the homeowner to fix the problem. The city will keep a list of these violations, and some- times the violations can be gathered online or in a print publication that is used for legal notices in your area. My advice is to get in touch with neighborhood services or a specific code compliance office and ask if you could get a list of the addresses for these houses that have violations. The response you get is usually depen- dent on the person to whom you are talking. For this reason, I recommend contacting more than one person. The first three might say they can’t give you that information, but the fourth might say, “Sure.” Once you get the list, filter it for the most serious violations first and start looking up each owner’s name and address. This can be done by looking up the data from the tax assessor or tax collector in
probated at the county courthouse. The county courthouse keeps these probate cases in files that are public record. These situations can be touchy, for obvious reasons, so I don’t recommend mentioning the death. It’s better to just state that you buy houses, and if the estate has a house to sell as is, regardless of repairs, to contact you to discuss it further. Bonus tip: Contact the probate attorneys connected to each probate case, and let them know you are interested in buying houses as is. The benefit to them and their clients is they can quickly settle an estate by having you buy the house fast. DRIVING FOR DOLLARS This is where you drive neighborhoods looking for run-down, vacant properties. I enjoy spending an hour on a nice day driv- ing through neighborhoods where other NO. 3
your area. You can Google “(your county) tax assessor” and find that most offices are online. You might be able to do searches from the comfort of your own home. Many counties will show the name and address where the tax bill is sent every year. Armed with the name and address of the owner, you can send that person a post- card or letter that says you are interested in buying the house. You don’t have to specify that you got their information because of the violation—that might upset them. I would suggest instead that you just make it clear that you buy houses that need repairs, regardless of how serious. PROBATES Probate leads are those for houses owned by estates. When someone dies and leaves a will, the executor (or executrix, if female) of the estate will have the will NO. 4
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