Systems & Leads FAQ

Click on any of the terms or questions below for more detail regarding a specific issue or question.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please be aware that the information on this page is delivered without warranty or guarantee of accuracy. It’s provided to help you learn more and formulate specific questions to discuss with your attorney and/or your Real Estate Professional and/or to help a personal representative, executor or executrix when executing their challenging responsibilities. By accessing this page, you acknowledge that it has been provided for information only and that you are hereby advised that any decisions regarding probate issues should be discussed with an attorney and/or a Real Estate Professional.

Administrative Questions

Do I have to sign a contract?

We do not require a contract. We earn your continued business every month. All that is required is that you subscribe to our Membership service. After your initial charge on the day you subscribe, your monthly subscription will then be deducted from your credit card each month thereafter when your new leads are delivered.

If I’m not satisfied – can I cancel my subscription?

Yes, all we require is 30 days notice if you decide to cancel. The reason for that requirement is simple. We have to pay our researchers for their work. Once the leads are gathered by our field teams, they are delivered to us. Then, we go through our quality control process, adding phone numbers, filling in as many blanks as we can to ensure the best possible data. This process can take a week or more. Then the leads are delivered to you and while you begin to work them, our researchers head back to the field to gather your next set of leads. So, unless you cancel immediately after you receive your first set of leads, all of our cost commitments to gather your next set will already have been made. Therefore, if you ever decide to cancel, you can expect to receive and be charged for one more set of leads.

How do I get started?

Just click [ HERE ] to select your first county and we’ll get started working for you immediately.

Do you accept credit cards and/or PayPal?

We currently accept only Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover.

When will my leads be delivered and when will I be billed?

There are a few variables that determine the answer to this question. Below are three scenarios that explain this in detail.

IMPORTANT NOTE:  Be aware that we always bill IN ADVANCE  for all leads.  This is because we incur all the costs to hire, train and maintain our teams of researchers to collect your leads … then we initially inspect, process, augment by adding critical data from other sources and databases, inspect again, perform quality control tests numerous times, and perform many other other cost incurring activities that are part of this process PRIOR to the delivery of leads to you.  Therefore, when we deliver them to you, we immediately begin to incur those same costs again to collect your next month’s leads, hence the billing in advance for the lead collection for next month’s leads at the time of delivery of this month’s leads.

  • Scenario A: – Your order is placed TODAY for a county in which we already have ongoing data collection and the next ANTICIPATED DELIVERY DATE IS LESS THAN TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY.

You will be billed when your initial order is placed for the initial leads you will receive. Then, as soon as the new leads are ready for your county (usually on or before two weeks from the date of your initial order) we will deliver them and you will be billed upon delivery, in advance, for the next month’s lead collection. Each month thereafter, you will be billed, (in advance for the next month’s lead collection) on the date your leads are delivered. If, for any reason, you decide to cancel your subscription prior to the next delivery & billing date, you may do so without a penalty and you will still receive one more month of leads.

  • Scenario B: – Your order is placed TODAY for a county in which we already have ongoing data collection, but the next ANTICIPATED DELIVERY DATE IS MORE THAN TWO WEEKS FROM TODAY.

This will mean that we have current fresh leads available for your county. They are available to you immediately at a reduced (25% off) cost for the current data if you want to get started today or you can await the arrival of the newest leads when they are available.

In this instance, you’ll be billed for your county as soon as the initial order is placed AND any historical data you purchased. Then, as soon as the new leads are ready for your county (usually on or before two weeks from the date of your initial order) we will deliver them and you will be billed upon delivery, in advance, for the next month’s lead collection. Each month thereafter, you will be billed, (in advance for the next month’s lead collection) on the date your leads are delivered. If, for any reason, you decide to cancel your subscription prior to the next delivery & billing date, you may do so without a penalty and you will still receive one more month of leads.

  • Scenario C: – Your order is placed TODAY for a county in which we do not already have ongoing data collection and therefore, the ANTICIPATED DELIVERY DATE HAS YET TO BE SCHEDULED.

You’ll be billed for your county as soon as the initial order is placed and we will then get our researchers started on your county immediately. Be aware that this can take several weeks based on researcher availability, courthouse policies and procedures and other factors, but you will not be billed again until your leads are ready. This can take as long as 30 days, but we try to get you started within two weeks from your initial order.  We’ll keep you posted on our progress and any unanticipated delays. When the leads are ready for your county,  we will deliver them as soon as they are available and you will be billed upon their delivery, in advance, for the next month’s lead collection. Each month thereafter, you will be billed, (in advance for the next month’s lead collection) on the date your leads are delivered. If, for any reason, you decide to cancel your subscription prior to the next delivery & billing date, you may do so without a penalty and you will still receive one more month of leads.

Important Note #1: In all cases, after your initial order and billing, you WILL NOT BE BILLED AGAIN UNTIL YOUR NEXT LEADS ARE DELIVERED.

Important Note #2: After your initial order and your first ‘regular monthly billing – in advance (As explained above)’ you should never be billed more than once in a month. The only time you could ever be billed twice in a month could possibly be in your initial month, as explained above. In some rare circumstances, a researcher may complete their work early in a given county and rather than sit on the leads, we will deliver them early, possibly causing two delivery events in a single month, but that is a rare occurrence and would be offset by later in the month deliveries in the ensuing months.

Important Note #3: Remember, if, for any reason, you decide to cancel your subscription prior to the next billing date, we will be really sorry to lose your business, but you may do so without a penalty and you will still receive the final set of leads you will have already paid for in advance.

Why do you bill so far in advance of leads being delivered?

Here’s the data we provide for each probate record:

  • Name of the Decedent and their Personal Representative’s Contact Info

We 100% guarantee that this data will be included in every record you receive and is delivered with as much complete detail as is available. We also augment the Personal Representative Information with up to four contact phone numbers. These may include numbers listed specifically for the personal representative as well as numbers we derive from other searches for related parties (relatives, business listings, etc.).

When calling any of these numbers, remember to not only say that you are trying to locate Pat Smith (as an example name for the personal representative), but add that you’re actually calling in regard to the probate for the estate of Chris Washington (as an example name for the decedent). That way, you have the best chance that whoever you reach will be able to give you the info you need to move forward.

  • Decedent’s Last Known Address

Be aware that while this address may indeed be the actual address of a property that might be included in a probate, it’s definitely not a guarantee of anything other than exactly what it says, the “last known address”. That address could be the address of a child who is caring for an older parent. It could be a long-term care facility or assisted living center. It could be an apartment address or even a filing address for tax purposes. Therefore, it should not be assumed to be the address of a property that is included in a probate.

We can only report the data that is included in a court’s records and you also need to know that some courts do not provide this data at all. It’s best to view this data just as a topic of conversation when you first speak with the personal representative. It’s a place to start the discussion like, “I notice that 123 Elm Street was listed as Pat’s last known address. Was that the family’s home?” Just view this data (when available) as a clue, not a certainty. Also, remember that if your county doesn’t include this info, we can’t provide it for you.

  • Attorney Info

While most jurisdictions do provide this info, not all counties do so. If the attorney info is available, we always provide it.

When will I receive my first leads?

We have researchers working around the country gathering leads every day. We will schedule research to begin for your leads immediately upon signup. Generally, you can expect your first leads within a couple of weeks and then every 30 days thereafter. If, for any reason, the lead gathering in your market is slow or delayed, you will be notified. In no case will you be billed again after your initial (startup) billing, until your first leads (that you will have already paid for) have been delivered.

Do you provide phone numbers?

Yes! While probate case court records for the Executor or Executrix of the Estate (AKA the Personal Representative) sometimes do not include telephone numbers and may or may not include phone numbers for the attorney (assuming the attorney data is provided at all) we always gather whatever is available. Then, we use multiple tools and external services to obtain as many phone numbers as possible (if any – up to four), for the Personal Representative and/or attorney and augment each record with that information. While it is not always possible to find a phone number for every Personal Representative, in all cases, we make sure you can contact them via regular mail at the very least. As for attorneys, that is very much subject to the local court. If the info is there, we get it – if not, it’s unavailable.

How do I know if my county is still available?

If you click [ HERE ] and see that your county is listed, it’s still available. If it isn’t, use the [ CONTACT US ] form to let us know you want it and we’ll call to discuss current and future availability.

How many leads will I receive compared to your published estimate?

The estimated number of leads for each county isn’t a monthly minimum guarantee. It’s an average for the county, based on our previous historical data collection and actuarial statistics. We always use a very conservative estimate, but the actual number of leads each month will definitely vary. This is based on many factors such as:

• Seasonality – In fact, death rates (and the filing of probate) is somewhat seasonal. What that means is that even though death rates are fairly constant, reporting and filing can be slow around the end of year holidays.

• Vacations – Real humans who are employees of the county in the courts we access are the folks who actually enter this data into the court records. When a clerk takes a vacation, sometimes the data will back up and not get caught up for several weeks, diminishing the counts until they catch up.

• Personnel Changes – Often, if there is turnover in a court’s staff (as is sometimes the case following an election) new employees may work on different schedules and approach the tasks differently. This impacts not only timeliness of delivery, but quality of data. Additionally, sometimes our researchers have established a relationship with someone in a particular courthouse and if that person leaves or is re-assigned, a new relationship has to be developed.

As stated above, we always underestimate lead counts and we usually deliver more leads than we estimate. But if we’re ever incorrect over any significant period of time (probably three months), we’ll absolutely adjust and/or credit your account as necessary – plus, we never charge more when we over-deliver

If, in the future, we find that we are always able to gather significantly more data than we initially estimated because of system changes, reporting procedures changes, personal changes or for other reasons, we may actually need to increase the cost of a county, but we’ll never do that without discussing it with you well in advance.

What else do I receive with my purchase?

You can see a sample of the actual data we provide [ HERE ] and we provide more data than most agents require. That same link will also show you the other included programs and optional products we offer to make sure you have everything possible to help you dominate your market. We also provide access to the subscriber’s area of our website. Here you will find training modules and letter templates that other agents have successfully used. We also provide a free initial coaching call and a free weekly mastermind call where you can brainstorm with other agents that are excelling with our program. You also receive access to our members-only, closed Facebook group. Here you will also find all of our previously recorded mastermind calls, additional letters that have worked for agents and you can ask questions and interact directly with others who are working probate leads.

Do you provide USPS direct mail services?

Our MAILBOX MOTIVATOR program is a complete “turn-key” USPS Postage Mailing Program that will deliver your desired message in a “sure to be opened”, hand-addressed greeting card sized (5-3/4″ X 8-3/4″) envelope to your selected leads. We also offer multiple, professionally written, suggested letter templates, which can be customized to meet your needs. Click [ MAILBOX MOTIVATOR ] for more information on this critical aspect of your Success Formula.

Should I contact the Attorney?

We recommend that you always contact the executor. You do not have to contact the attorney as the executor can and usually does list without the attorneys permission. Sometimes the attorney is being kept from being paid because the only thing left to close the probate is the sale of real Estate. In these cases, the attorney may be your best ally. Our most successful agents contact both. They contact the executor for new business and they attempt to develop a relationship with the attorneys for future referrals.

I’ve seen probate leads offered on Vulcan 7. How do you compare to what they offer?

Vulcan 7 uses All The Leads as their exclusive supplier for probate leads.

I’ve seen other services that offer inherited properties. How is All The Leads different?

Well, we can’t speak for how everyone else does it, but we do know that some of the cheaper companies that offer “inherited properties” scan the tax rolls looking for zero dollar transfers and transactions with no documentation stamps. They assume that some of these might be probates. In fact, some of them probably are, but many (most?) are transfers to trusts, surviving spouses, divorce settlements and tax planning vehicles. These companies may suggest that you mail to the “Smith family” at the property address in the hope that your letter may get forwarded to the heirs if it is a probate. All of our data is taken from courthouse records and they are all recently filed probates. We give you the actual personal representative data and their contact info as well as the attorney info when it’s available.

Questions Regarding The Probate Opportunity

What do Probate Properties offer over other properties?

Probate properties are those properties that were owned by an individual that has passed away. Generally properties owned in this manner are well cared for properties and require minimal refurbishing. This simplifies the amount of effort required by a Real Estate Agent or Investor.

What are the results I should expect?

Obviously, your results will depend on many factors, not the least of which is the effort you put in to maximize the use of the leads, but here are a few examples of actual results that have been achieved recently by other Real Estate Professionals using our probate leads:

* A newly licensed agent In Iowa sent out 170 letters and took 5 listings her first month using our probate leads.
* An agent in South Carolina got his team together, started making calls and set 20 appointments in one week using probate leads from AllTheLeads.com
* An agent in Florida sent out 150 letters and got 6 listings his first month using probate leads from AllTheleads.com.

Of course, not all our subscribers get this many deals the first month. However, our subscribers frequently tell us that they are the only agents contacting these highly motivated sellers.

What can I expect to make?

Real Estate Agents can leverage this new market segment to create unique listings based on their expertise in this area to increase their commissions. We also have investors that have made $50K on an individual sale and others that average $7,500 per purchase. You can make money several different ways in the probate market. Remember, with our program you are in control – you can purchase properties outright and then sell them or you can partner with Real Estate Investors in your area and share in their profits. Here are some ways you can make money by buying and selling probate properties:

Wholesale a Property: $5-15K per deal
Buy at 40-50% Discount / Sell at 35% -> Net 5-15%

Buy and Sell a Property: $25-50K per deal
Buy at 40-50% Discount / Rehab at 5% / Sell at 20% -> Net 15-25%
Minimal rehab required. Most probate properties have been well maintained. We teach you how to estimate rehab costs!

Rent / Sell a Property: $60-80K per deal
Buy at 40-50% Discount / Own for 3 Years / see 2-3% appreciation / Sell at FULL MARKET VALUE!!!

What makes a probate property desirable?

Often, properties in probate must be sold for financial or other reasons and the seller is looking to quickly turn the property. You will generally find that you are dealing with a motivated seller that does not live in the property. In many cases this is “found money” to the heirs of the Estate and they simply want to “cash out”.

What is Probate?

Probate is the legal process by which title to properties owned by an individual while alive are transferred to the heirs.

Will I make money from these leads?

There are hidden gems in these probates. If you work the leads you will find great opportunities to buy and sell distressed properties in your area.

Why don’t more people work this market?

This is a fairly misunderstood market. Most people assume that once an Estate is probated, the property is tied up in court. In fact, the executor of the Estate does, most often, have the authority to sell the property.

Is this data available to the general public?

This is Public Record information and if you are willing to spend the time and energy necessary to retrieve the data, any one can get this data. The amount of effort required to retrieve this data does not generally result in a good investment of your time. You would be much better off spending this time contacting Executors and closing deals.

Questions About Our Company and The Leads We Supply

Why should I subscribe to All The Leads for probate leads?

We provide Probate data for virtually every county in the US. You will receive your leads each and every month without the hassle of trying to get the leads yourself. Time is money and we’ve done the heavy lifting so you can focus on building client relationships.

How long have you been in business?

Our sources have been providing Probate Leads for the past 10 years.

Why isn’t this service being offered by other companies?

There is a finite amount of probate data available in each county and it can be difficult to retrieve. Until we came along, no one had managed to put together a business model that could support this retrieval effort.

How can you provide data when no one else can?

We use a wide variety of resources to gather the information we combine into the lead we deliver to our subscribers.  Or sources also have relationships with numerous banks and credit card companies and these contacts have allowed us to establish a great network of data researchers throughout the US. This network coupled with our proprietary data mining tools and processes allows us to access probate leads information at a cost which allows us to provide reasonably priced leads to you.

Where does the data come from?

Our network of data researchers located throughout the US provides the initial data collection. We couple that with proprietary tools and processes which allow us to aggregate the data you need to succeed.

Is your data timely?

We retrieve the data every month in each county or municipal area we serve.  That info is current as of the date and time it’s harvested.  Once the basic get of information has been imported into our databases, our proprietary processes and systems validate the data.  We then augment that information with accurate contact phone numbers and other info.   After this has been completed, the less are made available to you, ready for you to immediately begin your marketing efforts.  This entire process is usually completed within two days from the date our researcher visits the courthouse to start the process.

Do you provide all of the probate records?

We provide all Estate-related probates. Most probate courts also handle Guardianships, Conservatorships, cases pertaining to Minors, etc. There can be a great deal of excess information in these records – information that does not benefit you as a Probate Investor. We cull those records out and provide you records that have the potential for having Real Estate as part of the Estate.

Will I get all of the data found at the Courthouse?

Generally, that answer is a yes, but in some cases a probate case file may be “checked out” to the courts – in essence it’s “suspended”.  When this occurs, we will retrieve the missing data on our next visit or whenever it is released.

Do you furnish the location and identify of the decedent’s property with the leads?

The effort involved in identifying specific properties involved in the probate process is often costly, time consuming and can be inaccurate.  We typically find that a substantial percentage (est. 70%-75%) of the probate actions do have associated Real Estate. The only certain (and unfortunately manual) way to find out if there are properties owned by a Decedent is to go to the courthouse and extract the necessary tax and title info.  The process is usually quite labor and time intensive.

That’s why our “best practices” approach is designed to reach the largest number of potential customers and we’ve found that the majority of our subscribers prefer to send a series of letters to ALL of the Personal Representatives, followed-up each time with a direct phone call. This allows the Personal Representatives to respond if they indeed have a property they must deal with as part of the probate process and it opens the door for additional conversation. Of course, if a last known address of the decedent is included in the court documents we collect, we will include that in the data you receive. However, (as stated above) that is absolutely not a guarantee of that being the address of a property that must be probated, nor of there even being a property in the probate.

I can’t open my lead files. I downloaded them, but they won’t open?

Here’s are a couple of suggestions and if these don’t help you, just open a support ticket and let us know a couple of good times to contact you to get you squared away.

If you are using a PC (not a MAC), you need to look at the default application your computer is set to use when opening a .CSV file (that’s any file that has a .CSV extension such as YOURLEADS.CSV). Generall, it should be set to use Microsoft Excel if you have it. Otherwise, your PC won’t know what to do with this file and it could be trying to open it using an application other than Excel. Without knowing what version of Windows you are using, if you double-click on your leads file in Windows and it opens in the wrong software program or won’t open, follow the steps below to choose the program you would prefer to use. You can change this setting for an individual file or you change this setting so Windows opens all files of the same type in the software program you choose.

(1) Open the folder that contains your leads file.

(2) Right-click the on the file name of your leads file and then, depending on the type of file, either click Open with or point to Open with and then click Choose default program.

(3) Click the program you want to use to open the file (likely Excel). Then do one of the following:

a. If you want all files of that type to open in the same software program, select the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file check box, and then click OK.

b. If you want only that file to open in the software program this one time, clear the Always use the selected program to open this kind of file check box, and then click OK.

This process is sometimes different, based on the version of Windows you are using and therefore, we can’t give you the specific instructions about how to do this on your PC, but in general, that’s how this is done.

Here’s a video link that also might help: https://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/change-default-programs#1TC=windows-7

If you are using a MAC, the process is similar. Your MAC may already be set by default to use Apple’s Numbers Spreadsheet to open a CSV file, so if it won’t open or if you don’t want to use Numbers, try this:

(1) Open the folder that contains your leads file.

(2) Right-click the on the file name of your leads file and then, either click ‘Open with’ after selecting the program you want to use to open the file (likely Excel or Numbers).

At this point, hopefully you’ll be all set. But if not, please let us know a couple of good times to contact you for further assistance.

Are the phone numbers you furnish scrubbed against the National Do Not Call Registry?

Yes, we take the phone numbers that we gather as a result from our exhaustive research and scrub them against state, local and national DNC lists and other prohibited lists. In the leads you receive, these numbers are indicated by a red asterisk. However, we provide you with ALL of the numbers that we collect since we have performed these tasks on your behalf. For further information on matters pertaining to the DNC Registry and prohibitions against calling, please refer to the TCPA Act.