Probate Real Estate - Probate Profits Profits of $25K to $45K per real estate flip are what I have been targeting for the last 20 years. I have had an untapped market and what I want to discuss. 95% of investors and agents don't understand the potential Probate Profits they have been missing. Before you can realize these rewards, you have to understand the probate laws and process in your area, have general real estate savvy (contracts, finance, appraisal, escrow), and the proper people skills in order to deal with the executor, heirs and estate attorney. You will need to know how to structure your wholesale purchase and then present it to the estate or order for them to understand the math. I have been teaching my DF students how to do this since 1992. Let's talk about the Probate Profits you can expect in this real estate niche. Depending on your area's prices, you want to target a minimum of 10% net profit based on the wholesale price your paid for the property. Your success with Probate Investing will be dependent on how you understand the process and who is mentoring you till you find that successful probate flip. To give you an example let's discuss doing a flip. I find a probate that based on my calculations will bring a retail sale of $500K. Based on my DF system, I do a 2 step purchase process and providing everything goes right, I will look to purchase this probate around $400K. So based on my final $400K purchase, I will be looking for a net Probate Profit of $40K. So let's break the numbers down. I purchase the house and have closing costs of $10K. I'm going to probably make 3 loan payments while I fix and flip and based on P.I.T.I I will probably make around $10,000 in payments. The fix up on the house was $20K and I have resale costs of another $20K which includes a selling agent's commission and title costs. So looking at all this my total costs are around $60K less my resale price of $500,000 leaves me sale proceeds of $440K or a $40K profit. Now if you in State like California which holds 3 1/3% for non-owner transactions for State tax, you won't receive $40K but $25K at closing and a credit of $15K with the State when you go to do your taxes the following year. A way around this is to 1031 the resale and roll all your profits into the next deal for form a LLC. Probate Profits of $40-$60K on flips one to four times per year isn't too difficult if you know what you're doing. As an Probate Agent I'm earning great commissions selling probate homes I can't purchase wholesale to other investors who want to keep long term and a 10% discount is fine or to end user buyers wanting to move in who love a 5% discount. Probates is a Six Figure opportunity for Investors or Agents and even better for Invest/Agents. In 2010 I'm devoting more time for my DF Students, holding probate club monthly meetings to network for my students, and 1 day refresher workshops for my students to fine tune the system. I'm looking for more flips now in 2010 as the real estate climate is ripe again. This has been a wonderful 22+yr career for me and I want to spend the remainder of my working years passing on the Probate Knowledge I have learned to others so they can reap the Probate Profits in their real estate investment plan.
I teach 5 levels of Probate Profits dealing with estate homes and not all the systems involve purchasing the probate property. This should be of particular interest to the RE agents out there as they can also learn to list and sell probates and increase their commission along with buying and flipping for themselves.