Text every heir on a probate lead at once

Phone Sniper's Heir Research can now find the living relatives behind a probate lead, put their phone numbers on that lead, and text all of them in one campaign, with wording that never uses a name.

Why probate leads go quiet

The name on a probate record is usually the person who died. Text or mail that name and you either reach no one, or you reach a grieving relative with a message addressed to someone who has passed.

The people who can actually make a decision about the house are the heirs and the personal representative. Finding them has meant obituaries, people-search sites and a spreadsheet for every lead. Most investors skip it, which is why these leads are worth working.

How it works

1. Open a case from the lead. On any contact, click Heir research. The case starts with the owner, the property and the probate case number already filled in.
2. Find heirs. One click checks the county record on the lead for a personal representative or anyone else on title, and checks your own contacts for the same last name at the same address. Where a skip-trace lookup is enabled on the account, it also looks the property up and returns relatives with phone numbers.
3. Paste an obituary. Copy the "survived by" paragraph from any obituary and paste it in. Phone Sniper reads out the spouse, children and siblings and adds them as suggestions. One-click links open the free obituary, grave and people-search sites with the owner already filled in.
4. Confirm the right people. Every name comes in as a suggestion. You confirm the ones that are right and remove the rest.
5. Their numbers land on the lead. Each confirmed heir's phone number is added to the original lead's contact, labelled with who it belongs to, for example "Heir: Rosa Whitman". You get one contact per property instead of five scattered ones.

One campaign texts every heir

Send a campaign to the lead and every heir number on it gets the text. You don't have to switch on "text every phone number"; heir numbers are treated as separate people automatically.

The wording changes too. Probate leads never get a name in the message, because the name on file is the wrong one. They get a short, soft opener built around the property address:

Hi, this is Brian. Are you still in charge of the house at 412 N Pine St?

Hi, it's Brian. Are you the right person to ask about 412 N Pine St? If taxes are behind I can cover them, and maybe help you keep it.

Every text is worded differently, stays inside one message, and about two in three carry a short offer to pay off back taxes or help the family keep the property.

Longer copy for direct mail

Letters and postcards to probate leads use the same idea with more room. The piece is addressed to "Current Resident", names only the property address, and lays out three options:

• Pay off any back taxes owed on the property.
• Work out a way for the family to keep the house, if that's the goal.
• Or buy it as-is, with no repairs, clean-out or commissions, on a timeline that works around the estate paperwork.

It closes by asking the reader to pass the letter along if someone else handles the property. The wording is varied on every piece.

Good to know

• Opt-outs stay personal. If one heir replies STOP, only that heir's number is blocked. The other heirs on the lead can still be reached.
• Flags are visible. A number flagged Do Not Call shows that flag on its label, and your Compliance settings still decide what a campaign is allowed to text.
• Suggestions are leads, not proof. Public records and people-search results can be old or wrong. Who actually inherits depends on the will and state law, so have a title company or probate attorney confirm before closing.
• Everything is logged. The case keeps a research log and a checklist: last deed, death confirmed, probate court searched, every heir identified, taxes and liens checked.

Try it

Open any probate lead in Phone Sniper, click Heir research, then Find heirs. Not on Phone Sniper yet? Start at phonesniper.app.