Latest / The Real Estate Agent Playbook / From Traditional Agent to Probate Specialist | Wolfpack Way: Carolyn Castillo
Transcript
- 0:00probate is one of the least understood segments
- 0:03within our real estate communities
- 0:06and today I have Carolyn Castillo from Florida
- 0:10on the channel to talk about how she went from
- 0:13almost being done with real estate
- 0:15to diving into probate and now
- 0:17has closed over 100 deals with her proven systems
- 0:20that she is going to share with you
- 0:23as a launching point for you and your career
- 0:25if you've been looking for that something
- 0:27and you just want more from your real estate career
- 0:30this probate piece may be absolutely incredible for you
- 0:33the beauty of it is
- 0:34Carolyn is one of my partners at the Wolf Pack
- 0:37of the XP Realty
- 0:38and you can absolutely partner with both of us
- 0:41to get our coaching and everything for absolutely free
- 0:44so that we can help you along your journey
- 0:47to take your career from maybe nah
- 0:50maybe this isn't for me to absolutely crushing it
- 0:53providing a lucrative you know
- 0:55career path for you for your family
- 0:57and obviously affecting so many amazing clients as well
- 1:01so without further ado let's bring on Carolyn
- 1:04she is Carolyn Castillo from Jacksonville
- 1:07Florida has an absolutely incredible stories
- 1:10I mentioned in the introduction
- 1:12but Carolyn
- 1:13tell us a little bit about your start in real estate
- 1:16I know you're a wolf pack OG um
- 1:19so let's talk a little bit about that
- 1:21and that'll lead us to the
- 1:23the probate magic that you've created here
- 1:26thank you so much Jeremy
- 1:28I appreciate to be here um
- 1:30so I actually got into real estate
- 1:31when I was 18 years old
- 1:33and I started off doing rentals
- 1:36uh
- 1:36very early on I figured out how to be a listing agent
- 1:39and so I've pretty much been a listing agent ever since
- 1:43uh then went on to do traditional real estate sales
- 1:47and I had a bunch of fun doing that
- 1:49and then once I got my first pro Bono opportunity
- 1:54everything changed for me and I found immense purpose
- 1:58Andrew uh
- 2:00you know income in doing probate real estate
- 2:02and that's where everything
- 2:03kind of took a right turn for me
- 2:05okay perfect
- 2:06so you talk about having fun and all the things
- 2:09we mentioned purpose
- 2:10and were you feeling like you were lacking purpose
- 2:13in the real estate game
- 2:14prior to finding this specific niche
- 2:17that you've taken to such an amazing level
- 2:20yes yes
- 2:21I was very much at a point where the money was good
- 2:24I was uh successful
- 2:26I was getting deals
- 2:27but I was working that traditional market
- 2:30uh very retail and so was like all the listings I had
- 2:33I really just felt like I had like 10 bosses
- 2:36you know and it just was kind of like
- 2:39to really take it to that next level
- 2:42even become more successful
- 2:44it was gonna require me to be like
- 2:45the mayor of the town and
- 2:48you know I really
- 2:49that's not my personality
- 2:50it's not my style
- 2:51I really like serving people and helping people and um
- 2:55when I got the opportunity of probate
- 2:57people don't really care about your accolades
- 2:59they don't care about you know
- 3:01your stats um
- 3:02these are people in need and need help
- 3:04so it was for me
- 3:06it worked out perfectly because it was like
- 3:08almost like I was in ministry
- 3:10and making money at the same time
- 3:12so it's been a perfect combination for my soul
- 3:16knowing you I know how
- 3:17how much that would align for sure and
- 3:20and finding that purpose is huge
- 3:21so take us back to that first probate deal
- 3:25what did that look like where did it come from
- 3:27first of all yeah
- 3:28so the first probate deal was actually
- 3:31what every other agent would probably get
- 3:33and it was just a referral
- 3:34so it was just literally someone just saying
- 3:37I need help selling my dad's house
- 3:39I had never knew what probate was
- 3:41I never heard of the term probate
- 3:44and it was actually a very messy one okay
- 3:49but um
- 3:50once I was able to what really got it for me
- 3:53was being able to help somebody
- 3:55in a very difficult situation
- 3:58and I was able to I'll tell you
- 4:00it's a kind of a funny story
- 4:01so dad um
- 4:03in his 80s got a 30 year old girlfriend
- 4:06and in the process of their relationship
- 4:08she got dad to um
- 4:10make her the beneficiary in all of his investment uh
- 4:14stocks and everything like that
- 4:15so the only asset the family had was the house
- 4:19and so uh
- 4:21the girlfriend had lock and keyed the house
- 4:23she wasn't letting the family over there
- 4:25and so that's why they couldn't sell the property
- 4:27so good thing they called Carolyn
- 4:29because I went over there
- 4:31and had a conversation with this young lady
- 4:34that was in the home helped her leave the house civilly
- 4:38and got the family back access to the house
- 4:41we got the house prepared for sale
- 4:43and we sold the property
- 4:44so that was literally my first experience in probate
- 4:47it was a bit of a crazy one
- 4:49but um
- 4:50it definitely opened the door to find out
- 4:52what is probate and how do I even find more of these
- 4:56right and let's talk a little bit about probate cause I
- 5:00I have the Assumption that it's just
- 5:03if there's a deceased
- 5:06you know owner
- 5:08uh huh is that what you're speaking about
- 5:10or do you deal specifically with
- 5:12only things that have gone through probate
- 5:15not necessarily
- 5:15with trusts and wills and all those things
- 5:18yeah so specifically with probate
- 5:20um why can Realtors specifically target it
- 5:24it's because it's a legal process
- 5:26so like all of the estate planning attorneys out there
- 5:29what is their sales pitch
- 5:31you don't wanna go to probate
- 5:33so get a trust set up haha
- 5:35so
- 5:36the only difference between probate and having a trust
- 5:39is that a trust is handled privately
- 5:41so it's not a uh court it's not a public court event
- 5:45but probate is a public court event
- 5:49so it's very similar like a divorce or a foreclosure
- 5:53we can buy a list
- 5:55we can basically get access to these public court
- 5:57records but just as a summary uh
- 6:00probate is basically the um
- 6:03administration of the decedent's assets
- 6:06being transferred over to their beneficiaries
- 6:09so probate doesn't just mean real estate
- 6:12probate can be for bank accounts
- 6:14it can be for cars jewelries
- 6:17anything like that so
- 6:18it's not
- 6:19everybody
- 6:19that goes through probate has a house to sell right
- 6:23and so do you only focus on probate
- 6:25you don't go in the trust sector
- 6:27unless it comes up by referral or something natural
- 6:30you're saying that
- 6:31your lead generation source is those lists
- 6:33and that's kind of how you yeah
- 6:36build the business
- 6:37once you once you dominate and probate
- 6:40then it that process the families
- 6:43are still dealing with a lot of the same things
- 6:45when you're going through a trust
- 6:47it's just it's not
- 6:48you don't have to go through the legal process
- 6:51of getting authorization to sell
- 6:54but property preparation disagreements among heirs
- 6:58you know
- 6:58all the things like that are still gonna be in a trust
- 7:02um it's just with probate for us as a realtor
- 7:05as a lead source it's a very easy and attainable
- 7:09way to just get consistent listings
- 7:11where you don't have to you know
- 7:13rely on any favors
- 7:14or referrals from attorneys or anything like that
- 7:18interesting so it's
- 7:19it's a very
- 7:20and all you have to do is have a little bit of a heart
- 7:22to serve people
- 7:23because there are some crazy things that come up
- 7:25and some are I'm sure turnkey and super easy
- 7:28so now that you're in it think back to
- 7:32you know after you close that first transaction
- 7:36what I mean were you just head down
- 7:38let's go this is what I found my calling
- 7:41and if so like
- 7:43were there any hurdles that you saw
- 7:46or was there any misconceptions that you had
- 7:48prior to jumping in that our viewers might have
- 7:51yeah so um
- 7:53that particular one I was still trying to find myself
- 7:57if you will
- 7:58so I didn't just do that one deal and just be like
- 8:01that's it I'm going all into probate
- 8:03I basically just was like
- 8:05this is interesting these are people in need
- 8:08so I started looking for probates
- 8:09and I just added them to my lead generation
- 8:13uh prospecting
- 8:14so at that time I was doing uh
- 8:16pre foreclosures for sale by owners
- 8:20um would do some expired listings
- 8:22regular co calling circle prospecting
- 8:24so I just kind of added it into my wheel of fun there
- 8:28and um
- 8:29I was uh
- 8:30running into these
- 8:31I would end up being able to pick up like
- 8:33one or two listings from them
- 8:35so I'm like this is really cool
- 8:37well what ended up happening
- 8:38is I got a family that I helped and it was two um
- 8:41young men 18 and twenty
- 8:44and I was sitting at their dining room table
- 8:46and their mom had basically
- 8:49went to the hospital to check on a stomach pain
- 8:52that she had and mom never came back home okay
- 8:55now mom when I was sitting at this house I was like
- 8:58oh my gosh
- 8:58this is like my kids right now sitting at the table and
- 9:02you know dishes were still in the sink
- 9:04the mails on the counter
- 9:06like the house is just like you literally
- 9:08you left your house for the day
- 9:10and you didn't come back you know
- 9:12and that was really the case
- 9:14that just changed everything for me um
- 9:18because I said wow
- 9:19this is people are really need help in these situations
- 9:23they need to get these houses prepared for sale
- 9:26these boys like they had no idea what to do
- 9:29I mean
- 9:29they were literally grieving the loss of their mom
- 9:32much less trying to think about
- 9:34what am I gonna do with all mom stuff
- 9:36how am I gonna deal with this house
- 9:38how am I gonna pay for all these bills
- 9:40that are coming in um
- 9:42and so that was really the one that I said
- 9:44you know what I'm gonna
- 9:46I'm gonna look to work on these more
- 9:48not just as one off you know listing opportunities
- 9:51I'm gonna look
- 9:52how to help solve these people's problems
- 9:55and that's really what LED
- 9:57me on the whole journey to just completely
- 10:01niching down
- 10:02so I literally don't do any transaction is
- 10:05I'm 100% probate real estate right now okay
- 10:09so you dove completely into it
- 10:11yeah right and
- 10:13and now obviously for your partners and
- 10:15and things like that
- 10:16you provide that mentorship to do that
- 10:18and the truth is is that
- 10:20you know I talk a lot about
- 10:22you know finding the winners in the market
- 10:24and changing your marketing to
- 10:27you know certain aspects of the market
- 10:28whether it's investors
- 10:29or first time home buyers or sellers
- 10:31as we've seen for a long time now
- 10:33um but your market never changes
- 10:37in fact there's
- 10:38a pretty large population
- 10:40that's gonna be coming up into that
- 10:42so tell me um
- 10:44you know
- 10:44how you do full face first into the legal side of it
- 10:50cause it wasn't just like
- 10:51oh I'm gonna sell probate houses right
- 10:54that's how it started and then you got into it
- 10:56but then you realize that there's some nuance to it
- 10:58and I think there's a lot of fear in the legal right
- 11:02bringing attorneys in you know
- 11:03if you're not an attorney state or
- 11:06or whatever so talk a little bit about how you
- 11:08you started
- 11:10uh unpacking the legal
- 11:12you know ramifications and the laws and how to navigate
- 11:15you know these transactions as an expert
- 11:17yeah so when you had asked me earlier
- 11:20what was like the biggest um
- 11:21maybe hurdle or
- 11:23you know misconceptions in going into it
- 11:26it was definitely this portion of it
- 11:29so prior to getting into probate
- 11:31I really have never dealt with attorneys um
- 11:34I never had a reason to deal with them um
- 11:37so I always you know
- 11:39held attorneys to like a really high like caliber of
- 11:43you know the attorney says like that's it you know um
- 11:47and so what ended up starting to happen is
- 11:51one attorney was
- 11:53doing things that the other attorney wasn't doing
- 11:56so I was seeing some cases move forward quicker
- 11:59where other cases were being held up and held up
- 12:02and held up and so
- 12:04um I started doing a deep dive on my market
- 12:07and just looking at
- 12:08and I always recommend this for agents
- 12:10is don't believe what one attorney says
- 12:13look up 10 attorneys websites in your area
- 12:16look read through them
- 12:18and see what their process is for dealing with probate
- 12:22and what you're gonna find is
- 12:24they all have a different way of doing things
- 12:26and so little by little
- 12:28as I did case by case and you know
- 12:30it's kind of maddening
- 12:31because you work with every attorney in town
- 12:34so it's different
- 12:35when you're just working off of attorney referrals
- 12:37because maybe you're just working with one guy
- 12:40and that's his process and really
- 12:42the attorney becomes your client at that point
- 12:44because he's the one giving you the deal
- 12:46so you just kind of bend your
- 12:48process to whatever he wants to do
- 12:51but when you get the opportunity to work with
- 12:53like multiple attorneys at the same time
- 12:57now is where you become really dangerous
- 12:59and you're able to really see well
- 13:01I see the trick that this guy used
- 13:03maybe I can go ahead and help another family
- 13:06do that same thing on this case
- 13:08and that's what I started doing
- 13:10and I was like oh my gosh
- 13:12so now you know
- 13:13I've been doing so many deals
- 13:15you know
- 13:16I will call the attorneys when I get on these cases
- 13:19and I will just kind of like help
- 13:21like offer some
- 13:22creative ways of how we can overcome certain things
- 13:25and they're normally like
- 13:27oh yeah sure
- 13:28we can do that and then
- 13:29you know
- 13:29my clients just go right down the yellow brick road
- 13:32you know so I think for
- 13:34you know Realtors is
- 13:36you know not putting yourself that oh
- 13:39that's what the attorney does
- 13:40and I don't get involved in that instead
- 13:43educate yourself
- 13:44on what that probate process is in your state
- 13:48the funny thing is um
- 13:50Jeremy is that probate is actually a global thing okay
- 13:56people die everywhere people are dying okay
- 13:59and the thing is is I thought well
- 14:01is probate just in Florida
- 14:03like is it just probate is just in Florida
- 14:05no it's all throughout the United States
- 14:08the legal process is called probate
- 14:11and even beyond in other countries
- 14:14it's also called probate so there's a each state
- 14:18each city county
- 14:19each country has a little bit of differences
- 14:23so whichever state whichever counties you serve just
- 14:28you know endeavor yourself into
- 14:30you know 10 different websites of attorneys
- 14:33don't look at one trust me okay
- 14:35look at 10 and then
- 14:37you know
- 14:38when you get those opportunities to work on a case
- 14:41that's where I say that's your training
- 14:43you know that's where you have an opportunity
- 14:46to really get on the phone with that attorney
- 14:48and say hey
- 14:49you know based on what I know
- 14:50this is the timeline this is the process
- 14:53is that how you handle things as well
- 14:55and you start developing you know
- 14:58the best practices for your area
- 15:00and then you can just copy and paste
- 15:02copy and paste copy and paste yeah
- 15:05absolutely and um
- 15:07when you're talking to these attorneys
- 15:10and building these relationships and things like that
- 15:13I think that there's a misconception that attorneys
- 15:16don't want they want our business
- 15:19I know now that
- 15:21they want us to be competent and help them
- 15:25sometimes the way they wanna be helped
- 15:27but talk about your communication with attorneys now
- 15:31you know hundred deals in on the lead side right
- 15:35obviously once you have the transaction
- 15:37you can kind of show your stuff and then you become
- 15:39I mean I would assume at
- 15:41at some point some of these uh
- 15:43top
- 15:45you know probate attorneys have
- 15:47you know tapped you for referrals as well
- 15:49but talk to me about how that transition kind of came
- 15:53and when it went from education to partner
- 15:57well I think
- 15:57really understanding the attorney's perspective
- 16:00and understanding their strengths and weaknesses
- 16:03you know so from the attorney's perspective
- 16:06their one and only job is to transfer the legal um
- 16:12names of an asset over to the beneficiaries
- 16:16that's where their job begins and stops
- 16:18they don't get involved in anything else
- 16:20so like Realtors we're what is what are we taught
- 16:24follow up follow up
- 16:25follow up like we know how to track somebody down
- 16:28we know how to get that signature today right
- 16:31but an attorney
- 16:32what they do is they just send out the email
- 16:35and that's it if you got it
- 16:37you got it if you didn't
- 16:38you didn't right
- 16:39and so you wonder why your
- 16:41why your case is all dusty on his desk
- 16:44is because he sent you the email a month ago
- 16:47and you missed it right
- 16:49so I started realizing
- 16:50that's really where attorneys need that assistance
- 16:54and they're not gonna have their paralegals
- 16:56tracking people down
- 16:58so I started just helping the attorneys by asking them
- 17:02like what is it that you're outstanding from the client
- 17:05like is there any documents that you're needing
- 17:07to be able to move your case forward
- 17:09have you been able to get in contact
- 17:10with all the beneficiaries
- 17:12so now not only am I an efficient a resource
- 17:17you know as we're going through the
- 17:18probate process to help them sell the house
- 17:20but I'm actually providing value to the attorney
- 17:24by helping them get some of the loose ends
- 17:26and get things tied up
- 17:28that they don't really have the time
- 17:30or the bandwidth to do or the need to right
- 17:34they know eventually somebody will come down the
- 17:36the road but being that
- 17:38the piece of real estate
- 17:40is usually the last thing to get off loaded right
- 17:42and you know
- 17:43that's the last thing that they're like okay
- 17:45you can sell the house you can't sell the house
- 17:46whatever it is um
- 17:50that's incredible that you walk alongside them
- 17:52you partner with them
- 17:54and help them outside of the scope right
- 17:57so notice she didn't just say like
- 17:59I just you know
- 18:00wait for him to send me the letters of appointment
- 18:03and we're ready to roll and
- 18:04you know that's when I put the house on the market no
- 18:07she's like oh
- 18:07you need this you need this beneficiaries contact
- 18:10and that middleman and that communication
- 18:12I'm sure stands out
- 18:14head and shoulders above the others that are
- 18:17you know
- 18:17just dabbling in it just had a referral partner
- 18:20you know pop up or whatever
- 18:22I think that that's that's absolutely incredible
- 18:25and probably one of the No. 1 reasons to your success
- 18:28and why not right
- 18:29you're learning the process as you go
- 18:30now you know what this document is
- 18:32you know where to find this document
- 18:34you know what you need from the clerk recorder
- 18:35whatever it is so um
- 18:37that's really cool
- 18:38can you share your favorite story of pro bet
- 18:41you've already shared a couple uh
- 18:43but one that had some some challenges that you know
- 18:46you were able to
- 18:47bring back together and overcome those challenges
- 18:50and have some success with
- 18:52so I have a cool one I could share um
- 18:54and it also shows
- 18:56how you can make a lot of money doing real estate
- 18:59in probate okay
- 19:00um because these people have the problems
- 19:03exactly what you said
- 19:04that people kind of shy away from them
- 19:07because they have the problems
- 19:08but really if there's problems
- 19:11they need solutions and that's where we make money
- 19:13if we're not solving a problem
- 19:15then we're not really gonna be making a lot of money
- 19:18right
- 19:18so is as Realtors like last summer when they got rid of
- 19:23you know buyer's agent compensation
- 19:25you know and those different things
- 19:27now we have to provide our value
- 19:29like what are you actually doing for me to receive
- 19:32you know this commission check
- 19:34so in probate I've been able to charge as high as 6%
- 19:40just on the listing side of the commission okay
- 19:44and how am I able to do that
- 19:45because I've literally
- 19:47become the hands and feet for this executor
- 19:50overcoming every single thing that he had to do
- 19:54so this uh son inherited his dad's estate
- 19:58but him and his dad had been estranged for
- 20:00about 10 years when he told me about the house
- 20:04he would say oh
- 20:05the mistress lives there right
- 20:07so you could tell there was some bad blood okay
- 20:11probably you know
- 20:12dad ran off with the mistress to Florida
- 20:15and they were estranged ever since so
- 20:18so much as for he didn't even go to his dad's funeral
- 20:22just to give you the context of how disengaged
- 20:25they were from each other well
- 20:26guess what he was the executor of his estate
- 20:31he was the beneficiary of his dad's estate
- 20:34so he inherited a house here in Saint Augustine
- 20:37Florida and to his uh knowledge
- 20:41you know the mistress lived there
- 20:43and he didn't know how to approach her
- 20:46even talk to her
- 20:47because they had been estranged for 10 years
- 20:50the house was probably full of his stuff
- 20:52like he literally had no idea of what he was gonna do
- 20:56and how he was gonna do it
- 20:58so I basically stepped in
- 21:00I was like we'll go ahead
- 21:01and I'll represent you here in Florida for everything
- 21:04and anything that you would need to get done
- 21:07so me as a probate realtor
- 21:09I was taking this on that
- 21:11I'm possibly gonna have to be doing mediation
- 21:13with the mistress right inside the house
- 21:16um
- 21:16there's gonna be a house that needs to be cleared out
- 21:19and prepared for sale
- 21:21and this property is going through probate
- 21:23so there's gonna be attorneys
- 21:24and there's gonna be a legal action
- 21:26that has to be done so I basically um
- 21:29took a listing agreement from him on a 6% um
- 21:34compensation for my services
- 21:36he mailed me the keys to his house
- 21:38I've never met this guy in person to this day
- 21:41it was all done over the phone okay
- 21:44and mailed me the keys and I went over there
- 21:47spoke with the lady she couldn't have been nicer
- 21:50I explained to her what was happening
- 21:52what was the situation
- 21:53she agreed to get vacated as soon as possible
- 21:57we went in um
- 21:58we did a property preparation for him
- 22:01so one of the cool things about probate real estate is
- 22:04um I've been able to launch out
- 22:07basically a property preparation business
- 22:09that my husband takes care of
- 22:11and he basically we invoice the estate about $5,000
- 22:16this was to remove everything from the home
- 22:19uh do some painting
- 22:21do some little handyman work that needed to be done
- 22:24get the house prepared for sale and then uh
- 22:27we went ahead put the property on the market
- 22:31that was when buyer's agent commission wasn't a thing
- 22:34the buyer came directly from an open house
- 22:37I ended up charging the buyer a 1% commission
- 22:40to do the deal on a 400,000 dollar listing opportunity
- 22:44I walked away with roughly about 30 grand
- 22:48so probate can be very lucrative okay
- 22:52and in this case it was very simple yes
- 22:55it was a crazy situation but the lady was nice
- 22:58she moved right out
- 23:00we went over
- 23:01handled the whole thing from beginning to end and um
- 23:04and I think we also helped him sell his car that
- 23:07his dad's car that he had in the garage
- 23:09so you know
- 23:10you really just can be that person's solution
- 23:13and get very well compensated for what you're doing
- 23:17yeah absolutely
- 23:18and that's that's incredible
- 23:20and you know
- 23:21you just touched on some stacking right
- 23:23some value stacking I call those
- 23:24you know kind of toolkits
- 23:26you have the clear out company
- 23:28you have the estate sale companies
- 23:30you have
- 23:31all of these different vendors that you can kind of
- 23:33plug and play at your disposal
- 23:35and that makes yes you can easily be the point person
- 23:38maybe at that point
- 23:40you didn't have all the position pieces in place
- 23:42but now I know you do um
- 23:44and so that's that's an incredible kind of tip there is
- 23:49it just doesn't stop at the closing table
- 23:51it just doesn't stop
- 23:52once you get the listing agreement signed
- 23:54like if you can do other things
- 23:56in this case your husband's business
- 23:58right that you
- 23:59that he takes care of and
- 24:01you know I'm sure you drive business to that
- 24:03you know service a ton probably created out of need
- 24:07like speed right
- 24:08and need um
- 24:10or maybe you know
- 24:11follow through who knows
- 24:12but two teenage sons okay
- 24:17perfect you got a handy husband
- 24:19it just kind of falls in place
- 24:20you know yeah
- 24:21and and so everybody's working together
- 24:23but they're you know
- 24:24have their own business and so on
- 24:26so that's really cool that the kind of way that
- 24:29that you stack that and very important
- 24:32when I talk about industry partners
- 24:33and community partners to have those tools in place
- 24:36with something like probate
- 24:38so you've hinted at kind of your system
- 24:41right and what you're doing
- 24:42so walk me through your repeatable system
- 24:45you know you don't have to give it all away
- 24:47cause I know you have your community
- 24:48and we can tell people all about that
- 24:50but you know
- 24:52give me a bird's eye view of
- 24:53of your system and and process as far as how you're
- 24:57you know starting the relationship to
- 25:00you know closing
- 25:01closing the transaction yeah
- 25:03it's really pretty simple
- 25:04uh it starts with a phone consultation
- 25:07so uh
- 25:08typically
- 25:08we're putting these deals together from cold calls
- 25:11so agents in my group
- 25:13what I teach is how to get your business through co
- 25:15calling and um
- 25:17you basically
- 25:18are booking a consultation with these families
- 25:21you're qualifying them
- 25:22just like you would for any other real estate lead
- 25:25and then once you qualify them
- 25:27you uh
- 25:27if it seems like a deal that you can work on
- 25:30that this would work for you know
- 25:32you and the family then you do a property tour
- 25:35where you're basically able to assess like
- 25:38what do they need do they need property preparation
- 25:41do they need you know
- 25:42is there something materially wrong with this house
- 25:44or what is
- 25:45gonna be the strategy for getting this property sold
- 25:48and then basically they hire our team
- 25:51so it's very straightforward
- 25:53and what you're basically
- 25:54presenting is a concierge service
- 25:57that you're helping executors from beginning to end
- 26:02that's incredible
- 26:02especially a place like Florida where some people move
- 26:06sorry sorry
- 26:08let me let the dog out sorry you're good
- 26:15hey brother
- 26:16no worry
- 26:19alright
- 26:20so you're presenting the service from beginning to end
- 26:23and you're taking that on um
- 26:25as far as purchasing the lists
- 26:28where would
- 26:29where would a new agent go to find those lists
- 26:32so the cool thing is is like we discussed before
- 26:35is probate is a public record
- 26:37so literally a lot of my agents in my group
- 26:41literally
- 26:41just set up accounts on their county courthouse
- 26:44and they can actually download them themselves okay
- 26:47um if you can't set up an online account
- 26:49you can actually go in person
- 26:51you can like in in Jacksonville
- 26:53they don't have an online
- 26:54you have to go in person
- 26:56and they'll give you a print out of
- 26:58you say I want for the month
- 27:00I want for the week
- 27:01like however often you want to go down there
- 27:03but there's plenty of lead providers
- 27:05out there that will give you
- 27:07you know this type of data um
- 27:10that you have to pay for
- 27:11but I like to tell people when they're brand brand new
- 27:14um'cause it
- 27:15also gets you really involved more in the process
- 27:17like take a trip down to your courthouse
- 27:19you know like get to know what probate feels like
- 27:22you know look at the clerk of courts
- 27:24you know
- 27:24with'cause the families that are going through probate
- 27:27nine times out of 10
- 27:28this is the process they're going through
- 27:30the more that you can walk in the executor's footsteps
- 27:34the better it's gonna be for you as an agent
- 27:36because you're really gonna kind of
- 27:38understand what they're going through firsthand
- 27:42like me personally I've never been an executor
- 27:44you know but I've helped hundreds of executors
- 27:47you know but if you've never done it
- 27:50to walk in somebody else's shoes
- 27:52and really see how it is is the best way
- 27:55you know mm hmm
- 27:57well especially
- 27:57cause you have so many people
- 28:00that are at a different phase right
- 28:0210 years estranged to a mom
- 28:05right
- 28:06that's living in the house with the kids that you just
- 28:08on this call you've talked about
- 28:10those two very opposite ends of the spectrum
- 28:12I would imagine most are probably more in the middle
- 28:15but you never know so that keeps it interesting
- 28:17um so that's
- 28:18that's an incredible you know
- 28:20journey and obviously the cold calling and that
- 28:23you know but I mean
- 28:25cold calls it's not just blindly calling a list right
- 28:28you have something to offer
- 28:29I think and I know that within your community
- 28:32you do a ton of role playing and scripting
- 28:34so talk a little bit about your community
- 28:36that you've kind of created to
- 28:38you know grow and partner with agents across
- 28:42you know the country and maybe the world
- 28:43since probates are pretty across the
- 28:47across the board thing yeah
- 28:49so um
- 28:50you know I personally had hand trained agents
- 28:53one by one in my state in the counties that I work in
- 28:58and what I realized is I said
- 29:00I gotta put this on video okay
- 29:03if I have to say the same thing over again
- 29:06okay so it really came out of
- 29:09you know just uh
- 29:11streamlining the training
- 29:12that I was doing for my own personal team
- 29:15and um
- 29:16I literally
- 29:18my exact system that I do currently to this day
- 29:22from cold call all the way to close
- 29:24I have recorded every single part of that process
- 29:29think it's about 75 videos from how to use the script
- 29:34to how to do the co calling
- 29:35to the schedule to booking the consultation
- 29:39preparing for the consultation
- 29:41you know going on the property tour
- 29:44speaking with the executors
- 29:45calling the attorneys like exactly my process
- 29:49I have it fully documented
- 29:51so someone can start with us and just go exactly
- 29:54through exactly the process
- 29:56so they can create this in their city
- 29:58their town
- 30:00and then we get together once a week
- 30:02and I do a live training so in this live training
- 30:05it's more like you know
- 30:06what is happening in Carolyn's life
- 30:08like today I had my training and you know
- 30:10what's happening in 2025 September 8th
- 30:13you know so you'll get that
- 30:15that real live you know
- 30:17combination of the process right
- 30:21um today we were talking about active on the market
- 30:24once you've gotten the listing
- 30:26you've done everything now you're active on the market
- 30:28what do you need to be doing as a probate listing agent
- 30:32you know so
- 30:33we shared some things that are dynamically
- 30:35happening in the market today
- 30:37and then I make myself
- 30:38available for the agents to just do real deal talk
- 30:42because in probate you know
- 30:45there's situations okay
- 30:47and you know
- 30:48just having somebody to kind of just spitball it with
- 30:52and just saying this is what the executor said
- 30:54this is the beneficiaries
- 30:56this is the attorney um
- 30:58so I make myself available to kind of
- 31:00really help them in those day to day things
- 31:02um and then the cool part is
- 31:04is that we co call two times a week together okay
- 31:08so you're actually cocalling live right next to me
- 31:11while I'm cocalling my market
- 31:13other agents are cocalling their market
- 31:16and um
- 31:16I've gotten a lot of good feedback about this
- 31:19because it's not only do you get to cocall next to me
- 31:22like some of my um
- 31:23best favorite videos on
- 31:26my YouTube is me just recording myself live
- 31:29co calling like people like to see it
- 31:31you know
- 31:32so not only do you get to just be in the room with me
- 31:36but it's also the accountability
- 31:38so it's like one of those things like
- 31:40if your friends meeting you at the gym
- 31:42you know you're gonna go to the gym
- 31:44but if your friends not meeting you at the gym
- 31:46there's a chance you could talk yourself out of it
- 31:48right so a lot of agents have told me um
- 31:51oh you know
- 31:51I show up because I know you're gonna be there
- 31:54and then hahaha
- 31:55and then they end up booking a deal and they're happy
- 31:57you know so yeah
- 31:59absolutely that that accountability
- 32:02you know
- 32:02process and those kind of things and obviously
- 32:05if you're interested in learning more about that
- 32:07we can connect we'll talk about that in one second
- 32:09but if you're interested in partnering
- 32:10and getting coaching for absolutely free
- 32:12let's reach out but as we kind of wrap this up
- 32:16what is one piece of advice for somebody
- 32:20that's kind of standing on the line
- 32:22they're doing deals they're not fulfilled
- 32:25and they're kind of leaning towards probate
- 32:28what is the first thing you would do
- 32:30besides join your community haha
- 32:33in order to you know
- 32:34take that first step in their location
- 32:37wherever they're at yeah
- 32:38I would definitely recommend
- 32:40doing some research on probate in your area
- 32:45and really seeing how big this opportunity is okay
- 32:49this is not like a trend
- 32:51this is not something that's cool
- 32:53this is literally a recession proof real estate niche
- 32:58so right now
- 32:59when most of our markets are kind of struggling okay
- 33:02guess what people are still dying okay
- 33:05and people still need to sell their houses
- 33:08when families inherit these houses
- 33:10they already have their own house okay
- 33:13a lot of times
- 33:14these houses are inherited with mortgages
- 33:16with utility bills that have to be paid
- 33:19HOA bills that have to be paid
- 33:20so you're talking about targeting a motivated seller
- 33:24that has to sell nine times out of ten
- 33:27um when you do the research
- 33:29you're gonna find that
- 33:3070% of inherited properties are sold okay
- 33:35so the question is
- 33:36are you gonna be the agent that has their hand up
- 33:39that says I can facilitate this for you
- 33:41I can help you with this and what I love to
- 33:44Jeremy is real estate is a brick by brick business
- 33:48right it's not a get rich quick scheme
- 33:50you don't just like from one day to the next
- 33:52you're just like the best agent on planet earth
- 33:55so with probate real estate
- 33:56it really allows you like
- 33:58hey let me just start off by making some co calls
- 34:01booking appointments and I even just get the easy ones
- 34:04that's how I started you know like yeah
- 34:06we wanna sell okay
- 34:07I'll be over there alright
- 34:09sounds good
- 34:09and it was just a regular listing opportunity right
- 34:12but as I got deeper into it
- 34:15and I sat down at that kitchen table with those boys
- 34:18I was like you know what
- 34:19let me build out some systems and processes
- 34:22to help families like this
- 34:24so now when I got on those calls
- 34:26I could dive into their problems
- 34:28because sometimes people tell you yeah
- 34:30I wanna sell but we're not ready yet that not ready yet
- 34:33that's where the probate realtor lives
- 34:36because you're there to to create those solutions
- 34:39so if you're talking about
- 34:40you know the next how many
- 34:42how long are you gonna be selling real estate
- 34:44the next 10 years you know
- 34:46the next 20 years
- 34:47this is a business that you can build little by little
- 34:51little by little brick by brick
- 34:53and you can be known in your community
- 34:56to providing these resources
- 34:58being this trusted resource for attorneys for executors
- 35:02for your churches for you know
- 35:04all people in this stage of life
- 35:07you know um
- 35:08so that's my pitch
- 35:10get into probate real estate and you won't be sorry
- 35:13that's awesome well
- 35:15that's incredible and you know
- 35:16props to you for taking the bull by the horns
- 35:18and absolutely diving in full force
- 35:21creating a concierge service that is
- 35:25you know people are so concerned about AI
- 35:27and being replaced and all these things
- 35:29one key point you did hit on is that
- 35:31these people probably have their own houses
- 35:34and their own you know
- 35:35estates and so on so this is just an added extra prop
- 35:38usually not expected you know
- 35:41as they're walking down the street
- 35:43so that's that's awesome what is the best place
- 35:46for people to reach out to you and connect with you
- 35:49um you can uh
- 35:51schedule an appointment with me
- 35:53and we can set up a one on one uh meeting
- 35:56talk about your goals
- 35:57and if probate real estate is a good niche for you
- 36:00um I'm absolute top dollar on YouTube
- 36:02YouTube and also Instagram
- 36:05um so you can hang out with me there too as well
- 36:07that's awesome
- 36:08definitely connect and we'll put all those links below
- 36:11but if you're interested in partnering with Caroline
- 36:13and I getting all of this magic special sauce
- 36:16uh our coaching
- 36:17our encouragement uh
- 36:19we can both come alongside you
- 36:21and help you build your business
- 36:22so you can book a call on the re agent
- 36:25Wolf pack.com or in Caroline's link
- 36:27make sure you mention this interview
- 36:28and we'll make sure we come together and partner
- 36:30and change your lives as we have done for so many
- 36:34thanks so much Caroline for your time today
- 36:36and we'll see you guys all next time on the Wolf Pack
- 36:38way