Should the person doing probate outreach be the same person doing the underwriting?

Question

I've been trying to work out where a service-side person fits around probate investors, and the split that keeps coming up is whether outreach and underwriting should sit in the same head.

The case for one person: the empathy in the first conversation isn't a script, it's someone who understands what the estate is dealing with and can say something true about the number. If the outreach person has to hand off to an analyst before answering "what could you pay," the family experiences a stall at exactly the moment trust was forming. Heirs in probate are often choosing speed and certainty over price, and a split role sells the opposite of that.

The case for two people: the person who spent four months building rapport with a family is the worst possible person to decide whether the deal works. They've absorbed the family's expectations, they know the story, and they'll shade the ARV. Separating the roles puts a cold read on every number, and it lets you hire for warmth on one side and arithmetic on the other, which are rarely the same person. It also protects the relationship, because a no can come from the numbers rather than from the person the family trusts.

I've heard both defended by people running real volume. Where I'm stuck is whether the split only makes sense above some deal count, or whether it's a discipline you should impose on yourself from deal one even as a solo operator, by writing the underwriting rules down before you ever pick up the phone.

marcus_hale41 · Accepted Answer

I'd separate them on day one, in writing, even solo. Not by hiring anyone. You write your buy box and your adjustment schedule down cold, and then the version of you on the phone doesn't get to change them. The failure mode I've funded twice is an operator who "knew" a house was worth more because the family had been kind to them. Both times the exit was 8 to 12 percent under the projection and the whole margin was in that gap.

diane_kowalski · Answer

@canton the written buy box is what I've landed on for land too, and it works because land has few variables. Probate houses have condition, occupancy, and heir disagreement all moving at once, so I'm less sure a page of rules holds. Doesn't mean don't write it, just means the rules will get argued with more than mine do.

ehernandez74 · Answer

Before I voted, I'd ask what the handoff actually sounds like. If two people means the family gets "let me check with my partner and call you back tomorrow," that's fine and honest. If it means a week of silence, the split costs you the deal and no amount of cold arithmetic makes that back. Has anyone here actually run it two-person and kept the response time under 48 hours?

tashaford30 · Answer

Planning my first purchase and this thread convinced me the answer is one person with a rule they can't override, at least until there's enough volume to pay two salaries. The rule part is what I'd been skipping.

Should the person doing probate outreach be the same person doing the underwriting?

4 replies