KGCI: Real Estate on Air - How To Work With Probate Attorneys Effectively.

Episode Date: May 13, 2024

Common question I should be answered that I'm not asked the most common question I should be asked but I'm not asked I'm asked the opposite. I often as how do I get business from attorneys And the key to any relationship is the value you put in the relationship will create the value in the long run You know I was married 36 years ago and I do I don't hold myself up to be a great husband But I did pay attention to this advice from the rabbi who married us at the time he said the key key to success in marriage is not finding the right partner, it's being the right partner. And I believe that's true in business. The key is not finding the right attorney's business is being the right person for attorneys view business with. So today, I'm going to share with

you what I do. Now, show you to be effective in working with attorneys so that they want to work with me. Now, I'm not saying I'm all that. I have a pretty good business. I literally have five different listings all this should go and escrow the next week i just close a couple a bunch i've closed year-to-date i don't know 10 12 13 and i got two pending and i'm going to have five more pending i think by the end of next week so i have a good business it pays me real well gives me a lot of freedom but i'm not hold myself to be the expert in fact the opposite i do this program to force myself to improve my game do better at my craft and we're sure you guys to join me join me in the process. You know, on this call right now, on the Zoom, we have live about 26 people, we'll have

more stumble in. And then we have people watching on YouTube and Facebook, a bunch there as well. We usually get about 50 to 60 live in the Zoom and on the course of week 200 or so on social media. You know, if we all work together, we would own the real estate market for probate business. I get told all the time how real estate agents are either discovering probate or seen as being a new niche or seeing how popular has become or see more and more than ever. And I agree. It's a fantastic opportunity for all of us. There's plenty of business for all of us. There's 500 probates filed monthly in Los Angeles alone. There's 50 court confirmation sales in Los Angeles every month alone. So I don't need all of it. I'm not even to have the goal to get all of it. I'm looking to

build a national team of people around the country. But by working together by holding our standards higher, do better as a team. Whether you join my team, join me at the XP Realty, or join me just on this call. If we work together, we can make each of ourselves more effective and more productive in our business. That's the goal today. I'm going to talk about working with attorneys effectively. So I don't mean to say I have it all figured out, but I've learned some things and I work at some things. I will share this with you today. Now, before we start, I want to make sure I know who the audience is. So those you want to the Zoom call who aren't driving, if you can I put in the call what state you're from. So I can know whether I should make this more tailored towards

California where I'm from, and I think most of you are from, or if it's more national, and I'll be more about the principles and less California specific. So if you'd be so kind, just for the chat box, California, CA, or if there's another state, put the abbreviation there, don't create a whole job for you out of this, but California, Connecticut, wow, welcome, Nevada, Georgia. I have a team member in Georgia. Welcome, another California. So I'm going to guess it's about half California, North Carolina. Welcome, North Carolina. What part of North Carolina? If you're in another state, put county you're in, so we make sure we use your referrals going forward. California, California, so a little over half in California, it looks like.

Mooresville. Okay, so Mooresville, North Carolina. Very nice. Welcome to the call. Al Wimbly, welcome. I don't think we've met before, but glad to have you here. Okay, so with that in mind, I put together a list of, I'm not sure I we'll get through, but 29 points on how to be effective when working with attorneys. Some of them are repetitive, cover the same things, some are specific, but hopefully they'll be helpful. Now, if there's one of these that resonates with you, like you're going to add this to your business, but I'm going to add this in, or I'm going to do this. Right. The goal here is I'm not selling a coaching program. I'm trying to sew you on being more effective in your business. And you have questions,

please raise your hand in the Zoom app or put in the chat box and I'll pay attention to that. And if you're watching on the live stream on YouTube or Facebook as well, feel free to put a chat there and I'll say hi. Annie Riveron says exactly what she wants to learn. Thank you, Annie, and you're in California. Fantastic. Look forward to giving you what you're looking for. Okay, so let's get started. So point number one, you want to establish professional relationships.

Professional relationships. What we're not talking about is, cold calling attorneys and treating them like prospects, right? We're talking about our goal here in activities and everything in all of our contact with them is professional relationships. That means when you meet them the way you dress, right? When you go to court, you dress in a lorily manner. When you go to their office, you meet their dress code.

Now in downtown L.A., Beverly Hills, that means a suit and tie. Most of the places nowadays, most are in polo shirts, men. And I'm not sure where it is, but you should find out before you go there. But the key is it's a professional relationship. So you want to do business the way that they do business. That also means you know the way you do emails. If your goal is to do business with attorneys, your email should look like an attorney's email. Now, attorneys, like all of us struggle with technology, they might have a domain,

the best attorney in LA.com, bill at the best attorney. and then you might get emails from their Gmail account or their Yahoo account or their ALL account. And those don't reflect as positively as the ones from our domain as we as realtors should be careful to try to make sure we come from the domain. How about in your signature line, your email, is a professional? And again, maybe not so important if you're doing with homeowners, more important if you're doing with attorneys. For example, legal disclosures, I don't think they're really worth much. I mean, if you ask my business opinion, not legal opinion, I would say it's not worth much. But I deal with attorneys and they see a little disclaimer in the bottom.

They go, wow, this guy really is concerned about legal disclosures. So again, you want to think about yourself as a relationship with attorneys, not just a transaction, right? Every interaction with attorney is an opportunity to build a relationship. That means that sometimes you have a client as a question with attorney. a chance to build a relationship. Treat it that way. Don't treat it as a question. Don't treat it as one transaction. Don't treat it as one sale. Treat as the beginning of a relationship. Mark Podroza, regularly here, says, how would you work effectively with attorneys out of the country, such as Windsor Ontario, represents a client in his locale, San Mateo? You know, again, I don't know

much about Windsor, Ontario as a, you know, the legal practice there. But again, I would treat them like a professional relationship. You know, I think that generally attorneys are more formal in their conversation. Their emails often start with Mr. or Ms. or Mrs. or Mrs. or their name, comma. And so I would up my game's formality if I was going to work with them on a regular basis. Now the reality is an attorney in Tara doesn't have that many probates in California. So that's a lower value relationship, but still I would treat them in a lowerly way and I would treat them according to the other points I'm going to give you the rest of this way. Okay, so that's point number one. Establish a professional relationship.

What does that mean to you? How do you treat people in a professional relationship different than just somebody in a transaction? Right? And whatever that means for you. I know it means to me. What does it mean to you? So it's professional relationship. That's number one.

Number two. learn about the probate process understand the process the attorney's role and your role now i will say that this is difficult because many attorneys attorneys i think their strength universally is they sound like they know what they're talking about when they know nothing and i think they have to in court at times and they have to think on their feet quickly and they have a they have a way that's kind of discouraging of attacking as a way to protect themselves. And so if you just understand that, you want to learn the process. One way with people who have big egos is to ask them for questions, ask them for advice, right? I would never argue, attorneys should never argue with a judge,

and I would never argue with the attorney. I'd ask some questions. To quote Mike Ferry, I think a superstar retreat's going on right now, selling isn't telling, selling is asking questions. questions. So as far as learning about the probate process, there'll be times you'll learn things, and the attorney will take something that's wrong. It happens to me all the time. What do I do? Well, I try to help them understand the process. I help them understand my relationship. I try to elevate myself so they'll respect my input. And sometimes they just don't. Sometimes they just insist on doing things that are wrong. You know, it's no different than your spouse. I mean, I'm married still, as hard as I believe, 36 years.

You know, I tell my wife sometimes when she's wrong, but to be honest, that's not a productive way to have a marriage. Sometimes she does things are wrong and you just go, well, I'm married to her. She's a great woman. She does that wrong, but, you know, that's just the way it goes. And so our relationship doesn't require you to agree and everything. Relationship is the relationship. You value the fact that you guys have a relationship. And that's important to keep.

So Annie asks, our attorney is looking to work with advisors. The answer is, some are, some aren't. And if you create value in their eyes, are they going to want to work with you? If you don't create value in their eyes, if they think all realtors are slime balls, if you look, act, talk, and walk like all other realtors they ever work with, they're going to think you're a slime ball.

Just know that going in. And so oftentimes the trainees will say to me things like, realtor's are so unprofessional. I'll say, isn't that great? That's my competition. I just have to beat them and I get business. Right? So I try to look different than them.

I try to act different than them. I try to talk different than them. And I commonly get an experience from an attorney and say, wow, you really know this material. The answer is, as I said, point two, I learned about the process. I'll give you an example. I will listen right now that's a commercial property. Now, I've sold industrial retail, commercial land as well as residential property in my probate business over the last four and a half

years whenever i get a phone call from a commercial agent it's always saying hey i'm a commercial agent you're just residential let me tell you how life works and the reality is for the most part now the top one percent of commercial agents are amazing but brendlaw is one of those top one percent in the industrial space he's amazing in his world i would never argue with him but most commercial agents don't do that much business they don't do that volume of business so their strengths are not on transactional details they don't really know the contracts most of them never even read the contracts which is amazing to me so for example this commercial agent uh didn't know that in the air forms now as a real estate agent in california we have two options for forms we have

prepared forms to our California Association of Realtor or Car forms. And we also have the ability to use the Air CR forms. I think what Air stands for, but it's an industrial association of industrial realtors, I think. That's part of the CR package you can pay for and add to it. But the Air form specifically in page six, paragraph 12 case says, the seller warns to deny a probate. Not only of that, There's no error addendum or advisory regarding probate. So I said to the agent, listen, if you're going to use air forms, you need to know that. You need to strike that out.

And I'm not sure what other disclosures you want regarding the probate, but you'd have to add that in. Well, no, I'm sure there's air forms that cover that. You must have a limited set. No, I know the forms. Now, I'll tell you, I went to Carr's attorney. I went to Err's attorney. I've been emailing them all day to verify that I'm correct. This isn't just I am trying to BS my way through this.

I want to know the actual answer because then I'm the expert on that topic. Do you guys follow me? If you follow me to say yes and I'm losing, you ask a question. Let me get you back on track. I went very, very deep on one point. The purpose of which to say is, though, because I went deep in that point, I'm the expert on that point. I don't know there's anybody in California who knows more about heirs lack or appropriateness on

probate on a purchase agreement. I think there's anybody who knows more than I do on that right now, today. May change tomorrow, but today. And I don't know if you're using other states. I believe there's no other state that has any probate addendums or advisories like California does. Too bad. I think our forms are very helpful to explain the process really well. if I was a probate agent in another state, I might take the California forums and copy and steal some of the verbiage and create my own templates that can use because I believe they do a really good job explaining and protecting my customers.

They're powerful weapons, powerful tools. But I know the process. And so my point is, if you want people to business with you, I'm not saying tell them you're the expert. I'm not saying take a picture of you with 20 people, 20 actors, to look like they have a big team. You guys like, you've seen those websites with an agent we know. And they're in front of like 20 models all dressed in black or white or red. And it looks like they have a whole team behind them. And you know them.

And they came and afford their MLS dues. Who knows people like that besides me? Okay. I'm not saying that. I'm not saying look like the expert. I'm saying really learn the material. I know this is a fun topic, but this is my favorite topic. And so I'm saying this to myself, guys.

and so bear with me on that. Mark says that you can call the CAR covers as your realtors and as for legal rights. Yes, I called the car hotline. However, they're not infallible. I was on the phone today with a car legal hotline who told me that non-car members, non-realtors, can buy our car forms and use them in transaction.

Not true. You can't use car forms unless you're a car member. It's a benefit being a member. We sell them to car members, but we don't sell them to non-car members. So be careful. Yes, it's good to have legal advisors and so on. It's better to know the answer. And usually the answer is available in plain English. Okay, number three, offer expertise on real estate matters. Well, this would make sense, obviously. But what I say is this is your chance to try out for free, to audition for free. What do I mean by that? When an attorney asks me for a

document, hey, Bill, the channel, can you send it to me on this property? I jump on it right away. And I give him multiple documents. The grantee, maybe there was a quick claim into a trust, maybe there was a mortgage, or at least the mortgage. And I give him a view of what it is, because I'm showing him how much I know about the documents or her. When they ask for the value of the property, well, just give me a ballpark. You don't have to give me a whole CMA. I give them a CMA.

Now, my CMA is, I give them the, I just, this is with my format. I get the AVN, the I've made evaluation model, Zillow, Redfin, realtor.com, and there's a first American one that's in our MLS system. And I provide the comparables. I pull my comps to MLS, the three most, similar sold three most similar active or pending and a spreadsheet and then i describe why i came up with that number so i summarize the avms i review the comps and i give my analysis and it takes me you on a property 20 minutes 30 minutes to do that at most for an attorney that's a valuable

piece of information some people say well bill that's a lot of work well depends what your business is my business is creating relationships with people who can affirm me listings so minutes to prepare a presentation, I'm glad to do that. Because I want to show them I'm an expert on real estate. Also, drive the property, even if it's solicited. Just say, hey, by the way, Joe, you know the property you're doing the probate on. I just drove by it. And I didn't go in.

But I drove around and I have some pictures I'll send you. I notice there's mail at the front. I notice there's a window broken. I notice it looks locked up ties a drum. I notice at night there's no lights on. If you're an attorney, would you like to know that information? Yes or no? Right.

So give them the information about the property. You want to give that to them before they need it. I had an attorney once on this topic of giving information. She would call me and ask for the deed and I'd get to them or prelim. And then I sent it to them. And again, and after the third or fourth one, he said, well, you know, if you want to just give me the name of contact your assistant, I'd be glad to call them to get the form. I said, no, no, no. I have nothing more important in the world to do than to find out what you need and give it to you.

Because I'm building a relationship. Now, is that the most efficient way to handle documents? No, I'm not looking to build the most efficient way to get documents. I'm looking to build relationships with people who confirm me listings. You hear the difference? So yes, I want to be the expert. I'm going to give them all the documents, anything on real estate. That's why I send out, look at that. We've got Brock Purdy in the waiting room. Anybody doesn't know that name. It's the quarterback who started for the 7-60-49ers. So we'll watch and see if it's a Zoom bomber. You want to be the expert. I send out a weekly email about the real estate market to everybody I know. Every realtor, every consumer, every attorney. I want to anybody to know. I know the

real estate market. Now, I take some time, Mark Padoza, go Niners. I know the market real well. I want them to know I'm an expert on real estate. Okay, so point one was you're stepping personal relationships. Two, was learning about the probate process. And I say go deep. Like, learn the material. Not know enough to get by, like know it. Master that material. And number three, respect the attorney's legal advice. Now, this is important. We don't give legal advice. I give business advice. I give real estate advice.

Sometimes people say, well, that's legal advice. Well, I'm giving advice on real estate. I'm a real estate agent. I'm a broker. I have a license to give advice in that limited area as it relates to the process. I'm allowed to know the law. And more importantly, I can read the forms. I can read the law.

But what I can't do is give legal advice. What should I do, A or B? right i can't fill out forms for the customer they need to fill out the forms the disclosures for example the tds same with the legal documents i can't i'm not allowed to fill out the forms for them that's a great area there are legal document pairs that do that for the customer but so you have to be careful anytime you give advice to a client or talk about in front of an attorney be hyper sensitive be hyper sensitive to the fact that they're the attorney and respect their legal advice. Just to go back a little bit, I'm sorry, I missed that comment from Annie.

How do you get to review the probate documents the first time? And if you're a real estate agent, you have access to documents in the car forms, if you're in California, there's a, there's a, the residential purchase agreement has a checkbox for the probate advisory and the probate addendum. And then you can pull down the probate addendum advisory for both a listing and the purchase agreement. So I would urge you to do that. As far as the case documents, I would, just to go back to point two, I'm mastering probate. You know, I regularly ask customers, send me the documents.

Let me take a look at it. Let me see what you're reading. You know, oftentimes it's just reading what's on the doc. The customer just can't comprehend what the form says. But when I get it, I just read it to me and say, well, it says A, B and C. It says this does apply to you. It says this applies to the tenant or whatever the story is. So to answer your question, Annie, I would say be proactive.

If you're looking to learn, in every opportunity when people have documents, just ask to review them. Ask them to email them to you. Ask them to copy you. When I have attorneys, when they file the DE160, which is the request for inventory and appraisal report, I asked the paralegal copy me on so I get it. Right. In some counties, you go online, see the actual file. You can see the actual record. So that's a complicated question. I can talk about in detail in your county. But in general, what I want to talk about today on this call, is be on the lookout for opportunities to learn at every chance. Sees those opportunities. Okay.

Number five, on being effective in working with attorneys, communicate regularly. Now, attorneys, in my experience, attorney time is, if you call them, they'll call you back within a week. Now, we realtors, like, freak out because we expect to return our phone calls by the end of the day, even if it's 11 o'clock at night. Right? They don't necessarily do that. So, for example, I'm proactively calling my attorney every week with the stats on my escrows with them or my files with them. I send out every week. I sent an email out. I went them used to getting an email and that way if the next agent doesn't do that every week, they're less than me. Right. I'm also careful. And I use Gmail for my mail client when I send them an email. I might be working out after hours. but I'll schedule it to go Monday morning, let's say at 8 a.m. or 8.15 a.m. So I'm working on the weekend.

I don't send it to them on Saturday or Sunday. They get it Monday morning at 815. But I'm going to communicate regularly with them, keep to inform about the property. Even there's not much to talk about, even it's week to week, right? The properties in the market, how many showings, how many views, how many lowball offers, those kind of things. Summarize information in an email format. or call them every week with information,

whatever is appropriate for your relationship. Okay, any questions, comments in the chat box. Annie, thank you for participating on the LinkedIn. If you're on YouTube or Facebook or put it in the comments, and I'll respond to them. And if you're watching live on the Zoom, that's why we do the Zoom call for you guys to jump in and participate. So feel free there.

I see Matthew Price. Welcome, Janie Bishop. Best seen. Can we just talk yesterday? And Jack Young, I don't think we've met before, have we? I don't think we have. Well, anyhow, nice to have you on the call. To rest you, feel free, put cameras on, ask questions.

Let's make it this participant. This is meant to be a sharing information. Now, I can only get you guys to share by asking, so I'll continue here. Number five was communicate regularly. Number six is provide property market insights. You share relevant information about the property. So, for example, the attorneys who call me and they're working on a probate, they haven't filed it.

They won't file it maybe for months. I'll send a CMN that property out to them every couple weeks. I go to the MLS and create a search that's automated every two weeks with comparable in that property and compare it is up or down from the last time. Now, the market may not move. Most time it doesn't. But if you're an attorney, would you appreciate getting that every two weeks? Imagine if a probate case, there's a property.

You can't file it for six months because it's haggling. Would you appreciate an email from every two weeks as to the staff? the property yes you know number seven is be available for assessments make sure they know that's what you do make sure they know you're glad to drive the property and i tell them because i'm with expe i literally have team members across the country anywhere you have a property i can get eyes on within 24 hours you can get you some pictures in a basic uh uh review of the property anywhere in the country literally and today on this call we have people from north carolina from, if I go back, Texas, from Georgia, Nevada, Connecticut.

So literally on this phone call, I could say to somebody here, hey, Connecticut, can you drive by this property? My guess is the answer is probably going to be yes. Make sure your attorneys know that. You're a resource to drive those properties anywhere. You all should detail all your attorneys. You're probably a national network because you are. If you're in this call, you're probably a private national network.

You go to my weekly Facebook group, which is free, you're part of a national network. You're in Chad Corbett's list. You're in a national network. You're with the XP. I'm the leader of the probate group there, probate weekly. We have 2,700 members nationwide.

You're part of a national group. So don't let that business slip to your fingers. The local probate, it's the relationship, not the sale, that should be important to you. Not to mention that sale out of state, whether you get paid or not a referral fee, is less important.

Then you're working with attorney and working with the vendors on that deal. So be available for assessments anywhere, anytime. Number seven, familiarize yourself with state law, local rules, and the physical location of your court. So law is varied by state. There's individual states at California. There's the uniform code that many states share.

Some states have adopted it and wrapped it and made some changes. and other states have local laws as well. Then individual counties or courts have local rules. You should look for those, either on the county website or talk to the attorneys to ask them where they're posted. Usually there's a document you can download and read the local rules. It's amazing how informative. When I go to a new county, I was releasing San Bernardino on a deal,

I downloaded the rules. I hadn't read them for a while. There's a lot of good information there to learn about how they do business in San Bernardino different than LA. and the physical court. So if your attorney is going to court, now it's different in LA now because most try to get out going to court,

but some go. Certain hearings, they have to go. So if you're ever going to go to court, you want to go when your client's going to be there. Your client's going to go, you want to show up. If your attorney's going to be there, you want to show up. So learn the lay of the land.

Is there a Starbucks? In L.A. County, we have a Starbucks on the second floor when you walk out. There's a coffee shop inside and there's a Starbucks outside. There's also a great cafeteria on the top floor. The cafeteria is kind of iffy. You need some coffee.

Magnificentives. So if ever you're going to go for hearing, tell the attorney, I'll meet you and buy a cup of coffee somewhere. If you're not in LA County and other counties, my guess is more attorneys go to court in other counties in LA, take advantage of it. Okay. That was number eight.

area, sales, state laws. Number nine, share knowledge about the property, the condition, the history, the potential. Sometimes we don't think they're interested, but again, if you're in a relationship, you care more than just what you need to know about. I'll give you an example. I love my daughter, amazing young woman. She's a buyer for T.J. Max and the related companies, so she buys, you know, items. Part of her job is she has to go to the store and competitors to look and see what they have in stock and compare and to learn. So some father-daughter times I'll go with her to the store and we'll just walk around the store and she's kind of doing her work and I'm kind of paying attention and she likes my view as a,

you know, regular consumer because she's educated. Do I really care what kind of, you know, jean skirts, T.J. Max stocks, do you think? I do care. Can I tell you why I care? Because I relationship with my daughter. And so what I think you'll find is we think, well, they're not going to be interested in that, but they're interested in you. They'll be interested. So those of us that do videos, send them to everybody. Some people will never look at them.

Oddly enough, my wife never watches my videos. My daughter doesn't watch my videos. But I have a tree so I don't imagine to watch my videos because they want to have relationship with me, and that's the way they do that. So share information, share the details. Did somebody design the property? What you did you get cleaned up? with the vendors you use to do it, even if you're, you know, if you're advancing the money

or even if the customer is paying for it, let the tree know that's going on. They care about the customer. They care about the transaction. And they also will care about you more. So let them know every step of the way that you can share with that. Look at every update, stats update as another chance to further the relationship. Okay. And number 10 on a way to 30 is coordinate with other professionals.

what does that mean so there are times that we're not needed but if it'll help be there right in california the probate referee who does the inventory of prison support doesn't go to the property they're supposed to do a drive-by i haven't think they do a drive-by to be honest i mean i don't want to accuse anybody a fraud i'm just saying i don't think they do but if they do but i do send them a cma i do send them a write-up as to why I came up with that number for the list price. Why not make it easy? And I copy the attorney in the Perleagle when I do that so they know I'm working

the referee to get the outcome that we want. The customer also has to deal with other vendors, maybe a probate bond company. I've gotten very involved with bonds lately. Customer need help, filling out the forums, getting them signed, getting them notarized, getting them back. Probate advanced companies, you guys know I run a program called get probate. cash. So it wasn't satisfactory having customers go to that company or the turn to the company. I got involved. I want to get involved with those vendors. Insurance.

You know, when a customer needs insurance, you can call the customers say, you need insurance, or you can call them and say, well, we need to get insurance. How can help you? Here's a guy that I use or gal that I use that can offer insurance. Get involved. Look for opportunities to bring value to, and we use the artwork again, the relationship. Okay, we're over halfway through. I'm on point 10 out of 30. We're not going to get there. Questions, comments so far.

Is this helpful? Is this interesting? Mark gives me a thumbs up. Janie, is this interesting? Yeah, okay. Anybody else? Questions, comments? Nadia, thank you.

She says yes, thank you. Thank you. Okay. Is this too deep for anybody? Am I going too fast? Am I going, or is this all good? Maris says, I haven't worked with a private journey until today.

you, Marissa. You can relate to them for future business. Good for you. Marissa, where do you do business? Okay, let's continue. Number 11. Understand the timeline. Right?

So part of the job I think is I'm part of the attorney's team. I don't give legal advice, but I know when I get paid, I know when Netsual closes, and I know what steps have to be done that aren't done yet. I can share that. So literally I closed escrow on this last week and the client called me and said to me, well, when do I get the money from the probate? Unlike a regular sale in California, right? The errors don't get any money until the probates closed out at the very end.

The last step in California is, as the judge approves that proposed distribution and there's no objectors and sat there for a while, the checks could cut to the court fees, expenses, creditors, attorney, and the errors at the very end. So I told her that. She could have called the attorney. I'm answering the question for her. So she appreciates me. Great, do me a favor. When you talk to attorney next, let them know that I'm helping because they're going to build that relationship. So am I doing their job for them? Yeah. Do I even know it? Probably not. But if they're not bogged down and I can handle it efficiently, they're out getting more probates for us.

So that's number of 11. Know the timeline. So in your state, what's the timeline? I know the timelines of California. I know more of the timelines. I actually have all the data in Illinois County. So I can tell you based on when you filed, when you're hearing date, it's going to be, most likely.

When you have a court confirmation sale, when you file that petition, when you're most likely going to get your court confirmation day. I can tell you those things. I'll give you an example. Because I track everything, I notice that there's a type of petition called the Higstad. where because documents were put into the trust, kind of unique in California,

Haguestead was a court case of California, you can say that the decedent meant to put in the trust, and the court will, if they agree, take a property that's not in a trust, and put it back to the trust. It's called the Higstead petition. And on one hand, it sounds easier than a full probate, and it might be in some regards, but two things are also true. One, attorneys charge money for Higstead petitions. almost as much as a probate. Two, I can tell you that today in LA County, if you file a Hexed petition,

you won't get your first hearing for six months. Whereas in a regular probate, you can file having a hearing in 31 days, have full authority to be able to sell the property. So while a Hextead might be easier, and that's questionable, I don't have the legal advice to tell them about what I can tell them is the Hanksuitment petitions filed last week. We're not scheduled for their first hearing for six months that I can tell them.

So I know the timeline. Know the timelines in your market area. Do you think that'd be valuable information for attorneys to know in your areas in Connecticut, in Nevada? Sure. Okay. Number that was 11. Number 12. Be patient and understanding.

Again, attorney. work on attorney timelines. Raltors like us, we're so focused on a commission check, we expect everything to be done the next day. And attorneys just don't. I mean, if it's done in a week, that's kind of, I'm not saying I take a week to do things. I do things right away. I'm even sensitive that when I do things right away and send it to them, they're a little on nerve because they may not look at it for a week. That's being sensitive to their timelines. So you have to be patient and understanding of their timelines. It's just different, a different business.

When they're in court, sometimes, their night in the office, they're in court all day, sometimes two, three days in a row or three half days in a row. So we have to understand their business is a little different than ours. You can't sit in court and text respond. Like you and I in this Zoom call, we're working. But if a customer calls you, you can take the phone call or. you know, turn your camera off and take the call or meet yourself or text them. But in court, you can't do that. So we need to be understanding and patient of their timelines are different than ours.

Number 14. Assist with any title issues. I feel like my job is to ensure title gets transferred from the seatant to the new buyer. And everything in between is my job. That means I got to pick the title company and make sure they review the title in plenty of time to get the job done. So either when we file the probate or for sure when I list the property, I order to put in my title report,

and make sure we review any documents. And if it's a trust, I get the trust documents right away. Some of those trust litigation, get right away to the title officer, get them to review them right away. That's my job. The last thing you want is a title officer at closing to pull the funding to say, Oh, by the way, this trust addendum is insufficient. So you have got to be on the title stuff from the beginning to end.

Now, you can use that to your advantage. You can use that to show the attorney you're in charge, that you're bringing value to them, that that's a top company that gives them the documents they want, right? Everything to do with the title is really becomes my job. Everything. Okay. Oscar is in Fontana, California. Welcome.

Welcome from the IE, Oscar. Okay. I think that's a duplicate. Comptu-Data. Number 15. Suggest cost-effective property improvements. Suggest cost-effective property improvements. Now, I believe, this is my thesis. You're welcome to disagree with me. I believe that real estate agents who are weak will sell something fancy thinking the fancy thing will sell them. What do I mean? I think real estate agents would rather spend money on a marketing package than really learn the business because they're scared that because the customer knows that really know the business that will, the market package will make up for it. Right.

I believe that real estate agents will say to a customer, yes, spend money staging your home, you'll get more money. When a reality, for the most part, other than clean up and repair and smell, there's no real money you can spend to add more net profit to a customer in a normal market. Now, it's true three years ago, two years ago, people who did these fancy remiling, they're like flipping their own properties, their own probates. Yes, they made a lot of money flipping their properties, like all those house flippers who are out of business.

Because it wasn't the flipping they made money on. It was just they were alive for a year when housing values went up. 20% that the house went up 20%. Had nothing to the stage. Now, I know it's controversial with realtors. I'm just sharing with you my thesis. You're welcome to disagree with me. I can document my thesis with remodeling magazine online,

was bought by housing wire that shows by region, by state, different jobs, what the cost, what the return is for investment. They're almost all below the money you invest. Now, I don't care when you agree with me or not. I care that you research your response, and you're able to present that to your clients effectively. If you believe staging will really create the value, then show them in a way that's this professional. Now, again, I've gone online and research staging. I've been glad to go through them with you.

But I don't know everything, so I want to be helpful about this. Cost effective for sure, trash out, cost for sure getting rid of all the junk, cost effective for sure customers being able to access the whole property getting rid of the boxes that prevent you getting in the back bedroom or moving the old cars you can't get in the backyard or cutting down the weeds so it's not scary to walk in the back those are cost effective generally speaking for sure lights securing the property are cost effective improvements so our job is to know those and again markets are different i'm in l. i'm not in north carolina I'm not in Connecticut.

So, you know, I'm just telling you what life is like in LA for me, from where I sit. But whatever, yeah, digital stage. I love digital staging on photos. So suggest cost-effective improvements and try to pre-sell against because there are probate agents whose whole pitch is, well, you should improve the property, spend 20, 40, 50, $100,000 or more. we'll finance it and we'll spend $100,000 a house, you'll make an extra $150 BS. And that's their whole pitch. Now, I don't see them doing as much they did two years or three years ago because I think

that just doesn't work. I think they're just, you know, you get worn down with being proven wrong over and over again. It doesn't work in our market. So just, so I try to pre-sell against that to say there is nothing. basically you can do. This is going to add value of property net net to you cashwise. And the other thing is the time. In a rising market, if you took six months to remodel, you got six months of appreciation on top of the remodeling. But today, if the market's

relatively flat, you have six months of carrying costs, property tax, insurance, maybe a mortgage, maybe squatters, maybe a storm comes, right? In general, nothing good happens in the day. you list a property until it closes and everybody gets paid. So again, suggest those improvements to your attorney. Make sure they understand your thesis and agree with it. I'll say that if attorney insists on, they want options for a customer, I'll give them to them. I know those customers are, the companies are who will do those that work for them for free ahead of time. If that's what you want, but let's flush that out early. Okay, that's number 15. My job is so remarkable personal property assets throw away the non-markable stuff do mail work to prove the overall

safety to get to market matthew i agree i didn't in a the other part i think is the faster you get to the market at a minimum less carrying costs and more opportunity for um dividends interest with the proceeds right i had a i think i told you guys last week i had a a hot listing lead referred by an attorney i'd send her the proposed contract to zastate three or four weeks ago and I fell up with every two or three days for three or four weeks. She called me Friday at one o'clock. I literally was just coming out of the gym. I worked out.

And she said, hey, I'm in town. No advance notice. Can we meet? Well, it turns out I'm in Santa Monica. I could be in South L.A. Right away, I'll be there in half an hour. Well, no, could meet later this afternoon? Well, Friday afternoon is my time with my grandson.

And then she said, well, how about tomorrow? Saturday. I'm religious Jews. Saturday's my Sabbath. I don't work on Saturday. So I said, I'll have a Sunday. I'm flying out on Sunday. So, of course, I got the expected message on Saturday, decided to go with another agent. I've been talking to him the whole time. And thank you for your time. But meanwhile, I had gotten pictures of the property to her. I put a lockbox in the property for her, a non-super lockbox. Meanwhile, the property is still not listed a week later.

meaning I've been chasing it for three days to get it listed, and I just left your message today. Hey, if you listed with them, disregard the message. But if you're not listed yet, let me just tell you, if you sign that contract I sent you, I'll have in the MLS tomorrow. I have an open house Saturday and Sunday. We'll probably be in next to go next week. I don't know what's taken so long to get it on the market for you. We've been waiting for you for 30 days. I'm ready to go. So to me, time to market is a critical piece. to save a customer a lot of money. Less time for maintenance issues, yes.

Less time for squatters. Yes. Less time for objectors. That's another one. We have other siblings and they go, well, everybody's on the same page. Well, they're on the same page for a while, but if you know siblings, it just thinks one to go into Zillow and go, what? You're selling it for 500.

Zillow says it's worth 600. Zillow says it's a Taj Mahal. You're worn out piece of garbage house. Right? The longest in the market, the more likely there's more time. for the siblings to get upset and create a problem for you. We don't want that. Okay, I think we're up to day with questions. Yes. Okay. Next. Number, we're going to run out of time here. Number 16, be sensitive to family dynamics. I've got one where it's a very, very difficult story where

husband had a relationship out of the marriage and had a child and then had a marriage child with a marriage and the way the thing fell out they're splitting the proceeds of the house basically they're both errors you can imagine to the daughter of the mother who's that has seen it you imagine some bad blood there right and you imagine if their whole lives they didn't get along well They're not going to get longer better once there's money involved. If they hate each other for the last 30, 40 years, what do you think they feel when there's $500,000 to split up? You got to be sensitive to those dynamics when you talk to each other.

Sensitive, you talk to somebody who lost their mother, father. That's what we use the word, the decedent. So I wouldn't say, Janie, when did your mom pass the property? That's kind of harsh. So I might say, Jane, the form's asking, when the deceded pass and worthy the property when they passed. Just that it's a little more sensitive, right? So we use those words.

So learn the proper language. Okay. I got 16 points out of the 30. We're at the 51 minute mark. Questions or comments? Is this topic, has this been helpful today? We got two thumbs up from Math Price. Thanks, Matthew.

Number 17. Offering negotiation support. You assist the attorney in negotiation. appreciating. For example, one way I got involved once was there were two parties fighting over who got the petition for the probate. And I recommended the attorney, well, you know, you can apply it have a special administrator appointed just to sell the house and all the money goes in the bank. And so rather than fighting over the house, they can continue to fight over the money, but at least the house is sold for top dollar. And I'm pretty good at handling a

attorneys I can handle both, let me reach out to the other attorney and see if he would be agreeable. And the other attorney said, yeah, it sounds reasonable. And I told him what I would do and what my plan would be and how I'd let him watch along the way. I would double end the deal. He was fine, worked out really well. So you want to offer negotiations, but what if that means, whatever information they need, you wouldn't provide it to them. Do I find the courts want to see your CMA report? Never, Marissa, to ensure the home is selling for an appropriate amount. So, Marissa, what state are you in? I think you may have asked before. Or usually we do appraisal company.

So yes, in California, they always do an inventory and appraiser report by a probate referee, which is really just an appraiser. But they're not like independent appraisers. They're probate referee appraisers. They need to be able to do real estate, but also non-real estate. So a probate referee will value stocks. They'll look them up and document them. Collectibles, art, guns, cars, whatever, whatever there is.

So they're the official appraisal the court requires. Some, a minority of cases, about 10% have limited authority where the court's involved. It has to prove the sale. In those cases, you have to at least sell it for 90% of the probate referees report. On the rest, on the 90% of cases, it doesn't really matter unless somebody objects. If somebody objects, then you have to prove a case. I'll give you an example. I had one where I had a commercial property that was worth 2.35 million.

Had it been vacant, it was worth like three and a half. In fact, the objectors, the other siblings, had not one but two appraisals done at $3.5 million. But neither of those appraisals accounted for the fact that the property was occupied on a long-term lease well below market, such that as it says, as it sat, it was worth about $2.5 million, what we're selling it for. And so in court, when the judge asked about that, I had reviewed both appraisals. I had reached out to both appraisers. Neither one would talk to me because, A, the other side hired them and they want to, I'm the bad

guy to them. B, they're too stupid to hear me tell them they made a mistake and correct it. because they charge about $10,000 each for these appraisals. So I put it out to the judge, but at the end of the day, the judge said, listen, we're going to sell it with court confirmation to the objectives. If you think it's worth $3.5 million, it's only being sold for $2.5 million. You can bid more, bid 2.5 plus 5% plus $500 in California. So you could bid, I've top of my head. I can't figure out the numbers.

5%. It could be $125.5. Bid 2.62626, and you can add the property. And they didn't want to, well, you know, we don't have the financing and the judge said, well, there's nobody else buying it. You're not buying it. So who's to say it's worth more? We have a willing buyer that's close the deal. So that's why we had the court confirmation process.

So to answer your question, there is an appraisal done. They don't ask me for my CMA. My valuation is basically not worth anything to the court. Nidia asks, how can we connect with attorneys? It seems all the good ones. or you work with agents for a while. So what I'd say to you, Nydia, is, if you're in real estate, you have clients

who have relationships with attorneys, those are the most valuable attorneys. You're missing those. And you call your past clients and say, hey, or your prospects, or people you've shown property to, do you have an estate plan? If they have one, that's an attorney

who did it for them. So you have attorneys or your clients or prospects have attorneys. Try to meet those people. Don't worry about the probate attorneys that other people are working with worry about the attorneys that you know. I'll bet, Nidia, like most of us,

you have friends or family whose spouses are attorneys to do probate or are in a law firm that does probate, or they're the front desk receptionist in a law office that does probate. It happens all the time. People tell me this all the time. We'll make a few phone calls and discover, you won't believe it. My best friend's wife, I knew she was a receptionist.

I didn't realize she's in a big probate law firm. happens all the time. So to answer your question, go deep on your contacts and find the journeys in database first. That's a whole other hour-line discussion and we're kind of running out of time. Okay, Matthew says North Carolina they want some form of documentation. This shows the value of property for the sale. They want to know the personal property, bank counts, insurances, real estate,

and even joint ownership in inventory. Okay, every state's different. So you need to know your laws. And in California, we do that with an inventory appraisal report. and they don't use the realtor. Marissa says, in Connecticut, she said, the judge asked how long the property is in the market, yes, numbers of showings, numbers of offers,

but they don't request and appraisal. So in our forms, when we do a court confirmation sale, it asks questions what you did to market the property. I'll put in there the numbers, when it was on the market, number of showings, number of offers, I'll put all the information in there. So it's in the filing. And then when the judge asked the question,

I'll say, Your Honor, in the form, I forget the name of number, we have an addendum that documents all this, and I can read all those details to you, and they'll find, and when they hear that you put it in the form, you're speaking of their love language. Oh, you followed the procedure, you document everything, in the proper form, you're showing me respect, perfect. Right?

So more than the numbers is the procedure. If you know, I don't know Connecticut, but in California, when we do a court sale, we actually have an addendum that we add to that. I put as much information I can about why I did the market the property. Okay. Marion says, very helpful. I'm trying to talk myself into going into the North Carolina courthouse to pull the records for probate. Marion, I would say to you, the most productive, if there's one thing that people have thanked

you for as recently as last night, it was my encouraging them to go to the courthouse. If you want to learn probate real estate, go to the courthouse. And there's one thing that I can say with complete lack of reservation, the most valuable time you're going to spend if you're going to be in this business as a realtor or as an investor in probate real estate, go to the hearings, watch what happens. Now, I don't mean go for half an hour, get lost and come home. And I don't mean the first time not knowing where to go wandering around coming home frustrated. I mean, find where the court hearings are and sit in them and see the judge in action, see the

trains in action. There was nothing more viable than that for people to learn this business, period, end of subject.