Choosing between a small quick probate lead and a large five parcel package with limited time and capital

Chase A, but do not let B go cold. Two weeks of no contact on a 74 year old seller who says he's in no rush is how someone else's letter lands on his table. Call him once next week about nothing in particular. That's the whole play.

I say that as someone who lost a six unit package exactly that way because I was busy closing something smaller.

Nobody has quoted you on the 130k because you haven't asked, and that's worth doing this week regardless of which lead gets chosen. Short term lenders price off the deal and off the borrower having done zero deals, and terms move around, so get it in writing rather than off a website. On the B package, four rentals and a primary residence across five parcels is not one loan. That's either a small commercial loan on the rental parcels or seller financing, and if the owner is 74 and done with tenants, seller financing is the conversation worth having. Ask him what he'd do with 640k in cash. His answer tells you whether he actually wants cash.

Four months of pulling and two live conversations is a strong result for that stretch of work. What did A come off? Court records directly or a platform feed?

A common trap here is picking neither, and letting both leads run cold. What tends to break the deadlock is setting a date instead of a criterion. Pick lead A, put an offer in front of the heir by Friday, and let lead B run in the background. One signed contract teaches more than another month of comparing.

The B numbers don't work at 640 on the face of them. 5,400 gross a month is 64,800 a year. Take out taxes, insurance, and a real maintenance and vacancy allowance on four old small rentals and you're plausibly at 38 to 42k net, and that's if the claimed rents are collected rents. Against 640k that's roughly a 6 percent yield on someone else's stated numbers before any debt. His own house is in that 640 producing nothing. Ask him for two years of Schedule E and the actual bank deposits. If he won't produce them, the 640 is a wish. Also worth knowing that in about a dozen states sale prices aren't public at all, so depending on where you are, comps on the rentals may be thinner than they look.

"Nothing looked structural to me" on a 1940s or 50s 2/1 with an original bathroom means you have not been in the crawlspace. On the last small one I did, the bathroom was the reason I got the price and the subfloor under it was the reason I lost the margin. Rotten joists, 9k, plus three weeks I hadn't planned.

Pay someone 400 to 600 to walk it with you before you sign anything. If A survives that, do A.