreclosure. And with attorneys, you know, they might be having several attorneys that are handling different estates. So once you can get in front of them and make a good presentation to them, then they’re more than likely to go ahead and recommend you to their clients.

So they can hand you one property to sell. They can hand you 10, you know, your experience. Are you getting these lanes by just cold calling and your mailers? Or how are you?

okay. So the attorneys, I have looked at, uh, those that have been filing probates, uh, some that are busy, some that are not so busy. for instance, the other day, I had to find somebody who, spoke Spanish and focused in on probate. We don’t have that here. So it was a challenge, but this is just found, found that person sounds like he’s a really good guy to work with.

Uh, I’ll be able to refer more business to them as well. Not only Spanish but English. because I want someone that I can go to and say, Hey, look, you can get an initial free consultation with this attorney here and go ahead and talk with him and set up an opportunity to, go over your estate plan.

And it’s amazing how many people that I talk to, they just do not have it together when it comes to having a will or having a living trust. They don’t have it together. A lot of people have properties and they don’t have anything in the plan. They might have kids. someone I was talking to today, I said, Hey, listen, you know, you’ve got kids, you have a business.

And you know, you’ve got some land it’s like, now what happens if you happen to die? Or what’s gonna happen to your kids. You know, what’s gonna happen to your business? What’s going to happen to that property that you own? So I ended up referring them to an attorney and so, you know, they thanked me for it because a lot of people just don’t want to plan for this.

And if you’re in this Spanish-speaking field, uh, it’s very, it’s a very underserved area in regards to.

Got it going back though, to the question, uh, or the statement you made, you just gave four referrals to two attorneys. What I was curious about are you working a list and you’re calling leads or you’re mailing, you’re getting a response once you make your initial contact.

Is that how you’re getting the probate leads from these guys? Yeah, so basically with the attorney, I’m calling them and then also, uh, I’m going to do what Chad said and just try to go, face-to-face just kind of walk in on their office and say, hi, you know, I’m Bruce, you know, here’s what I do, blah, blah, blah.

And you know, just want to get an opportunity to meet with the attorney if possible. But sometimes you have the gatekeeper and the gatekeeper Won’t let you get in the door. They’re like on a phone, right. In-person. That might be a different story. 

Thanks, Bruce!

I also wanted to add, that I dropped the links in the chat on the side. They’ll also be in the show notes, but we also interviewed Laurel Starks In that interview she digs into how the divorce niche found her and started getting real estate referrals from divorce attorneys. One called her up and said I have this client that needs help getting And she kind of stumbled through all of the specific needs that a divorce client might have. You know, divorces can commonly involve restraining orders, urgent need for relocation, incarceration, complicated situations not that different from what you might see in a probate case.

Um, so that’s another one that you should direct your attention to, even if you’re not wanting to approach it. Divorce leads per se. You know, just underscoring that approach, knowing how to react with confidence when a prospect introduces a tricky situation your way and then knowing how to present yourself in front of an attorney with that same confidence that, Hey, whatever you’ve heard from your clients, I’ve heard it all too.

And I’m, I’m able to come up with a solution. This is what we do. So I would recommend that even though it is divorce rather than probate, there are a lot of similarities.

Thank you, Kat. And thank you, Bruce.

 I have something to add, this is Gio and San Diego. Uh, one of the approaches that I’ve taken is, you know, we’re looking to get networked with probate attorneys, and how many of us know real estate attorneys or family attorneys, or, you know, just another attorney that could be either a resource or a friend, and I’ve gotten referrals to probate attorneys through these other attorneys. 

 And one of the things that I’m looking to start doing is networking with CPAs. It’s a busy time for your normal CPAs, but business CPAs. Anybody’s that’s, I would say more than, uh, a rookie, in the business that that has connections with these other attorneys, specifically probate or estate planning attorney.

And, uh, I think that would be a good approach too, to get to know. We’ll just say the folks out there that if they think about you and they know what you do, you might just get a, a referral, 

But at the same time when you get a referral, guess what, the first thing they do is check who we are, right? And so that’s the part that I need to work on is getting my presence, getting my Google business page going. I kind of get all angles covered so that when I do have an opportunity, it’s not wasted.

Any thoughts on who’s put a Google business page?

Probate credibility and brand presence: Generating leads in probate through your probate website (Probate Marketing) [00:09:29] 

Yeah, I can tell you what I did, you know, and they call it a credibility website. And I think that’s probably a pretty good description and pretty much that was here, that Chad helped build ATL alltheleads.com. They offer a web building service. And it’s actually what you get. I think the price is very well.

It was like a couple of hundred bucks and it was like 37 bucks a month just to carry it and service it. But they put something together for me that has been very handy and I’m showing it to a couple of other attorneys and they felt it was done very well. So for a few hundred bucks and then like 30 something, as many as 39 bucks a month to keep it open and active and service, you might want to give ATL a call.

Yeah, great. I do have the template and, I got Fiverr to customize it for myself. So is that what you’re referring to? Winston that’s similar. I’ll just go ahead and share it with you guys. And you want to get out to www. Capital O C capital P for probate solutions.com.

Check it out

and they can do things individually. Customize it for you too, as well. So it’s kind of a work in motion and I felt their quality and their service and their timing, the pricing to be very good. Great, thanks for this. And I’ll take a look at it. 

Generating leads in probate as referrals from other agents [00:10:43] 

 The other, idea I had, and this is before I did my first probate listing is: I got a lead, I did not know how to deal with probate. you know, your first one, you’re kind of trying to figure it out. but what I did was I did a probate search for agents that do probate. And I called the gal who supposedly was a probate agent, but she just did an SEO. She built her website.

So, it had her as one of the top area, probate experts. But when I called her, I was intent on potentially referring the business to her because I didn’t have that much experience in it. And when I found out that. Yeah, she was, uh, for a better word a pretender… So my point is, we can build a presence and credibility and validity, for other agents to find us and say they refer business to us, I don’t know if that, what are your thoughts on that being an angle to get probate from folks, especially new folks that, uh, new agents that may be lost in, Hey, what do I do here? And, uh, you know, we put ourselves out there as the CPE, the probate expert, and, and we’ll pay referral. Are you guys, has anybody had that happen to you?

That’s a great idea. And I haven’t done it yet, but it’s a great idea. I do a lot of referrals for traditional real estate, that’s a great idea. I’ve been getting out the word to folks in my area that I’m a probate realtor and asking them, Hey, have you thought about getting into it?

And almost everybody agent-wise I’ve talked to hasn’t thought about it. And then you, of course, you ask the second question why, and it’s fear, it’s fear that, uh, there’s too much work. I don’t like to deal with scenarios like that. So I think that’s an opportunity for us to, to utilize that fear again, to get a simple referral hanging out 20, 25% to an agent, and they’ve got me to turn it over if we can handle that process.

And, you know, even if it takes a year, you know, that’s what we do is we help not only the, uh folks that are in probate, but agents that come across it that honestly, can botch a whole life. I’ve had some agents that have signed listing agreements better not valid and at listing percentages that aren’t approved.

So it’s, it just goes to show you that we can help more than just the uh, personal representatives and executors of these estates.

Registered Investment Advisors for real estate referrals: Attorneys, CPAs (Real Estate Referrals) [00:12:53] 

 I’m not in a huge market, but I noticed that there was not a probate attorney that was dominating the space on the list. But a lot of the attorneys that do probate work, a lot of times their spouses are agents. So what I’ve started on my team, I’ve started going out and recruiting those agents.

 A lot of times, at least over here, their agents don’t like probate because they don’t understand the process. So I’ve made it clear, Hey, send me what you’ve got, I’ll throw your referral fee to it. And I’ll handle all the headaches. A lot of them are scared of confrontation between family members and things like that. So, you know, it, it’s not about confrontation when you’ve got a system in place. So, um, that’s been the thing, but the best tool I’ve had to get in front of attorneys or to get recommended is not actually through the attorneys themselves.

It’s actually through investment advisors and CPAs. My investment firm, they’re very, well-respected in our area. It is a local firm. And they know what I specialize in and they put me in touch with CPAs. They put me in touch with other estate planning people, but a lot of attorneys, you know, in those circles, they’ll tell me.

And so now if I’ve got an attorney I need to get in front of, I call them, I call my investment firm and say, Hey, do you know how I can get in front of this person? And most of the time they’ll tell me, Hey, try going through this person to get to them. So the referrals from them have been incredible.

I can’t tell you how many millions in sales I’ve done just off for my own, you know, personal investments firms, actually investing with these people, but I make their job easier because when they’re doing estate planning with CPAs, I do a ton of free BPOs for them. And when it’s time to list or when things are time, my name is on all those reports and I’m the person they’re calling back when it’s time to sell it.

And Josh, I want to add to that registered investment advisors, they’re a great resource for finding seller side leads like referrals to clients that would be selling a home. Um, they’re also an incredibly valuable resource for finding cash buyers for any target acquisitions that you’re not trying to purchase yourself.

So registered investment advisors, they’re right in the middle of buyers and sellers. 

And they love walk-ins. Whereas attorneys hate walk-ins. I find that what Katt said, the investment advisors are by far the better connection to make in my opinion than the attorneys.

What’s an investment advisor. You mean just a, like a financial person, financial investment. Is that what you’re talking about? Yes. And they do go through certain accreditations. Yeah. One thing about the registered investment advisor certifications is they are sworn fiduciary to their client, meaning that their client, they have a legal obligation to put their client’s interests above their own. And so, you know, they’re always looking for credible, reputable people to refer out.

Do you know bill gross?

Okay. He is known as the LA probate expert. And what he did is that he just went and sat in probate court, day after day after day, and just learned a ton and he would dress like an attorney would look like an attorney and he started to build connections that way.

Three of his Thursday, four o’clock, uh, the zoom was closed for about an hour. He brings in some great guest speakers as well. He’s making connections with people all over Southern California, all over the country. And I know he’s received a fair amount of referrals from these people that are, are attending.

They don’t maybe have the confidence. They know he has the expertise and you know how he’d use up a referral fee or maybe partners. I don’t know, but I know he gets a ton of business out of that. So you might tune into that. Just look up, the bill goes LA probate expert, and he’s a really good guy.

He’d be a good guy. He’d be a great guy for anybody to talk to. And he usually, as on these, these, uh, these zooms at noon, Right. Yeah, check it out.

Google My Business: What is my business category for my probate business? [00:16:49] 

Hey, Gio, if you don’t mind me asking, going back to what you said, regarding the business page. It asks you about your business category. What, what, what will be the category? They’re not real estate? Absolutely. It’s a service, uh, under real estate, at least under Google.

Yep. We just put real estate period. Well, for those of us who are our realtors, are you referring to you? Do you want to not be known as a realtor? Oh, not, well, I just don’t want to be labeled specifically. if I’m coming in under the umbrella of, of my, probate, URL integrated probate solutions.

 You know, the one thing that I’ve heard from Chad over the last year is, is, you know, subtly, initially, but now he just comes out and says, Hey, set up a Facebook community page, on Wednesday nights.

bring in all of these individuals that we’ve been talking about and do interviews of post videos. And be, you know, that’s the credibility we can and Winston has, you know, that’s a great idea to have someone build something, but credibility comes with content. And if the content has our mug in front of the camera, there’s no better way for an attorney or a CPA to say, Hey, wow, Gio geez, he’s got some really good content and I can send some of my clients to watch his channel.

and so, you know, that, there’s that fear factor though. I don’t look good. I’m speaking for myself now. I don’t look good in front of the camera or I’m going to botch my lines. And, you know, I just got to get past that and structure it and, you know, just do the first one. And I think that’s a challenging challenge for, I guess I could put out for all of us to, you know, get some content out there, even if it’s just a simple YouTube channel and it’s, it’s a start and, you know, I’m, I’m calling myself out.

I got to do something soon here. You get my mug shot in front of folks that need my help. I want to add that to summarize the mechanism Gio is talking about: Google is going to look less at what you categorize yourself as, and more at what content they can gather about you from your business listing.

So when you set up your Google, my business, you can create a description. You can even link to different parts of your web page. You can upload videos and photos to it. You can make sure your reviews are curated there. And because you’re going to tie your Google, my business account to the website that you have that matches your brand, Google understands that the content on your website describes your business. The same reason is that if you have a Facebook page set up around your business, you might get a result probably the second or third result on a Google search with your Facebook business page listed in the results.

So thinking about the category might be going too deep into it, you know, keep it something simple, like consulting services, something general. Um, that’s not where Google’s going to make or break who to show you to. 

I’d like to chime in on that. Chad had recommended the book called they ask you to answer.

I just started reading it and it’s pretty interesting, content. The other publication you might want to look at is called StoryBrand by Donald Miller. Those two will help with, getting the right kind of content on your website, pages so that people can get a clear picture of who you are.

 Marcus, I think his name is the writer of They ask, You answer. He took a company in Virginia that was broke during the downturn of the great recession and turned it around. And he did, he did a lot of it through digital marketing. Uh, he was answering questions that people ask, that, uh, consumers ask about a product or service.

And so he said he put that foremost upfront. He made comparisons of his type. They were in the pool business. Uh, he did fiberglass pools. Uh, there were concrete pool guys, and then there were also the, v folks. So he just basically made a comparison, not bias or anything. Put that up. Consumers could read that he also put up the five best pool contractors in his area and they did not include their own office.

So, just being transparent, he gained a lot of people and that’s what it is. And in this industry, that’s exactly what we have to deal with. People need to trust us. You know, they’re already, you know, stressed out from, you know, the fact that you know, somebody in their family has died and now they’ve got to take care of all these things.

So if we can come across as more trust where the people, then they’re going to want to work with us.

And the second and the second book is entitled. StoryBrand by Donald Miller. It’s kind of the same thing, you know we all need to have a story to tell and he helps you to kind of understand that. For instance, he talks about, making the consumer or your client, the hero.

So some of the things he asked are like, you know, what does the hero want? Who or what is opposing the hero, getting what she wants, what will the hero’s life look like if she does. Or does not get what she wants. And we also have to, he has, what’s known as a marketing grunt test for your site. So within a few seconds, you should be able to tell, those interviewing, what do you offer?

How will it make my life better, what do I need to do to do, to buy it? So those are some of the things that he outlined in his book there. Yeah. Because a lot of times, you know, people will look at the site and they’ll click away if they don’t see what they want right away. Or if presented, what you offer is not there right away in the forefront.

How do you view that book and its contents related to changing or, or morphing your USP? I think it’s important cause like going back to those, those three questions, they’re like, what do you offer? How will it make my life better? What do I need to do to buy it? You know, that’s what people are looking at.

and if you kind of mix that also with, uh, the other book, then, you know, basically you kind of answer the question for them. So you want them to engage with you. And online is tricky. I mean, people could have websites, but, if you’re not getting engagement, then it’s, you know, what’s the return?

So we have to always tell a story. And it’s interesting because he talks about how some of these indie films are made, but they don’t follow the rules. And so some people there, they’re not as successful in writing films, but where are these major box office movies are at, basically those that follow a story, the hero, and what happens to the hero?

What kind of dilemma they’ve got? He even did it in the book. There’s an outline about like, Luke Walker and star wars. I can’t remember how everything is, but I believe it’s sort of early on in the book, it’ll show a diagram of, you know, how he meets Obi-wan Kenobi. You know what the challenge was, who the villain is. He also talks about these different problems that people have.

There’s like a villain, there’s an internal problem. There are external problems and there’s a philosophical problem that needs to be answered. Okay. And so we become the guide, our clients are the heroes.

Thank you, Bruce. Helpful. Yeah. And just, put it in layman’s terms, it’s okay to speak in the first person when you do your marketing. In grade school, elementary school, they kind of hit you on the top of the head telling you not to use the word I in your academic writing.

So now that we try to switch to our marketing brains and, and write messages that are either meant to be read one-on-one -we send an email or a letter was specifically written for one person to read- or one to many meaning: you know, this email goes out to a whole list or it’s writing that exists on a webpage that dozens of people could be reading it’s appropriate and beneficial to use that first-person language. 

Write as if you’re speaking and having a conversation with the person you want to be reading it. 

Just making sure you’re, you’re always treating your ideal prospect as a person, even if you know that it’s going to be more than one person reading it,

Video marketing for real estate: BombBomb (Video Marketing for Real Estate) [00:24:31] 

Katt, want to get your input on, um, if you don’t mind, uh, on BombBomb, how good is it for our niche? So I like BombBomb and I think, you know, we have a few new faces on here, but if anyone’s seen probably three or four of Chad’s videos, they’ve seen his spiel on making sure you’re not putting yourself at risk by sending an SMS to someone that hasn’t appropriately opted in within the last 90 days.

that being said, you know, make sure you comply with TCPA rules, but I love BombBomb for no other reason than it puts your face out there. You’re moving. So if I’m watching a video of you, I feel like I know you already. The biggest example I can give of that, I love cooking shows on YouTube and I’ll watch the same channels over and over.

And I start to feel, you know this person doesn’t know me, but I’m welcomed into their kitchen once, twice, three times a week, while they’re making their lasagna or replicating, McDonald’s chicken nuggets, but better at home. So I know these people by name, I start buying their cookbooks as gifts for people slowly but surely I’m on their fans, and their advocates because, you know, I’m just watching their content every day.

and I think the video and the voice. You know, video, isn’t just video and visual. It’s also audio it’s vocal. I remember your voice. I remember the way you laugh. I get to see you as another human person that’s relatable. So those psychological foundations, it’s so much easier to accomplish that with video and audio, if you’re comfortable doing that, than it is in, in writing.

I mean, we’ve all heard the joke, you know, you could send someone a text message and it could be the cheeriest brightest nicest message in the world, but the way that person’s reading it, because it’s just words, they might think it comes off as rude or curt or short. Texts can be a little bit more difficult to convey emotion and, and, build that bridge of empathy and relatability. so I’m all for BombBomb. It doesn’t even need to be BombBomb specifically. It’s the same reason. Things like Tik TOK work, the same reason Facebook now has Instagram reels integrated on their platforms.

So when I say reels, I mean, both platforms, it’s the same reason. So many realtors are just putting up goofy videos on Instagram and sharing them on Facebook. as, As a consumer, as a friend that, you know, you say you’re into real estate, I would much rather see you post a video, sharing a story or laughing and mocking the daily life of someone in real estate.

Then I want to see another post: hey, do you know anyone that’s looking to buy or sell a house? Let me know! 

Creative videos for real estate marketing, fun videos, relatable videos do away with that eye fatigue. The type of cliches that you learn to tune out and stop looking at when you keep seeing them over and over on your feed.

so I would go for BombBomb. I think their interface is really easy to use. Again, it comes down to you being able to record your probate marketing videos in the first place. BombBomb is just really the tool to help you get it out there.

Thank you.

If I may add one thing about BombBomb there, it shows you instead of a link. So the people don’t feel like, well, I can’t trust this because I don’t even know who sent it.

So it shows your face and not a link. So that’s very helpful to me anyway. And hi, I am new to this group. Hey, welcome. And I agree with that.

I mean, if I see something come through to me as a text, especially from one of those, you know, they’ll shorten the sent from phone number to be like six digits or something like that. If I open that and it has a shortened link in it I’m not clicking it. It could be something I just signed up for because I wanted Macy’s to send me coupons, but then I get the text message and it looks suspicious because I’m not prepared for it.

The literal security of being able to play that video right there, rather than have to click off-site to a skeptical link is another huge value factor for something like BombBomb.

All right. Do we have any other questions?

Hey Victoria, can you hear me? Yeah, I hear you. Great. 

Probate Success Story: But it was a nightmare! (Probate Listings) [00:28:37] 

I recently got certified in probate. Um, just closed my first listing and it was a complete nightmare. Next time I’m going to send it to a title agency and not close through the attorney’s office. They gave the keys to the buyer’s agent before the funds were cleared and they didn’t approve the final walk-through. They went back to the house, they were moving items out of the house. It became a liability and I was ready to trespass the agent and the buyers, the agent gave the keys to the buyers and the buyers were in the house removing items without the release of funds.

I am also a real estate agent. Um, that was a big, uh, experience for me. What would you recommend next time?

 I mean, speaking retroactively, I would say to make sure you get in touch with that broker, or have your broker, if you’re not a broker yourself, put that on your broker’s plate to communicate with their broker.

For all clients out there, that’s something, that we have to make sure that the buyer’s agent doesn’t do that again. It could get the buyer in a lot of trouble and not only could it be dangerous for the seller, but even if nothing happened at all that was detrimental, the seller still would’ve had the right to take legal action if they wanted to.

And that would harm the buyer. It would have what a crappy way. To move into your first home. So, and it’s, it’s something as simple as that buyer’s agent not being educated. So unfortunately something like that as it’s happening, it’s kind of when you find out that it’s happening, um, but were you able to have someone reach out to their broker?

I was, um, apparently the estate sale company, you know, they, couldn’t dispose of paint, cans properly, and a piece of furniture. And then that became my issue. Once that walkthrough happened, at 3:30 in the afternoon on a Friday. And they wouldn’t release the funds. All the papers had been signed.

The attorney gave the keys to the buyer’s agent and they went there and they pretty much threatened me saying if those items were not released, they weren’t gonna release the funds. So I could be wrong on this. And I’m sure someone else will jump in, but.

I think it’s pretty much a universal code contact code of conduct that contact never to allow the buyer’s possession until it’s officially closed. Whether no matter what the situation is, um, you know, I bought a problem. I’m in California, we use ESCOs, but I’ve used title companies and lawyers outside of the state.

I would just make sure you have very clear communication in the future way upfront. So that doesn’t happen again because somebody arrives to get hurt, like coming up against the seller, your listing agent, they’re coming after you. What state, where are you at? Are you in Florida? Florida. Um, and w what type of contract did you use?

Did you use your state from, your realtor? Yes. Yes. By Sotheby’s. And we just use our in-house listing agreement with them. And we accepted that the house was just released from probate the day before its closing. And you had it, you had an REO agenda and then everything on that? yes. Wow. Yeah, I. Yeah, I would have taken issue immediately with that other, the other side. 

I have one that I’m getting them to sign a listing contract on today, but they say that we’re going to have to petition the judge, and, uh, it’ll take at least six weeks, two to two and a half months for them to approve the sale. Is that something that I’m going to be having to attend?

Not typically. Shouldn’t have that. They have an affair, a probate attorney, correct? Yeah. Yeah. That’s everything at the moment. I mean, I have attended recently because I’ve had some nasty ones and a client who wanted to attend, but typically at the moment, no, one’s in attendance still because of COVID the attorneys aren’t attending, they’re zooming in, they’re taking every opportunity they can to not attend.

Okay. So, you know, they’re not attendings, so their clients not attending. I just happened to have a client who’s pretty hysterical. But her attorney’s not there. She’s just sitting there. And so I’m sitting with her, uh, but no, you shouldn’t have to attend. Okay. And, um, I recently had my website built and, I wasn’t quite sure if I had to disclose that I’m a realtor under every point of contact on there, with my brokerage, and the property office address of the brokerage.

So your broker will be able to give you not just what your state and local regulations require, but also what they as your broker require you to have on your branding and marketing and where, um, so I would get with your broker. A lot of the time you can put it in a really small non-intrusive place.

yeah, because it’s a franchise, there are a lot of fine lines there. Yeah. So remember, the broker you work directly under should be able to guide you on this at a minimum. This is something they should be able to answer your questions on. If not, I would look at an example, the website of a peer that’s been in the office for a while.

Okay.

REO addendum for probate sale contracts (Real Estate Contracts) [00:34:19] 

I have a question or a couple of questions. And these are for Victoria or anyone. Is that normal to have an REO addendum with a probate house? Absolutely. it used to be in California, one of our CARR addendums. They’re using it all the time, so they’ve incorporated it into our contract.

We don’t even have to go pull it anymore. It’s in our standard contract. It’s great. I’m happy to send it if it’s not one you can pull from your platform, of course, you can just go look quickly. Cause it’ll be easy to find under our, in your hundreds of forms. But if it’s not something there for you, I would strongly suggest getting ours and making it one.

Okay. I’m in Ohio. So I don’t even know I don’t have a deal or anything, but I was wondering about this addendum cause I thought you just used you know, regular paperwork. You do, but go see if there’s one, if you haven’t worked in it yet. You don’t know what you don’t know? I didn’t, I didn’t know there was one. 

Okay. That’s good. Okay. And about this attorney that, that was, that gave the keys. Excuse me. Was, he was not a real estate attorney. He was just the attorney for, for who? What, what. Probate attorney. Oh, geez. He didn’t know what he was doing. I would use a title company. Never use that. Okay.

 It sounds like that for me, the attorney needs to bring all of their real estates needs to YOU next time Victoria, tell them, yeah, he owes you some business cause he messed up. 

How are you generating leads in probate? Estate liquidation and appraisal. (Probate Lead Generation) [00:35:54] 

And my last question is how are you getting your deals, your people, what are you doing to get business?

That’s what I wanted. I used to do personal property appraisals and I did estate liquidations years ago. And I work closely with estate sale companies and appraisers.

 They’ll use me to go in and do valuations. Hmm. And then I pimp my kids out to them to work the sales. Okay. All right. That’s pretty good. Come from out. Alright. And my last question is, so you got a probate website from all the leads? I do. It’s like a vanity website. Okay. All right. All right. Thank you so much for your time., 

Probate no will: Emergency petition with the courts to stop preforeclosure [00:36:42] 

Okay, guys, I have a question.

This goes to all the people that already have experience. People experience in Florida, being a realtor for almost 20 years in the area question, on a case that they, someone died. It did not go through probate.

It’s been two years and the property is going through a pre-foreclosure with a reverse mortgage, which I’m going to contact the guy from the reverse mortgage. My question to you is about your own experience. I don’t know if someone had to deal with a situation like this, what will be the purchase step?

I’m trying to get a bunch of children together, but more than that, I would like to know if this is something that, for instance, the personal representative of the decedent’s estate, she’s willing to do things on her own as soon as possible to take care of the probate.

So anyone else.

 Is there a will? 

Think, uh, you got to petition the court with all the heirs who would get named as a personal representative.

 Great opportunity to get connected with a probate attorney, because you’ve probably got a lead to bring him right off the bat. Okay. Well, fair enough. Thank you, guys. I think you’re going to do an emergency petition with the courts to stop the pre-foreclosure just to let you know. Thank you.

All right. We’ve got a few minutes left. Does anybody have anything else before we wrap?

Mortgage, bridge loan, HELOC, what do I say? [00:38:12]

Yeah, I do, actually guys, I’m new to the group. I’ve been kinda hanging it in the background for the past few weeks and just watching, listening, absorbing, and whatnot. And I started doing direct mails and I’ve got a VA cause I have a ton of leads that I’m going through that are about a year out and I’m getting calls back.

And I have people who are in like Pinellas county that have, you know, a home that’s worth a lot of money and they also need another home. I’m a realtor as well, but I’m new to the real estate side down here. I was in Michigan and I just, you know, I guess I’m looking for some sort of advice on the phone call that I’m going to make to this gentleman because the home is it’s worth 1.3 and he’s, he’s like, I want to sell, and he needs to downsize and I don’t want to lose that deal.

What would be the best advice that anyone could give me moving to that kind of market to those larger sales, what would be the best approach for something like that in my return call to him this afternoon?

Is the mortgage paid? Yes, it is. Okay. Is he willing to go for a bridge loan? Now that I don’t know cause I’m just making my initial contact with him this afternoon. Hmm. A direct call that a VA made to him. Well, you know, a lot of things, you know, obviously we can offer them different options. Right.

We can go cash, cash, retail, list it. I’ve got a lot of cash buyers for that, you know, come down obviously from like New York and whatnot and they have, they’ve got cash in hand. Well, if he’s downsizing, because basically what you can do is right now, you need to find a place.

Yes. Some will be the first is that finding a place? And that’s pretty much it. How good is his credit? Um, how much? No, it’s like, it’s a hundred percent equity, right? Yeah. I believe this one is. Oh, maybe. Oh, yes.

Yeah. So like a home equity interest. Yep. What was that of interest? Half the interest. Yep. Well, the biggest thing with the home equity line is that it can be a lot faster and a lot less paperwork. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Great input. You guys. So, um, Does anybody work in that Pinellas area that knows anyone who might be like rehabbing a home that they want to sell?

I know a mortgage, a guy in that area. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. If you guys have anything, let me know and I can, I can drop, my email or phone number or whatnot. And I do want to comment on the people who are afraid of, of doing videos and whatnot, you know, it is very nerve-wracking, but I want to suggest to you guys, if you prepare something and you’ve got it written out, I can recommend an app called big view B I G V U.

You can cut, copy-paste into that. And you can, as you’re holding your phone up like this, you can read from it and it doesn’t look like you’re reading anything. So you don’t have to worry about forgetting what you’re saying and the points that you want to make. So I take my blogs and I read them, you know, and I’m starting to send those out and post them on Facebook and whatnot.

So just a suggestion, but yeah. Thanks. You guys. Great information on that. Um, then I’ll recommend that. Thank you all. Appreciate it. Thank you, Melanie. I see in the chat that Kim had asked if you could share your contact information, if you’re open to that, I will drop that.

All right. Awesome. Well, I just want to thank all of you for bearing with us, the unexpectedness of Chad not being here today. I’m super impressed with the involvement and the way that everyone just kind of chimed in and gave their thoughts. I thought this was a very successful group call and next week, Chad should be here to help answer any other questions that you may have.

All right. Thank you guys so much for sticking around. I hope you have a great rest of your week and until next time. Bye.

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