November 16, 2010 | Author

Author Julie Hanson

Add a new string to your property business by learning a few extra new skills. Julie from Just Do Property interviews Andrew Jones, The UK Probate Guy!

Andrew Jones began investing in probate property in 1999, buying from motivated sellers that wanted to escape the nightmare of probate. After buying his first Probate property he soon realised that he could make much more in his property business by offering a range of financial solutions to families facing the misery of probate. Andrew explains here how any property investor can significantly increase their income by following the strategies he has adopted.

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JDP – How did you get started in property?

Andrew: I bought my first Probate Property by pure chance in July 1999 after renting a neighbouring property that subsequently became a probate property following the death of an elderly gentleman who had left a surviving spouse who was desperate for a hassle free sale. With the heavily discounted price I have since refinanced that property several times pulling out around £122,000. This has been used to finance many probate properties since.

Although working full time in the city at the time, the next few years following my first probate property proved vital as it helped provide some hugely valuable experiences. By 2002 and 3 more probates under the belt I was beginning to see that my part time business had some legs, although despite the initial success I needed to educate myself more as there were opportunities that I was missing because of my lack of knowledge in probate, so I spent the next 3 years educating myself and by 2005 was ready again to continue where I left off.

This time I learnt the subtle art of probate and deceased estates and what it really meant to become a solution provider for families, not just the run of the mill investor looking for a quick return. These new found skills led to many more successful probate projects that were to stand me in very good stead, including finding and buying my own family house.

Whilst 99.9% of ALL probate property comes through the traditional route of agents, in my continuing thirst for ever more profitable probate opportunities I had begun to develop a system of locating these unknown and hidden gems.

In 2007 I left full time employment to embark on my probate property business with a view to taking probate much more seriously.

One thing I always hated in property though was the competition that existed and especially in BMV. When you buy a BMV property through traditional avenues you are joining the crowd who are all chasing after the same deal.

This is why probate appealed to me so much, because it is an area that for some reason had been largely overlooked in the main, but also because the system I had began to develop allowed me to virtually eliminate ALL competition, something that most fail to grasp in probate.

JDP – So would you say that this system has made a significant difference to your potential profits?

Andrew: Well let’s put it this way, there are very unique circumstances that occur in probate that do not happen anywhere else in property that often allow us to realise anywhere from 30-60% discounts.

Although these are perfectly feasible most investors get probate all wrong and these are only possible when people understand the subtleties of probate property and what is going on inside the estate, because these discounts are so often a by-product of the solutions we provide not just a BMV strategy.

JDP – How do you actually generate your probate leads?

Andrew: There are 3 main ways this business model uses to identify probate property:

First is a very simple but hugely effective way of identifying opportunities in your own local areas and reverse engineering the key information that validates whether a property is or will become a probate property and in-turn a profitable opportunity to us

In 2009, using this one technique, we identified 4 properties in one street that led to 2 very profitable probate properties, producing discounts of 26% and 33% at point of purchase – (remember in probate you make your profit when you buy, not when you sell) and has left the door open for at least 2 if not 3 more for opportunities for us in this one location.

Second method is one of the most powerful techniques we use that enables us to identify EVERY probate in a designated area, or postcode, thus providing pinpoint accuracy when it comes to producing highly qualified and motivated sellers with zero competition, something that carpet bombing with leaflets cannot get close to matching not to mention, the massive reduction in costs that this type of targeting saves us.

Third method is perhaps a little more traditional, as it involves building solid relationships with members of the probate supply chain, but seems to sit very nicely with Banks, Trust Companies and Solicitors and as a result we are getting more referrals from these professionals, who see our services as beneficial and key to speeding up cash flow in the probate process, which can so often stagnate, due to the typical complications that probate property can suffer from.

JDP – How else do you generate your probate leads?

Andrew: As well as our own production of probate projects, we are building a network of investors that are able to work exclusively with us by reserving their own areas and by being allocated licences that eliminate competition directly with other members.

JDP – For BMV investors who are interested in establishing a probate property side of their business, how easy is it to train to do what you do?

Andrew: Having come from a corporate non-property background, obviously my learning curve has been steeper than most, but to me success in probate property should be a relatively simple process for most property investors. Yes there are new things that have to be learnt, but if you are highly motivated, your people skills are good and you are able to sell them on providing financial solutions that really fit their requirements, then these additional skills should not be too onerous to learn. As I say most property investors will quickly adjust to these new capabilities, adding very quickly unique streams of income to their existing businesses.

JDP – Many thanks for sharing this information with our readers, just to clarify what are the opportunities for the BMV/Property Investor to work with you?

Andrew: We are very keen to work with JDP readers in a number of ways. I know that many JDP readers are active opportunity seekers who are looking for new ways to make extra income – Probate Property most certainly offers this.

I have prepared a FREE report that will give your readers a much better insight to the full opportunity in finding probate property.

With around 600,000 empty properties in the UK and with over 500,000 new probates being processed every year, Probate is an untapped market place, so this is a very real and exciting opportunity for the serious property investor to generate a hugely significant business that can easily run alongside what they do in property, or as a full blown probate business.

To obtain your COPY of the FREE Special Insider Report on Probate Property please click the following image: