Okay, so I stole the line from the Robots movie, but its very relevant in real estate.  Heck its the foundation of every business that exists.   How does that relate to me and probate.  Its very simple, I have two sets of customers.   Sellers and buyers.  In order to help the buyers, I must first help the sellers.

How to help the sellers?

Sellers are folks that have aquired real property through the passing of a loved one or friend.  Often times they do not want the property, some times they do.  Some scenarios I see for a seller.

• They need the cash now and are willing to sell the property at a deep discount as long as it sells quick.  These folks could have bills due, medical expenses or any plethora of reasons to quickly sell.  These folks will be my bread in butter in the probate process.  They may also be folks that do not wish to go through hassle and expense of rehabbing the property.
• They want top dollar from their home and do not wish to sell at a discount.  They are content on waiting until the right buyer comes along.
• They wish to keep the home and rent it out to others or desire some form of income from the property.
• They wish to keep the home for family members or themselves.

I believe I can fill 3 of the 4 needs here.

• Helping those who wish to sell at a deep discount should be fairly uncomplicated.  I will obtain private or hard money and buy the house from them within my guidelines.   Even if I do not wish to rehab the house, the deal will allow me to offer it up as a wholesale deal to other buyers in the area.
• To help those wishing for top dollar for the home, I have a buyers agent who has sellers agents on his contact list.  Since he will be helping me acquire many properties, we will work out a deal for a some sort of commission percentage from the sellers agents.  I could be looking at $500 per property that a sellers agent is able to sell from my leads.  Perhaps these same sellers have a home that needs work before they can get top dollar.  Here’s where I want to be creative.  If I can find a rehabbed willing to work with them or rehab the property myself, we can work out a split on the profits.  This will really depend on the deal.   I also will give them contacts on contractors to work with.  This can help me when I need that contractor to do work for me.  Referral discounts.  Heck, maybe they don’t have the money for rehab, but want to tackle it.  Okay, I have several hard money lenders on my list.  I’ll get the two in touch.  Since there loan to value should be for repairs only, they should get favorable acceptance.  Many many ways to fill this need.
• Suppose they want to rent it out.  I have a killer property manager.  She is like a little badger.  Looks cute and cuddly but can take care of business.  Perhaps I can work out some sort of discount deal by getting my PM those leads.  If she doesn’t want them, I can find other pm’s willing to take those leads.  If they wish to go it alone, I will calmly inform them about my first year of rentals and going it alone.  If they still wish to pm on their own, no problem.  I’ll leave my card and plan on calling them 6 months to 1 year down the road and see how things are going.  Many folks tackle rentals at first, then realize what a pain the ass they are.
• Suppose they wish to keep for themselves or family members.  I’ll wish them the best of luck and hand them my card or refrigerator magnet.  Plans always change.

No matter what the seller needs to do, the most important thing I can do is listen to them and find out what that truly is.  They may not even know at first.  We’ll work through the options.  I just need to listen.  Something I’ll have to really work on.  Not my strong suit.  I get too exited and start shooting myself in the foot.  I have 100′s of ideas, but I need give them a chance to tell me what will work best for them first.  A car dealer can’t sell a minivan to a person looking for a truck.  Neither party will walk away happy.  I’m sure I’ll have tire kickers wanting to know what they can get for their property.  Thats okay, tire kickers have some desire to sell or they would not have called.   I just need to find out what their motivation is.  Even tire kickers have a need.  Every person who calls me is a potential buyer.  In fact I already have their sale.  I just need to close the deal.

Next post I’ll talk about filling the buyers needs.