- 3 months ago
Join an active community of RE investors here: https://linktr.ee/gabepetersen
0:00 Introduction to Off-Market Real Estate Investing
3:20 What is Probate and Why It's So Profitable
6:45 Buying Out Estate Properties Explained
8:30 Finding Public Probate Records Step by Step
11:15 Cold Calling Strategies for Sensitive Conversations
13:45 When to Wholesale vs When to Fix and Flip
16:30 Off Market Community Mission and Vision
18:30 Quick Questions Round Begins
21:25 Best Markets for Real Estate Investment Today
HOW TO FIND OFF-MARKET DEALS WITHOUT SPENDING THOUSANDS ON MARKETING 💰
Barbara Barnes reveals her proven system for generating multiple six-figure income in real estate while spending less than ten thousand dollars per year on marketing! In this episode of The Real Estate Investing Club podcast, we dive deep into the probate investing niche that most investors completely ignore because they think it's too difficult or uncomfortable to pursue.
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBATE GOLDMINE 🏡
Probate is the legal process that occurs when someone passes away and their assets, including real estate, must be distributed. Barbara explains that even properties with wills must go through probate unless they're held in a trust. This creates incredible opportunities for savvy investors who know how to navigate this public records system. These properties typically have massive equity because they've been owned for decades, often need significant repairs, and are being sold by heirs who aren't emotionally attached to the property and simply want a fast resolution.
THE STEP-BY-STEP SYSTEM FOR FINDING PROBATE LEADS 📋
Barbara walks through her exact process for finding probate deals that has generated her an average of twenty-five to thirty thousand dollars per transaction over the past decade. She explains how to access county clerk websites, search for estate case numbers, identify which estates have real property attached, and compile targeted spreadsheets organized by month. Her virtual assistant of nine years has helped perfect this system that requires zero paid advertising or expensive lead generation services. The barrier to entry is simply time and effort, which is exactly why this strategy works so well when most investors are chasing the same paid leads.
Want to learn more about our guest? Connect here: www.offmarketcommunity.com
Want to learn more about the REI Club Podcast, how to invest with Gabe at Kaizen, or join our community of active real estate investors on Skool?
Visit the podcast website at https://www.therealestateinvestingclub.com or click here: https://linktr.ee/gabepetersen
0:00 Introduction to Off-Market Real Estate Investing
3:20 What is Probate and Why It's So Profitable
6:45 Buying Out Estate Properties Explained
8:30 Finding Public Probate Records Step by Step
11:15 Cold Calling Strategies for Sensitive Conversations
13:45 When to Wholesale vs When to Fix and Flip
16:30 Off Market Community Mission and Vision
18:30 Quick Questions Round Begins
21:25 Best Markets for Real Estate Investment Today
HOW TO FIND OFF-MARKET DEALS WITHOUT SPENDING THOUSANDS ON MARKETING 💰
Barbara Barnes reveals her proven system for generating multiple six-figure income in real estate while spending less than ten thousand dollars per year on marketing! In this episode of The Real Estate Investing Club podcast, we dive deep into the probate investing niche that most investors completely ignore because they think it's too difficult or uncomfortable to pursue.
UNDERSTANDING THE PROBATE GOLDMINE 🏡
Probate is the legal process that occurs when someone passes away and their assets, including real estate, must be distributed. Barbara explains that even properties with wills must go through probate unless they're held in a trust. This creates incredible opportunities for savvy investors who know how to navigate this public records system. These properties typically have massive equity because they've been owned for decades, often need significant repairs, and are being sold by heirs who aren't emotionally attached to the property and simply want a fast resolution.
THE STEP-BY-STEP SYSTEM FOR FINDING PROBATE LEADS 📋
Barbara walks through her exact process for finding probate deals that has generated her an average of twenty-five to thirty thousand dollars per transaction over the past decade. She explains how to access county clerk websites, search for estate case numbers, identify which estates have real property attached, and compile targeted spreadsheets organized by month. Her virtual assistant of nine years has helped perfect this system that requires zero paid advertising or expensive lead generation services. The barrier to entry is simply time and effort, which is exactly why this strategy works so well when most investors are chasing the same paid leads.
Want to learn more about our guest? Connect here: www.offmarketcommunity.com
Want to learn more about the REI Club Podcast, how to invest with Gabe at Kaizen, or join our community of active real estate investors on Skool?
Visit the podcast website at https://www.therealestateinvestingclub.com or click here: https://linktr.ee/gabepetersen
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00all right we are back with another episode of the real estate investing club hope you guys are
00:11having a great week whatever day it is for you and wherever you are usually it is friday oven
00:16podcast but we're actually doing this on a wednesday i know throwing it up a little bit but
00:20it's going to be a good day because we have barbara barnes with us on the podcast from
00:25offmarketcommunity.com as the name suggests barbara excels in finding those off-market deals
00:32so all you guys out there who are interested in wholesaling properties getting those uh those
00:36discounted deals off market this is the episode to listen to barbara i am uh super excited to jump
00:42into it thanks for hopping on thank you so much for having me it's a pleasure to be here
00:47absolutely um i told you before we got on here we always like to start with stories we like to hear
00:52how people got to where they are um i'm sure you got a good one so why don't you take us to the
00:55beginning of your story and uh tell us how you got here awesome i started real estate when i was 25
01:01years old about 10 years ago uh quit my job when i was 26 two daughters at the time my oldest was nine
01:07my baby was one i bought my first house and i had a terrible experience with a real estate agent i bought
01:13a foreclosed property it needed work and it was a it was a big deal so got into this property somebody
01:19stole the copper they stole the ac unit and it was terrible and they stole and i didn't have any
01:24heat i purchased my house and literally in the winter time so one of my co-workers was like you
01:30you maybe you should get into real estate and i was like i don't know you just you know take people
01:35around show them houses i thought that that's what real estate was so i was like you know what
01:39let me try so i went and i got my license in literally a few months and my broker at the time
01:46said barbara uh you can make six figures doing this business mind you i'm only making eighteen
01:50dollars an hour so i was like really me how could i do that so he invited me to his real estate
01:55investing club meetings and he piqued my interest because he was like well you can make money flipping
02:00a contract i'm like what are you talking about this is 10 years ago by the way so one of the speakers
02:06at one of the events he talked about probate he was like i paid off all my debt i did this i did that
02:11and i was like oh like i don't want to do that right so um he told me how to get the information
02:17in probate and literally once i started talking to sellers i did my first deal in four months and i
02:24made twenty thousand dollars and i was just so blessed by that um and then 10 years later i do the
02:31same process i make more money now of course but it's it's i love real estate it's a really great
02:36vehicle to um to create wealth for yourself yeah yeah absolutely and uh one of the the most
02:43difficult things and also the most valuable skills you can you can have in real estate is getting
02:47to those deals that are off market that are steeply discounted um and it's you know as i said it's one
02:53of the hardest things to do it sounds like you have kind of created a a system around it um and you
02:58specialize in probate so let's just hop right into that probate is what you like to focus on for
03:04generating these leads first tell people what probate is and then tell them you know tell us
03:09why it's so valuable okay so probate is the legal process that happens that when someone passes away
03:15right it's the legal process like all the court stuff so when someone passes away they have assets
03:21and everything that's involved in their estate their cell phone your car everything that you own is a
03:25part of your asset and i'm sorry it's a part of your estate but we know that the biggest asset that
03:29most people have is a house right so what happens is with probate specifically something has to happen
03:36with the house family members really can't afford the house family members are fighting and something
03:41needs to happen this is a just to clarify this is um when when someone passes away without a will
03:47and so if they don't if they don't specifically designate where their house is going then it goes
03:51into probate even if they have a will goes into probate the only way you can yeah you start you can
03:57you can circumvent probate if the property is in a trust but yes if you have a will your will still
04:04has to be probated meaning it still has to go through the court process right but once someone
04:08passes and they have a will when they filed the probate the estate they have to give the will to
04:14the courthouse and the will has to be validated got it okay we'll give specific instructions but you
04:21still have to go to the you know go through the court process and what happens is everything is
04:27public like everything is public records so when you open up an estate right or your probate right
04:32you inside of the application you have to talk about the assets right the things that that person owns
04:38money stocks bonds and then real estate that's what we're looking for and the reason why probate is so
04:44profitable right is because most of these properties were owned for a long period of time
04:49a lot of times people don't keep their property up and they need a lot of work they need a lot of work
04:55and then it's it's great for us as investors is because um it has a lot of equity so there's a
05:01lot of room in these deals to actually make money and generally they're left to people who don't want
05:07the house like they're you know a parent fall passes away a child gets it and they're like i actually
05:13don't want my mom and dad's house and so they're not um you know when people sell their personal homes
05:18they're a little bit more emotionally connected to it and they want that top top top dollar even above top
05:24dollar because they've lived there for so long and they have all these memories they're like this is
05:28a great house but if it's not their house if it's their parents house they you know maybe their parent
05:33moved me you know they've been away from this house for a while they don't have that emotional
05:37connection and so they're more willing to you know accept a more reasonable offer a more market offer
05:43for the condition that it's in i'm sorry just jumping in there i wanted to make that clarification
05:47because it's a good one uh for for probate yeah and and what i love about it is i mean it's sometimes
05:54it's difficult when you're dealing with multiple heirs who don't agree right so what happens is
06:00you'll have an heir who wants to keep the house then you'll have an heir who wants to sell but here's
06:04the thing if you want to keep a property you have to actually pay for the house you have to have
06:10finances you have to have financial wherewithal and the truth is most people don't especially when you're
06:15in a high interest rate market and then you and most people already have their own personal residence
06:20so that means they have their own bills and then you want to buy this property and then you got to
06:24keep up this property but what happens is you actually have to buy out the estate because it's
06:29property taxes yeah yes oh wait sorry uh i i cut in there you said you have to buy out the estate um go
06:37more into that because this i have no i actually haven't um ever looked into probate i haven't like
06:41focused on those so i don't know a ton about it so you're you're actually teaching me how the process
06:46works so you're they they have to buy out the house that is willed to them so if my my parents
06:52passed and i received their house i have to buy their house if it's willed to you then no right you
06:59don't necessarily have to buy it but you have to understand too that if it's a mortgage left on the
07:03property you still have to what pay that mortgage just because it's willed to you it's deeded to you you
07:08own it you still have to pay that bill whatever that bill is right and then if you don't have a
07:14will what happens is let's just say it's four people in an estate right and everybody gets a
07:19percentage of the estates kind of like a like a business does that make sense so one person wants
07:25to now buy this property they have to now buy the business in a sense so if the property is worth
07:30200 000 no you actually have to pay 200 000 because what happens is the pr has to do what's best for the
07:37estate if they put the property on the market and they get 200 now you want to buy you still have to
07:42do what's best for the estate and what's best for the estate is garnering the estate the most money
07:47does that make sense right yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah and in those situations where there are
07:54multiple you know multiple heirs there's two daughters three sons whatever it is uh it's you know
08:00a lot of times getting through that that layer of family drama is the uh that's where you can find
08:07the deals because nobody wants to put that effort into it and but if you're willing to step into that
08:12mess guide them through the process and uh come out the other end buying it that that's where you know
08:17you make your money yeah um i've been probably for a long time doing it and absolutely that's that's
08:25that's just how it goes
08:26so tell us uh how you know so now we understand what probate is tell us how do you go about finding
08:34these these deals um i know you said it goes through the court process how do you find those uh
08:39the filings all that stuff okay so that's a great question so again guys i've been doing this for 10
08:45years now so what happens is every estate that's open is public record so the first thing you do is
08:50go to the county clerk's office and you look up the estate most estates when you look up a case number
08:57it's always some type of um acronym right so you'll have like 2025 ADM i'm talking about dc
09:05specifically ADM 0001 so what does that mean in the year 2025 this is the first case so what we do is
09:11we'll go to that case we'll open up that case and we'll look for the real property page to see if
09:16that particular state has real estate attached right if it does we put it on the spreadsheet
09:21right so i have um someone who does my data my virtual assistant who's been working with me for
09:27nine years and we've perfected it so we'll go through each case so the ones that don't have
09:32real estate attached we don't put them on a spreadsheet because why are we calling someone
09:35who don't have real estate we're trying to go for the real estate right buy a car
09:39it's crazy and then uh so that's how we do it so we compile a spreadsheet and i'm very organized so
09:47we compile each spreadsheet by month right and then what we'll do is we'll reach out
09:51when we reach out to these sellers we're not saying hey we want to buy your house we just
09:56want to see how we can serve you right this is where those two hats come into play me being an
10:02investor and me being an agent because some of these properties are not going to be for investors
10:06some of these properties are not always tore down they may want to try to put it on the market and get
10:10the best for it and that's where i make money too so i never just say hey since i can't buy it on the
10:16investment side because the truth is i can't buy every property that i see but if it's something that i can
10:20help you help the estate garnered the most money i'm here for you in that way so we go to the county
10:25clerk's office website we research the estate look for the real property put on a spreadsheet and then
10:30reach out to the seller and i'm i'm assuming especially with this more um touchy subject you
10:39know somebody's passed in the family i'm sure everybody's a little bit emotionally raw it's probably
10:44a more difficult conversation to have because you're you're cold calling you're not texting you're not
10:49you know out there sending mailers you're actually talking to the person on the phone um
10:54kind of walk us through that process how do you go about having these conversations and leading them
10:59to the to the you know some kind of resolution i love that question it's it's funny because um i don't
11:06i used to make the initial cold call i no longer do it so my virtual assistant she's such a sweetheart
11:11she's so sweet she's very respectful so she calls on behalf of me like hey you know i'm tracy you
11:17know i'm calling on behalf of my team lead barber we just want to see if you want to sell how we can
11:22serve you right most of the times they want to sell so they'll be like oh okay you know and she
11:27asked for their email so i'll send out you know my email um campaign but then when i call i call as
11:33like the authority right hey you know i'm barbara thank you so much for taking the time to speak with
11:37my assistant i just want to see how we can serve you um i don't know your situation then i just kind
11:42of go into the situation but it's not like a hard pressuring call and i tell them like hey i know
11:48you don't know me i understand this may be out the blue and i'm because a lot of people actually
11:52call a lot of people do probate and i know you're probably getting a thousand calls but i just want
11:55to see how we can get the estate the most money if the property is not in the best condition
11:59we want to see if we can get you a fair offer and then a lot of times they're very open to hear that
12:04yeah yeah and so you're putting yourself in their shoes you're showing them that like
12:11you're just looking for the best resolution for them it could be on market it could be off market
12:15it really doesn't matter you're just trying to go down that route and i feel like you're more
12:19um suited for for that conversation because you do have your license even but i will say that even if
12:26you don't have a license if you're just an investor you're just out there trying to find a deal that you
12:31can you know do the rehab on um if it doesn't fit that criteria you can always partner with a broker
12:37at least what i've done in the past is partnering with a broker and and just fed them deals um for
12:42a cut on the back end um just as an idea uh so tell me a little bit you you do wholesaling um and
12:49you do you do list the properties do you buy any properties yourself or is it all um you're just
12:54trying to do the transactional side so mainly the transactional side but it really just depends on
12:59the deal right so i flip property like i purchased the property for 70 000 and then uh resorted for 227
13:05right we're not finding that in this market today that was a thousand seventy thousand dollars
13:10yep this was is that in dc though because dc has a really expensive market so yes so it wasn't
13:17wow that's crazy it was in prince george's county so you have washington dc and pg county is literally
13:23like five minutes away from dc right or right across the street depending on what part of pg county
13:28so this was in the seat pleasant area right so there's a lot of really really good deals so the way
13:34that i look at it is my average deal size is between 25 and 30 000 if i hit 25 or 30 i'm only
13:40on the transactional side for me to flip a property has to be so much spread because the truth is most
13:47rehabbers are losing money most people don't know how to price properties most people are not because
13:52a lot more can go wrong yeah exactly you can open that wall and there could be like dry rot or something
13:59when you're flipping a property it's like almost everything has to go right right so i'm always
14:04looking at how to be profitable what i love about the probate niche is to get this information is free
14:10it takes a little bit of work but it's free but it's very profitable because you can actually make
14:15a call you're not buying leads i'm not spending thousands of dollars on leads right so if i'm making
14:20fifty thousand dollars sixty thousand dollars um and all it took me was some time and a few phone
14:26calls i'm good money right but when you're when you're starting buying leads you're on the ppc the
14:31ppl all those things you have to close a deal right because you want to get your money back but what i love
14:37about probate is that you don't necessarily have to get your money back you just want to get um
14:41you know you want to get your time back you want to get that that that profit on your time so yeah
14:46well yeah and that's why um it's such a good strategy to use is because the barrier to entry
14:54is time um is effort but that truly is a barrier to entry because not a lot of people want to go
15:00through that effort they don't want to go through the process of getting the listings or getting the
15:04the filings you know figuring out which ones have real estate attached to them calling them having that
15:10difficult conversation uh but it is you know it's a barrier to entry which is always good because it
15:15means a lot of people are not going to go for it but if you're willing to put in the work you're
15:18willing to have those difficult conversations um then you can you know there's a lot of opportunity
15:23for you yeah and about that conversation we are running down oh sorry yeah yeah keep going and
15:29about that conversation is right it seems like it's difficult but it's really not what happens is when
15:34someone actually files the paperwork they're ready to do business they may still be a little emotional
15:39but a lot of times they're ready to have that business conversation because they're already in a
15:43position to have the conversation because they went through the court process and a lot of times
15:48that they can't afford that house they're going to want to sell that house because they're not going
15:52to want to lose the biggest asset which can make the estate money which is real estate
15:55yeah yeah that makes sense i mean they've already gone through the filing it's probably been a while
16:02since the passing and so they're ready to make a deal um and that's perfect opportunity uh for for
16:08somebody like yourself to step in um so i have look at the clock it looks like we are running it
16:13down but before we move on i always like to hear what the future sounds like for you so you're you
16:19got big plans you got big big um big goals for your property or for your business what are your
16:24plans in the future about tell me a little bit about offmarketcommunity.com what are you trying
16:28to do there yeah so with offmarketcommunity.com i just want to teach normal people whether you're
16:34brand new to wholesaling or maybe you're in the you know you're a realtor you're kind of trying to
16:38figure out how to make more money really trying to show you and teach you how to win with having
16:43conversations with sellers off market right some people they make a lot of money on the internet
16:48they you know they run ads they do all of these things but if you frame a conversation in a way
16:53where someone trusts you you can make money and you don't have to worry about spending a ton of money
16:59on leads right putting all those marketing dollars out there like my marketing dollars are probably it's
17:04probably like no more than ten thousand dollars a year right and i'm making multiple six figures so
17:09that can help you make twenty thousand dollars ten thousand dollars just on a on a niche inside of
17:16our community we niche down and we go into each niche and we talk about how you can be of service how
17:22you can be of value whether you choose the probate niche absentee pre-foreclosure whatever niche you
17:27choose within the community like we really go deep into that niche so that's pretty much what it is
17:32is helping more people understand how to actually close deals and be very profitable and not spend a
17:38bunch of money on leads nice i love it yeah it is a ppc is one of my favorite things because you just
17:46have to turn on the switch and the leads start coming to you but it is extremely expensive um so
17:51is mailers really expensive it's great because you send them leads come your way but like you got to
17:57have the money i always say uh people say that there's ways to do real estate with zero money i feel
18:01like that's almost bullshit but you are case in point there are ways there are good lists out there
18:06that you can just call you just pick up the phone and just make those phone calls and it's a it's a
18:11great way to get in if you don't have a lot of capital behind you um and you can't afford that you
18:16know pay-per-click of you know two hundred dollars two hundred dollars a click so all right with that i am
18:22going to push us into the quick question round are you ready okay
18:26all right it starts uh starts with education it could be any form it could be a conference you've
18:34gone to a mentorship program you've been a part of a book you've read anything i just need two
18:38recommendations one for general life wisdom and then one for real estate okay um oh that's a good
18:46question uh general life wisdom i love listening to myron golden um he talks about be do have being
18:54the person doing the things and having the things so i just feel like that he's really a great uh
18:58resource and i feel like you just have to become that person who is uh trustworthy right who is who
19:06have integrity and who has a good heart and who really really want to help people and what was the
19:11second one uh i mean that could be for both of you'd like what was the the man's name again his
19:17name is myron golden i really love him he's really great he's really really okay yeah well i would say
19:24one of the things that i tell my daughters in life is you make your own decisions in life you may
19:29get information from people but don't ever be stupid um and make your own calculated decisions
19:34because at the end of the day you're responsible for all of the decisions that you make in your life
19:39so just make sure if if it doesn't feel good it's probably not good trust yourself
19:43pray to god for guidance and if it's not a yes it's enough there's no in between
19:48i like it full ownership there is a there sounds like there is a little bit of a delay between our
19:56our feeds so apologize for everybody listening we'll fix that in post-production um but with that said i'm
20:02going to move us on to the next question this is for your younger self let's go back to the barbara
20:07who um who was just starting out i think you said it was almost 10 years ago i believe you said so
20:13go back to that version of her look her in the eye give her one piece of advice moving forward
20:18hmm learn be open to learn from people and um don't take everything so serious i was very a very
20:31serious like person like don't it does don't take everything serious
20:36yeah that's that's good advice it's hard when you're younger because everything seems so serious
20:42um but when you you know you start to get a few gray hairs you realize like things go up things go
20:47down it's okay just keep yourself right in the middle and keep moving forward
20:50yeah all right uh next question is about the u.s it's a big place there is a lot of opportunity
20:57out there giving me the single metro you're most excited about investing in today
21:00i love prince george's county like i do i love the outskirts of dc because um like the rents like
21:08if you're trying to hold something certain um cities within prince george's county is really really
21:12really profitable so i love the prince george's county area it's a lot of growth here i mean i
21:18know now with the government shutdowns this whole thing about jobs but pg county they really
21:22really solid county to invest in and to do really great in
21:27yeah yeah those tertiary markets to major major metros are just they're my favorites as well
21:34um you know it's really hard to find good deals like really good deals inside a big metro like you
21:39know dc dallas fort worth seattle you're looking downtown here it's it'll be tough to find a good
21:46deal but if you look on those those cities they're just out on the outskirts that's where uh the great
21:50deals are found so makes a lot of sense to me that leads us to the final question this is for the
21:55listeners you've given us a lot to think about i'm sure people want to reach out get in contact
21:59with you this is a two-parter where can they find you and then what can they expect when they reach
22:03out um you can find me on all social platforms barbara j barnes and what you can expect from me
22:08is the truth like i'm not the type of person who's going to sugarcoat something i'm not going to just
22:13take your money if i feel like you're not ready for certain things if you want to learn from me i'll be
22:17honest with you right i'll say hey maybe you need to do this or maybe you need to do that maybe you
22:21should start at the free stuff first i'm a very blunt direct and honest person so just expect the
22:27truth from me perfect i love it and uh and what link you said uh was there a specific url that you
22:35want them to go to yes offmarketcommunity.com offmarketcommunity.com perfect yeah i mentioned
22:43that as well so i will put that link in the show notes it's really easy to remember but if you guys
22:47want to want to actually click on the link just click a little more in the description it's going
22:51to pull down that full description and in there you can find barbara's link all right that wraps it up
22:57thank you very much for hopping on the show thank you for having me you have a great rest of your day
23:02absolutely for everybody who's with us today thank you guys for showing up you are the reason we do
23:08this so if you guys have any questions reach out to me gabe at the real estate investing club.com
23:12if you guys want to support the show just leave us a review other than that i hope you guys have a
23:16great week keep rocking real estate and i look forward to seeing you on the next episode
23:21bye
Be the first to comment