Finding Probate Property To Buy

compoCase

Margot123 wrote: »

Ever thought of going to an auction?

All done and dusted inside a month. Probate sales can drag on for 6 months or more while paperwork is being sorted and beneficiaries argue over the bunce.
And goodness help you if there's a solicitor acting as executor!

Yes I have considered that but nothing in the auction for the area I'm interested in.

My last property was a probate and went through at around the same speed as any other but I can imagine how things could get drawn out with more than one person involved in selling.

AnotherJoe

I'm selling a probate property right now.
Why would I take less than "market value" ?
By definition that means I will sell it for less than I could get for it. Why would I do that?
If it so happens its condition means it's under the price that other more updated similar properties will get that's a function of the condition, not of it being probate, or "under market value" since MV includes condition.
Similar "opportunities" will be available with many houses owned by elderly people selling to downsize or to go into care of one sort or another just because statistically they are lesss likely to have been modernised to today's tastes. . Indeed it seems quite likely that a far better opportunity is there with the latter, care home related sales, because if you are selling to go into care as required by local authorities then they will hoover up any spare money anyway so what you get for the house doesn't matter so much.

compoCase

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Ask local funeral directors to have "we want your home" flyers in funeral cars.

I was thinking more of some kind of app or browser extension that works with Rightmove or zoopla to highlight probate properties. Something like a Firefox app called Property Bee that shows you the price history and changes for a advert on Rightmove.

davidmcn

compoCase wrote: »

I was thinking more of some kind of app or browser extension that works with Rightmove or zoopla to highlight probate properties. Something like a Firefox app called Property Bee that shows you the price history and changes for a advert on Rightmove.

Zoopla already has a "chain free" filter which narrows it down a fair bit.

Also do you specifically want probate properties rather than ones where e.g. seller has gone into nursing home but is still very much alive?

compoCase

davidmcn wrote: »

Zoopla already has a "chain free" filter which narrows it down a fair bit.

Also do you specifically want probate properties rather than ones where e.g. seller has gone into nursing home but is still very much alive?

No, it doesn't matter either way.

compoCase

HHarry wrote: »

Search the Gazette for death notices then send speculative letters to the Executors.

That's what happened with my Aunts house last year. Although all the letters went in the bin, and I sold it the traditional way - for the market value.

I didn't realise the information was freely available.

So I guess it's just a case of matching these notices to the adverts on Rightmove and Zoopla then. Except you can't see the addresses on those sites but can search by postcode and then search through looking at photos and descriptions. Still not very accurate and pretty time consuming.

westernpromise

Why not do the work, set up a website and charge for the information?

AdrianC

compoCase wrote: »

No, it doesn't matter either way.

So there y'go. "Probate only" is already filtering out properties you're after.


Stop focussing on one, irrelevant, factor.

compoCase

westernpromise wrote: »

Why not do the work, set up a website and charge for the information?

Well if I have any success in working out a way of accurately identifying probate property on Rightmove then I'll report back here if anyone is interested. However, I suspect there is a reason why no such service already exists...

AdrianC

compoCase wrote: »

Well if I have any success in working out a way of accurately identifying probate property on Rightmove

You'd need all EAs to tick the "Probate?" box when listing property.


Since they can't all even manage to correctly identify whether it's detached or whatever, or has a garden, good luck.