Probate Monday #7 – Got the Meeting, now what?

Scott CostelloAll, Blog, Probate Investing 17 Comments

Before I start week 7, I need to admit that I fell behind and have yet to mail out my letters.  I’m one mouse click away from printing them out, but ran out of time this weekend to pick up the envelopes and stamps.  I’m terrible at working something new into my schedule and over the past week I have not been focused and let a few distractions get in the way.   Honestly?  how hard is it to go to …

They Messed Up and Let Me Into The Club

Scott CostelloAll, Blog, Probate Investing 6 Comments

The Real Estate Commission has approved me as a Sales Agent.  All in all it took a little over a month of waiting.   So Tiara, to answer your question, it takes about 6 to 8 weeks to get access after signing up with a broker.  At least in my case it did.  Your experience might be different if you sign up with one of the big brokerages like Weichert or Exit Realty. This is not going to throw me …

The Secret to Small Successes

Scott CostelloAll, Blog, Probate Investing 13 Comments

One important lesson I have learned from reading blogs from people like Steph Davis (FlipThisWholesaler.net), Shae Bynes (GoodfaithInvesting.com), Kelly (KellyFlippinCali) ,Nick Johnson (Subject2.com) and many many others (I think I’m going to write a post about all the blogs I read one day soon), is that small successes are essential to every accomplishment. These successful steps forward aren’t always obvious at first and sometimes even need to be pointed out by a friend.  The best way I can explain this is …

Probate Monday #6 – What to say when they call?

Scott CostelloAll, Blog, Probate Investing 10 Comments

For me the scariest thing about sending out marketing material is what to actually say when a lead calls.  When I was sending out pre-foreclosure mailings last year, there were many times I would hear my phone ringing and just freeze when I saw the number wasn’t one I recognized.  It pissed me off to no end that I was wasting my money and time by not answering the damn phone! This is a huge step for me, as I’m …

Probate List is in Hand

Scott CostelloAll, Blog, Probate Investing 11 Comments

I just wanted to put up a quick update before the Thanksgiving holiday.  Yesterday I got the probate list from my source and it’s looking pretty decent, he even took the time to check the tax records for each lead to see if there was property involved in the estate.  Pretty cool! So far I’ve gone down the list anyway and have checked the tax records as well as the public records just so I can get more familiar with …

Probate Monday #5 – Make Money From Your Leads

Scott CostelloAll, Blog, Probate Investing 14 Comments

Since this is a short week thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday, I figured it would be the logical spot to review what we have done so far.  I will also give everyone a great tip I got from Nick Johnson. Another reason why I’m not moving forward just yet is my probate list is scheduled to arrive until the end of this week.  My source is currently gathering the information from the court house.  In my county the information is …

How to Actually Network? Answered!

Scott CostelloAll, Blog 15 Comments

This week has been a banner week for me in terms of networking.  I usually do most of my networking on the computer, which is fine and all but it really doesn’t have the same affect as shaking someone’s hand and sitting down with them for a few minutes to talk.  I am starting to realize this and will continue to work at getting out of my shell and literally talk with fellow investors. Recap of my Networking this week… …

4 Important keys to a Probate Letter

Scott CostelloAll, Blog, Probate Investing 13 Comments

Before I get started explaining how I am going to construct the letter (if i wasn’t using the one in Ron Mead’s course) I want to touch on a specific situation you’ll come across when looking through the probate files.  When one of the surviving heirs is a wife, husband or someone who has the same address as the deceased.  Here is a situation that I have run into… Spouse dies and the Personal Representative lives at the same address …

Probate Monday #4 – Is Real Estate Involved?

Scott CostelloAll, Blog, Probate Investing 14 Comments

Probate Monday #3 – Update With the help of Jon Zorrer from REITvShow.com, who pointed me to a good friend of his, I was able to get my probate leads.  His friend mines all of New Jersey for probate leads and sells the in counties that he doesn’t invest in.  As luck would have it, he did not invest in Morris County and was happy to sell the leads to me for $97 a month.  A $3 savings from USProbateLeads.com. …

Lead List? Get it Yourself!

Scott CostelloAll, Blog, Probate Investing 15 Comments

I think someone is punishing me for trying to better myself by making a quick decision.  I got an email from USProbateLeads.com a few minutes ago saying that I was getting a refund for my purchase of Morris County Probate Leads because someone had bought the Exclusivity rights to Morris County. This does not make me happy at all, as now I have to figure out another way to get the leads.  I’m going to look at USLeadLists.com now, but …

My Choice For Getting Probate Leads

Scott CostelloAll, Blog, Probate Investing 37 Comments

Probate Monday #3 – Update I did some thinking last night so I could weigh the benefits of going to the court house and pulling the probate leads versus buying them from a probate leads source.   It wasn’t an easy decision, but I remembered what a few of my fellow investor friends (J.P., Shae and Jason) told me…Just make a Decision and go for it! So that is what I did and chose to buy the leads from USProbateLeads.com for …

5 Things I Must Improve On as an Investor

Scott CostelloAll, Blog 12 Comments

A post by Carey over at Goin’ Flippin’ Crazy inspired me to analyze where I stand right now as an investor and what has been holding me back.  Taking a close look at yourself is never easy and takes practice before you can really step back and honestly evaluate. What is helpful for me is to compare myself to someone more successful and then do a comparison of what has made them a success and what I have done in …

Probate Monday #3 – Creating Your Lead List

Scott CostelloAll, Blog, Probate Investing 4 Comments

Update for Week #2 – Finding the Public Notice Newspaper First I wanted to update my status for week #2, Finding the Public Notice newspaper for my county.  I got a lot of evidence pointing me towards the Daily Record and found a great website that allowed me to search all the public records in Morris County *for participating newspapers.   This lead me to to call the Morris County Surrogate’s office last Friday in order to get a more definitive …

Finding That Darn Public Notice Newspaper

Scott CostelloAll, Blog, Probate Investing 5 Comments

I spent the last two days searching around the internet and looking through some of the news papers that I could get my hands on.  I found some helpful websites and may have located the newspaper that publishes the Death Notices, but I’m not sure.  You think it would be easy to find right? I first went to the two websites that Mr. Mead suggested Prime Time News Papers Public Notice Ads Prime Time News Papers, lead me to a …