Lead Analysis Guide for Realty Investors Step-by-step checklist <INSERT COMPANY LOGO> Company Name | Address | Phone | Website TABLE OF CONTENTS Lead Analysis – Overview for Realtors .................................................................................... 2 Step-by-Step Instructions ........................................................................................................... 3 Analyzing Leads................................................................................................................................. 3 General Information Regarding File Containing Leads .........................................................................................3 Analyzing Leads via Zillow and RPR ......................................................................................................................4 Confirming Debt based on Legal Public Records ................................................................................................10 Calculate the Equity Based on Zillow and Public Record Search Findings ..........................................................21 Check Physical Characteristics of the Property ..................................................................................................22 Validate Property Estimate .................................................................................................................................24 Confirm the Mortality of the Homeowner .........................................................................................................25 Verifying Equity and Property Status via RealtyTrac and RPR ......................................................... 30 Phone Call Script - Example.............................................................................................................. 34 Lead Analysis – Overview for Realtors Title Date Last Edited Summary Tools/Websites Required Realtor Onboarding Checklist – Verifying and Analyzing Leads 08 July, 2023 This checklist is intended to guide realtors through analyzing leads and information respective to each lead RealtyTrac & RPR • Used to verify equity and the status of the property • Multiple websites are used to cross-reference information and ensure its accuracy BeenVerified • Used to find relatives, phone numbers, and other info SpyDialer • Free website used to validate phone numbers Accurint & Pipl • Other means to verify numbers but can only be utilized in the office Facebook & Other Social Media Platforms • Leveraged in some cases for communication if other methods fail MS Excel • Used for identifying leads and providing amplifying information such as Docket Number, Address, etc. State Court Website & State County Website • Used to validate court records by person/owner or Docket/Case Number Legacy • Allows you to search obituary’s Find-A-Grave • Allows you to search for the location of an individual’s grave and verify the deceased Vital Records • Division of each county’s legal system that maintains birth certificates, marriage certificates, and other information related to livelihood Step-by-Step Instructions Analyzing Leads General Information Regarding File Containing Leads • Each row lists information about a property (i.e. address, name of county, defendants/plaintiffs, case file) • Each case situation is summarized by 3 different categories a. Probates i. Scenario where the homeowner is deceased and his or her heirs are responsible for the property b. Foreclosures i. Where the homeowners have not been able to payback their loan, mortgage, and now the bank or mortgage company wants to take control of the home and get it into auction in order to get back it’s money c. Liens • • i. When there is a debt against a property (i.e. when homeowners have not been paying their taxes and it incurs a large debt against the property) Note: Though leads may be specified by certain category, an individual case may encompass one or more of these type of scenarios (i.e. it could be a probate case but also in foreclosure) Check all scenarios for each lead to ensure a holistic view of the situation regarding each property Analyzing Leads via Zillow and RPR 1. Open the excel file which contains information respective to your set of leads a. Note: leads could also be verified in different file formats 2. Copy address and save it in your notes (a word doc should suffice) 3. Paste the address in Google 4. Check the price of the property through Zillow by verifying the Zestimate (estimated price on Zillow) > this should be one of the first links that shows up on the search engine 5. Scroll down to see the Zestimate Range (lowest and highest possible prices) 6. Copy and Paste the Zestimate and Zestimate Range into the document that was saved with the address 7. Verify the name of the homeowner in RPR i. You must access this via a US IP address (or VPN) ii. Use the login information that was provided to you to gain access to the site 8. Navigate back to your notes and copy the address 9. Paste the address in RPR 10. Copy the estimated price under the RVM section 11. Paste the RPR price in your notes 12. Scroll down to the Basic Facts section in RPR and copy the Home Owners name a. Note that the Surname/Lastname is listed before the First Name 13. Enter the information into word in the format of Firstname Middle Initial Lastname 14. Confirm the amount owed on the property in RPR by scrolling down to the “Event” section a. In this example, the Notice of Lis Pendens or Notice of Foreclosure Sale indicates property debt or the amount owed on the property as of a certain date 15. Copy the Notice of Lis Pendens, As of Date , and Amount and paste into word document a. Note: Always copy the latest information on the property b. You will only see a Notice of Lis Pendens or Notice of Foreclosure Sales IF the property is indicated as such with a “Pre-foreclosure” status 16. In RPR, scroll up to the Public History Record a. Distressed section. i. This section contains information regarding the foreclosure aspect of the property (i.e. Recording Date, Auction Date, Trustee, Unpaid Balance [how much is left out of the mortgage]) b. Deed section i. Displays history of when the property was sold, purchased, and buyer/seller information c. Mortgage Section i. Displays the mortgages that are active for the home 17. Ensure to note down the Home Owner and recent/relevant info found in RPR Confirming Debt based on Legal Public Records • Use either the county’s website or the state court records. Every state has different requirements. For example, New Jersey has public records so you can easily access records via the state court. In other cases, you may need to access via the county’s records. The procedure and logic behind these are the same. Example Public Record Search by State - New Jersey 1. Search njcourts via Google 2. Navigate to New Jersey State Courts website 3. Choose “Public” and select “Find a Case” 4. Search Civil and Foreclosure Cases a. Civil is an umbrella term that contains legal processes such as Foreclosure, Probate, Taxes, etc. 5. Complete Captcha (ensure you are accessing from a US IP address) 6. Agree to Disclaimer 7. Search by Docket Number or by Party Name (homeowners name) 8. When searching by Docket Number, insert the homeowners name (as found in RPR) 9. The search results may populate with one or multiple lists of documents/court processes. Always choose the latest process. 10. Select the Docker Number to open the case 11. You will see a list of different filings, most importantly the “complaint” a. The Complaint lets you know how many debts are on a property in total 12. Select the paperclip icon > choose “Select All” > “Save/Print” a. This will open a new tab with a downloadable PDF format 13. Scroll down until you notice language pertaining to the foreclosure and the amount that is owed by the homeowner 14. In these examples, the home is in a foreclosure state and $3,847 in taxes are owed 15. Enter the Record of taxes owed in your word doc 16. You can also search this information by the Docket number vs the Party/Owner Name. a. You can pull the Docket/Case Number from a column in the respective excel file with the leads info. This number can also be found in RPR under the “Distressed” section as indicated above. b. Note that the case number for each state is different but the last two digits always indicate the Docket year. c. In this NJ example, the “F” represents Foreclosure, the numbers after the “F” indicate the Docket Number, and the Following 2 digits, represent the year. (i.e. F-004111-23) 17. In this case, searching by the Docket Number criteria brought up the same results 18. You can also search by “Judgment Liens.” To do this, navigate back to the New Jersey State Courts website, and choose “Public” > “Find a Case” 19. Select “Judgement Liens” 20. Type the name in the search box, again searching by Last, First, Middle 21. Complete Captcha and Agree to Disclaimer 22. It will ask to complete the search again so just ensure the info is still there and press “Submit” 23. If the search results populate with individuals who have the same name, verify the filing location (ensuring it matches the county name for where that individual resides) 24. Select the case number for the correct individual. Note that the Judgement Status needs to say “Open.” Disregard any Closed status. 25. Find the judgement amount in the summary 26. Add the “Judgement Amount” to the debt section in your notes a. Note that you can find the liens on other county sites as well. These may even show up on the index much like the foreclosure cases and it would say “lien.” Example Public Record Search by County – Bridgeton, New Jersey 1. Research the “county for Bridgeton, NJ” and copy the results from Google 2. Enter “Cumberland County NJ Public Records” in Google 3. Rely on the first few search results and open in separate tabs 4. Search one of the sites for records 5. Login as a Guest 6. Read and Accept the Disclaimer 7. Search by either Name or Instrument Number (Case/Docket Number) 8. Enter the name by Last, First Middle (if only one box is displayed to search by) 9. Look for the most recent record and open it by selecting the document number 10. Identify the document type 11. Review the legal document and search for relevant terms. Note that in this example, there is no indication of any debts owed or taxation, so the better example to use in this scenario would be the NJ court files. Calculate the Equity Based on Zillow and Public Record Search Findings 1. Find the total owned by the property (i.e. $65,000) 2. Subtract the owed mount from the lowest price (i.e. $192,300 Zestimate - $65,000 = $127,000) 3. Subtract taxes from that total (i.e. $127,000 – $3,000 = $124,000) 4. Equity = $124,000 5. The general rule of thumb is to pursue properties that have an equity over $100,000. If the amount is below this number, it’s not worth the trouble. Check Physical Characteristics of the Property 1. Check to see if the property is in good condition by using the pictures and satellite view in RPR and Zillow RPR Satellite Image Zillow Satellite Image 2. This can also be searched via Google Maps 3. Simply type in the address into Google > Click on the map 4. Click on “Layers” > “Satellite” and it will load the map 5. Zoom in with the pin to see the street view on Google Maps 6. Elaborate on the condition of the property in your notes Validate Property Estimate 1. Search the address on Zillow 2. Scroll down to the “Neighborhood” section. There should be a picture below showing other homes in the surrounding area and the prices for recently sold homes. 3. Confirm that the Zestimate price is close to reality 4. Add to your notes that the value has been confirmed Confirm the Mortality of the Homeowner 1. Confirm if the homeowner is deceased (if they have heirs) or if they are still alive. 2. Login to BeenVerified with the credentials you were provided with 3. Search the address, ensuring there are no trailing spaces (no spaces at beginning or end of address) 4. Click on the suggested address 5. Open the profile for Possible Owners 6. Right click on the individuals name and open it in a new tab. Note that if the immediate information is not what you were looking for, scroll down for more options under the Possible Residents section. 7. The profile will display things such as name, DOB, Current Location, and Contact Number. From this information, you can determine if the property may be vacant (i.e. if someone is living out of state). a. Note: a red flag will be displayed between Location and Aliases if the homeowner is deceased. In this example, there is no indication that this person is deceased. 8. Even if there are no indications of someone being deceased, verify this by searching Obituaries via any search engine 9. In Google, type in the persons’ name, the word “obit,” and the state the property resides in (i.e. Dale R Hannum obit NJ) a. Note: if BeenVerified mentions the relative living out of state, adjust your search to see if there are any obituaries in a different state 10. Click on one of the first few search results and verify the data of the deceased 11. Cross-reference this information with BeenVerified. In this example, the dates don’t match up as the individual is 63 years old as of recently verified records. 12. Ensure to check on relatives as well 13. To verify if there is any relation, search for who the survivors are of that individual (i.e. Ctrl + F “Dale”) 14. In this obituary, it can be noted that Dale R Hannum is the child of Florence but is deemed to be living 15. In your notes, annotate that the owner lives out of state and no obits were found 16. Check to see if there is a grave for the homeowner 17. Navigate to Find A Grave 18. Enter the name of the deceased in the search engine including the location of the cemetery (narrow down search if possible) 19. If there are no matches found, ensure to remove the middle name to see if any other search results pop up 20. Next, check the Vital Records 21. Search by county, state (i.e. Cumberland County NJ vital records search) a. Note that in some counties, you will be required to submit a payment to review this information. In these cases, this step can be skipped. 22. Go back to your notes and update with the link of any obituaries found, relatives, or amplifying information about the homeowner Verifying Equity and Property Status via RealtyTrac and RPR • • Run through the card to see what the equity is 1. Refer to the Accurint File Link to review amplifying information (provided by BeenVerified, RPR, RealtyTrac, etc.) 2. If there is any new information identified as part of the below steps, update the card with the accurate information Verify Status of Property Using RealtyTrac, RPR, & BeenVerified 1. Copy Address 2. Navigate to RealtyTrac 3. Paste address 4. Verify equity and the status of the property a. Note that pre-foreclosure indicates what they estimate the value to be 5. Scroll down to Loan Position 6. Identify the Origin date (when the original mortgage was taken out) and the Total Default Amount Note: the information on the loans may not be entirely reliable/accurate (i.e. if there are any liens, it will not pull the liens and will only report on the mortgage) 7. Scroll further to identify the Trustee 8. If it’s an auction, check on their site for auction dates, etc. 9. Scroll down to dashboard views to see the ownership history (i.e. when they received the foreclosure notice, when they bought the property, etc.) 10. Copy address into RPR 11. Verify the information against your previous search in RealtyTrac a. Note: RealtyTrac is generally higher than estimates in RPR. General rule of thumb: take the lowest number to give yourself a starting point of equity. 12. Go through the property facts, owners, and school districts to get an idea of what is going on 13. Navigate to BeenVerified and enter address 14. See list of possible owners 15. Establish most likely heir/heirs executer administrator (i.e wife, kids, parents, siblings, etc.) 16. View Persons report for the chosen individual(s) a. Pull files from county site, if possible (i.e. mortgages, liens, marriage, & divorce records) 17. View relatives, phone numbers, assets, etc. 18. Navigate to SpyDialer to verify that the phone numbers listed for the relatives are accurate (note that there is no login required for this site as it is free) a. Note: Additional Systems used to verify phone numbers if other methods do not work i. LexisNexis/Accurint > only used when in the office ii. Pipl > only used when in the office (will show social media accounts as well) iii. Facebook has been used as a communication mechanism to make deals as well 19. Call the relatives and understand if they would like to make a deal a. Do not state that you are a realty investor right away b. Verify that you are speaking with the correct person c. Use your best judgement to establish a rapport before getting into the details of what information you are seeking General Note: Remember to update contact or other relevant information on the card if new information is proven to be accurate IF THE RELATIVE OR OTHER IDENTIFIED PERSON HAS EXPRESS INTERESTED IN SELLING, CHECK THE FOLLOWING: 20. Verify amount owed with the owners or rightful heirs i. How many other heirs are there? Was there a will? Was it probated? Do they know the amount? Is the amount correct? ii. Once the number of heirs and equity are verified, payment verification is next iii. If the owner mentions it is not probated, explain the concept of a quick claim deed (easiest route, have them sign a power of attorney and an assignment of interest, and cash in-pocket day-of via check or PayPal for secure purposes) Other Steps: 21. Verify if probate was filed (ask Carlota) 22. Verify all other possible heirs, even if we assume there are no others (check child support, etc.) 23. Charles Jones Report 24. Lien and judgement report 25. Lien and judgement search on Accurint Phone Call Script - Example Good afternoon, I was hoping to reach <>, is that you by chance? <Await Response> Thank you, I hope I am not catching you at a bad time. My name is <> and I am calling to inquire about some property that belonged to <>. It appears that you are a listed relative. It is currently listed as a foreclosure and I was wondering if you knew the status of this property? <Await Response> Would you by chance have any interest in selling the property? Conclusion References The software tools and websites mentioned should be used for the purposes of gathering information about the homeowner or relatives/individuals associated with the homeowner. Th e purpose of this guide is to provide users with the tools, visuals, and examples necessary to find as much relevant and verified information as possible before recording status about the home. Realtor Card (provided by company) Excel File Containing Leads (provided by company) https://www.njcourts.gov/public/find-a-case https://ccclerknj.com/public-land-records/records-services/ https://www.narrpr.com/ https://www.zillow.com/ https://www.realtytrac.com/ https://www.google.com/maps https://www.legacy.com/search https://www.findagrave.com/ https://www.beenverified.com/ https://spydialer.com/ https://www.accurint.com/ (only to be used in company office) https://pipl.com/ (only to be used in company office) https://www.facebook.com/
