ProbateResearch For Investors

ProbateResearch, What To Do, How To Do It

We need to get a prospect. Let’s start in say, Citrus County.

You need to access the official records in that county and a link to the Citrus County Official Records can be found here for ProbateResearch. Once on the official records run your search by document type “Probate” with restricted date filed From 1/1/2011 To 1/20/2011, then click search. On the returned list see the second record from the top which was recorded on 1/4/2011 write down the Grantors/Grantees/ book-pg numbers and the case number. Leave this window open but minimize it to get it out of the way.

Go to the Citrus County Clerk of Circuit Courts website, a link can also be found on my page listed above. Once there, locate the Online Records column Click the Court Records Button. This will take you to the court records query page, type in the name of the Grantor you wrote down and search the records. This will tell you how far along the case is; open, disposed, what has been filed, who the representative is, attorneys, etc. Write down that information or print it out.

Go over to the Citrus County Property Appraiser’s website. Link to it can also be found on my site page referenced above. Click on this sequence of buttons, Search (on next page select) I Agree (on next page select) Name. Then enter the grantors name you wrote down—Last Name First name—no comma between them.. On the returned list there is but a single property if your with me at this point. Click on the altkey number.

What ProbateResearch you now have:

Address of owner, property address, features of property, assessed value. Click on the GIS Map Viewer then expand to full screen. The parcel is highlighted, nice canal front. Click on sales data, 2 properties show sales within 2010 nice prices. You get the idea and can check them out later by clicking on the I in circle button then depressing the sold parcels. This will provide all of the appraiser’s data for those which you will use as comps for your subject property. Ok so we like it so far, especially since the property has been in the family for over 20 years, the representative of the estate is out of state and the property has a good value. Write down the altkey number and legal description for later reference.

Back to Official Records For More ProbateResearch

Once on the official records query page again, run a search by name of grantor found from your previous official records search when we were looking for probate cases. 19 records appear. Look for unsatisfied mortgages, I don’t see any. I do see where a plat variation was applied, not a concern.

Send out your letter. Use reverse white pages address lookup to gather the phone number you need. Make your pitch. Have a nice life. If you can’t locate decent comps, don’t hesitate to call a local realtor. Give details but not all the details as you may find your deal swept away. Just ask for comps on a lake front home in bluh bluh subdivision 1100sqft 2/2 built in 1958. Good condition. Inform the realtor you are in the process of securing title to the property with the intent of resell. If the realtor can’t provide comps without full disclosure find them yourself through the Appraiser’s data. Under no circumstance should you give the address or identifiable info to the realtor, I have been beat out of a lot of deals by doing so. I also rely on trulia.com for area comps but only when they can be confirmed by the Appraiser’s data.

Once you get an agreement with the property owner to sell you the property, once it has moved through probate, you will need a sample contract, an assignment and a quick tutorial on how to do it. Those can be found here: www.floridataxsale-foreclosure-info.com/MyInfo4Sale.html.

Final ProbateResearch Notes

If the records in your Florida County aren’t as readily available you can keep an eye on the obituaries in your local newspaper and cross reference those names in the official records to get a case number so that you can make your trip to the Clerk of Circuit Courts office and manually retrieve the case file. They will pull it for you, but you have to have a case number.

Happy Hunting

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