A driving for dollars lead that turned into an $11,000 deal through an unexpected probate
Small numbers, but worth studying as a complete case. Take a collapsed carport on a 1,340 square foot ranch, the carport roof resting on what used to be a car, grass knee high. Logged on a drive that almost got skipped because of rain. The owner on the assessor site shows a woman born in 1931. A batch of 40 handwritten letters goes out that week, costing about $32 in stamps and paper, with handwriting rough enough to read as sincere. Her daughter calls nine days later. The owner had died in the spring and the house had been sitting since. Contract lands at $118,000. Sold to a flipper at $129,000, for $11,000 gross. After title fees and deposit flow through, net comes to a shade under $10,400. What nearly kills a deal like this: the daughter assumes she owns the house because she's named in a will. Title requires the estate to go through probate first, and whether it needs the full process depends on the state and how the estate was set up, so an attorney typically has to handle it. That can mean weeks of following up with a paralegal while a buyer gets less patient by the week. What holds up as a repeatable lesson: handwriting letters at low volume reads as more sincere than a printed batch, and driving in bad weather finds yards nobody else is looking at, since nobody mows in the rain and the bad yards stay bad.
