Interview with Jenell - Probate Liquidators of Seattle

Interview with Jenell - Jan 15th, 2010 -

	It must be hard speaking with PR's and listening to the challenges they face. What are some of their difficulties when appointed to handle an estate that is going though the probate process?

	Yeah your right, it can be very hard. My heart really goes out to these people. For starters, the PR's have just had a loved one pass away. So they are dealing with the many emotions that come with that. Then there's the fact that they have just been put in charge of handling this loved ones estate. They have all these new bills to handle and property's they have to maintain and heirs that are calling them wanting to know when they are going to get their portion of the money. The PR's have to come up with the money to pay the mortgage, vehicle loans, insurance and maintenance payments on their own if there aren't any liquid assets in the estate to pull from. It can be SO overwhelming to these PR's especially when most Americans live paycheck to paycheck and now they have a whole other household that they have to manage and pay the bills for. So for the PR's , it's a lot of times, like their whole world has been turned completely upside down and they are drowning in emotions from the death and drowning from the huge financial and time responsibility they just had to take on.

	Is there any reason that a quick probate process would benefit someone compared to a long one?

	There are so many reasons that a quick one can benefit people. The sooner you get the probate closed the sooner you can get on with your life. Once the probate process begins there is no more money coming into the estate, just the PR paying out on all the bills, either from liquid assets in the estate or from their own pocket. The value of an estate drops dramatically as time goes on, so unless the assets are free and clear it makes sense to handle the estate as quickly as possible.

	When you say you liquidate assets, what does that include? I mean if I had a tugboat, not that I own one but lets say someone came to you with one, can you help them sell that too?

	Absoultley! Tugboats are awesome! LOL! We liquidate anything and everything. We will liquidate as much or as little of the estate as the PR wants us too. They can take what they want from the house and we will take care of the rest. They don't need to clean up anything and only need to pack up what they want to take with them to keep. We make it really easy for all involved.

	Why would someone sell real estate to you at a discount when they can list it with a realtor and sell it at retail value?

	That is a very valid question and one that I had to really search my heart about and get educated on before I took on this role as Vice President at Probate Liquidators of Seattle. I didn't want to be taking advantage of someone that just had a loved one pass away and may be emotionally vulnerable. When I learned what was truly important to the PR and the cost they are paying in time and money to be able to sell it at retail with a realtor, I realized that I would actually be providing them just what they needed and bringing benefit and solution to their situation quickly. PR's can get stuck emotionally when dealing with all the memories in the home and overwhelmed when it comes to handling all the bills and maintenance that comes with the estate. We bring peace of mind back into their lives. We are bringing stability, security and safety back to their lives. We are turning their world right side up again. There is so much value in that alone. But the other side of this realty is that listed properties have huge competition these days. Most homes in pristine condition can sit on the market for over 6 months or longer now. There are tons of foreclosure properties that the PR's home would be competing with as well. The market is inundated with properties right now. When the PR is put in a position of having to pay all the repair costs to fix a home up to be in the condition it needs to be to get sold at retail value and the money it takes to keep making the payments to keep the house out of foreclosure while waiting for it to sell.. well frankly most people simply just don't have the money or time to do it. There may be liquid assets available in the estate to help with the payments but that too is taking money out of the value of the estate. The longer the home is sitting there being fixed up and sitting on the market the more value the estate is losing and the more money the PR is having to pay out of pocket or sucking out of the estate to keep going. Many times it works out better for the PR's and Heirs to take a discounted rate on the house early on in the probate process then it does to fix it up, pay all the mortgage, insurance and maintenance payments, the realtor commission and the time out of their life to try and get retail value. Sometimes they will just break even or even net out less then if they would have taken our offer 6 - 12 months before.

	What about those that are considering keeping the home from the estate as a rental property? What advice would you have for them?

	If you have property management experience I would say, absolutely you should consider that. If you don't I would say you have a hard and possibly expensive road ahead of you. Depending on the condition of the home, you would need to make sure it was in livable condition for tenants. You would have to make it pretty decent right now to compete with all of the other rental properties out there. People are getting less and less money for their rentals right now because of an abundance of available properties. I see discounts being offered all over the place right now for rentals. So if you are going to get someone to rent your place, it has to stand out, which costs money. Then you have to worry about if the tenant is going to trash all the beautiful work that you just did to the place. You will need to collect the rent from the tenant and hopefully not have to deal with an eviction, or worse, lawsuits associated with having a rental property. It is a lot harder to have rentals then most people think but not impossible and should really be thought out before deciding to go this route.

	You deal with probate lawyers on a daily basis, what is the biggest concern they have and what is it that you do that can help them?

	I would have to say that one of their biggest concerns is more in the fact that they are not aware of Probate Liquidation as an option for their clients. They don't understand the benefit to the client and to them. Most Lawyers get paid when the probate case closes, so if their client chooses to liquidate with us their client gets solutions to all of their problems and the Lawyers get to close their probate file faster and ultimately get paid for their time and services much quicker. It is a matter of educating the Lawyers on the benefits to their clients, of going this route, over the only other option that most of the lawyers have been aware of which would be listing the property with a realtor and based off the last question you asked me, you can see why that is not always the best option for their client or for them. We work in partnership with Lawyers to expedite the probate process, provide closure to the PR and get the money into the court registry quickly so everyone can get paid.

	Your site says you can also help heirs. So what problems do heirs face and how can they make use of your services?

	Heirs are basically in a holding pattern till the PR sells off the assets. The Heirs are the last ones on the list to get paid. Depending on how the PR and Lawyer chooses to handle the probate process it can drag on for up to 2 years! A lot of times Heirs don't want to wait that long to see their inheritance, if there is even one left after all the creditors and attorneys get paid. So we will buy out their interest, for cash and quickly, at a fair price. This is a great option for those that want to avoid waiting months or years for the estate to be settled.