Probate Real Estate Investing: How to Solve Title Problems and Close More Deals

Bill Gross (00:00)
One of my mentors taught me early on that the money we get paid is a reflection of the value we create for other people. You know, you can kind of fool people and kind of get away with it for a while, but it’s exhausting. And you’re getting away with anything you’re gonna end up falling apart at some point but if you really work at finding people who have a problem and learning how to solve their problem you get paid solving other people’s problems in fact I would say most people run from probate because it’s complicated there’s lot of problems. I run to the sound of gunfire I run to the problems and by solving them I get paid and I get paid well.

Freddie Steen (02:07)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host, Freddie. And today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with. Bill Gross, who’s been making serious moves in the real estate industry by having a deep dive knowledge of 40 years, particularly in probate. We know the math. 80% of real estate that is passed on as a legacy ends up being sold. So this podcast, we’re very excited about. Bill, I’m glad to have you here. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching probate and estates and doing this in a way where you’re marrying all of the leverage of podcasting as well as your footprint in the LA region all across California. Let’s dive in. So first off, for people who may not be familiar with your world, give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days and what markets are you operating in?

Bill Gross (03:09)
My I’m a real estate broker in Los Angeles focused on probate and trust and litigation of real estate. What it means is when people have problems when they inherit property, you know, it’s not a problem until it’s a problem, then you have a problem, call me. Or I can help you prevent the problem by connecting you with an estate planner who can properly protect your family and your wealth. So I work with estate planning attorneys, probate attorneys, probate litigation attorneys, primarily in Southern California, though I do have a network nationally and get involved with or referring business and have trust sometimes have property out of the state as well. But primarily Southern California probate related business. And I help investors and wholesalers in particular when they find a property they want to buy, but the seller doesn’t really have clear title. Maybe it was mom and dad passed and it’s not in the son’s name and it needs to be put in the name, that’s a probate. Or you know they’ve tried to sell a fella to escrove due to a title problem, that gets fixed in most cases in probate. So if you’re an investor, wholesaler, flipper and you have those kind of problem files I get involved and help solve those problems.

Freddie Steen (04:07)
Bill, let’s take a step back. You’ve been in this niche for 40 years. What has been the trends that you’ve seen changing in the last couple of years that our real estate pro audience should be watching out for in the coming years?

Bill Gross (04:22)
I think that i in all business one of the trends that I don’t see anybody else really talking about it, but I know I see it, is that the the generalist and the marketing first person, the person who is way better at marketing than doing the thing, isn’t having a lot trouble. Because if you’re if you’re marketing, you’re buying Zilla leads or you’re buying Google ads or Facebook ads only, those are getting much less valuable because customers are more empowered now, shopping more intensely. But what hasn’t changed is that the experts and the best in class, their business is exploding because the cost of doing things goes down with increased technology. And so there used to be called a Prado principle. 80% of people did 20 20% of people did 80% of the business. And I heard Tony Robbins once say that’s not true anymore and it’s not even 1090, it’s like 595. And I think that’s true real estate that there’s more consolidation at the top and the people in the middle are really struggling because they’re focused not on we should focus on is not acting better but being better and I’ll just share some advice when I was married and the rabbi I didn’t really know him before we got married he was his his son in law as a stand-in last minute but he gave some great advice applies to business too. He said the key to relationship and it’s true in business is not finding the right partner it’s being the right partner. And so I think as an investor in real estate, the more you know about investing, the more you know about creating value, real value, then the marketing gets a lot easier. But when the business is all about telling people how good you are, then the business is really tough because everybody can tell you how good they are with all kinds of fancy videos and and all kinds of computer coding, but it doesn’t mean they’re any good and and customers are getting savvy at picking through that.

Freddie Steen (06:54)
Well, I love it. I mean, what caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to navigate that tide for decades. I mean, innovation has changed, marketing has changed, laws have changed, but you’ve done this and still been able to manage multiple markets in California and across the country. That’s not easy, especially in this climate. What’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

Bill Gross (07:19)
I try to ask myself every day what can I do to be better at my job? What can I do better be better how can I be a better real estate broker? How can I help better help my attorney clients, fiduciary clients, or my homeowners? What do I need to do? And I think when you start thinking about those questions, when you’re more valuable than people pay more, it’s just how it works. One of my mentors taught me early on that the money we get paid is a reflection of the value we create for other people. You know, you can kind of fool people and kind of get away with it for a while, but it’s exhausting. And you’re getting away with anything you’re gonna end up falling apart at some point but if you really work at finding people who have a problem and learning how to solve their problem you get paid solving other people’s problems in fact I would say most people run from probate because it’s complicated there’s lot of problems. I run to the sound of gunfire I run to the problems and by solving them I get paid and I get paid well.

Freddie Steen (08:12)
Now, Bill, every operator I know has a moment where things got real. I mean, maybe a deal that went sideways or a time that they had to pivot fast. Do you mind sharing one of those moments for you?

Bill Gross (08:24)
I mean I’ve had a few in forty years. I I’ve had different angles in real estate because the ones I went down didn’t work. I’d say the most you know, the most broad one, i in two thousand and what was it? Two thousand fifteen, sixteen, when was it? Maybe two thousand nineteen. No, it was twenty eighteen. I had been in management. You I I was in real estate as an agent successful, and my mentor was a broker who recruited me to be a manager of his company. And in my generation, that was a plus. You go you went from being an an employee to a management. There was prestige with that, there was honor with that. Now in real estate there really isn’t. Usually the managers are people who can’t sell real estate. That’s why they get into it. And so I went into it and I became really a top recruiter at the time I was there for Century 21 by numbers and by volume of of sales for about four of the five years I was there.

Freddie Steen (09:13)
Congrats.

Bill Gross (09:13)
After but after a while I realized I just didn’t like working for the man. I got into real estate to build my own business and I had a vision and I wanted to use that creativity. I wanted to focus the energy in the area I want and the man I work for just wasn’t a nice person and his his he had a a a right hand woman broker who was just not nice. She was nasty. And it reflected on me. It was it was humiliating to me to work for those people. And I I one day went to him and just said that and I was polite. I just said, you I just don’t want to work here anymore. And I’ll g I’ll give you thirty days notice. You can let me go today, whatever you want, but I I just want to move on. Because I realized at that time I I was sixty years old, so it’s seven years ago. You know, life is short and I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life doing something I didn’t really feel good about. And I remember after that worked itself out, the transition, so the first day I wasn’t wor employed anymore, I was in bed and it was like seven o’clock and my wife turned to me and said, Well you can get up. I thought, I guess I need to get up. What am I gonna do? I didn’t really have a plan. But I will say that I did sit down and write out a plan for a week. I took a week with a whiteboard I have outside and and a Google Doc and just thought about three things. What am I good at? What do I like to do in business and what does the market need and where that intersection is is where I want to go. And so I went through that process myself and found out I I liked wearing business suits and going to court. It was kind of fun. I liked being in court. It was safe, air conditioned, good Wi-Fi, Starbucks right there in court and I was good at it. People I learned quickly and people got that. And the pe and the market needed. People in probate really need help. The customers need help. Real estate investors have problems, they need help, and attorneys need help. And so I I saw that three intersections and started in that business about six years ago in terms of really hyper focusing 100% all my daily activities on probate real estate and haven’t looked back since.

Freddie Steen (11:36)
You’ve talked about your expertise and you’ve talked about having to pivot throughout your 40 years. And then you’ve talked about moving forward with the nuts and bolts of whiteboards and Google Docs. That’s the kind of stuff that people just don’t talk about enough. And honestly, it’s what separates the folks who just dabble from the ones who stay in the game long term, like you. Let me ask you this, Bill. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? What’s the next real goal for you?

Bill Gross (12:07)
Well, I’m actually in the process of launching a product. I I done one a year ago and played with a little bit, but I’m actually launching I’m not even supposed to talk about too much, but a product for real estate agents and investors called Get Probate Cash Now, where you can unlock somebody who doesn’t own the house yet, but they’re gonna inherit it, enough money to hire an attorney or fix a property up or modestly or hire an attorney to get a squatter out, ten, twenty, thirty, forty thousand dollars and how do you use that tool to leverage a transaction you otherwise would lose. I’ve used this a lot, but I’m going to be teaching other realtors how to use it with the idea of generating some business as well as wholesalers and investors and teaching attorneys how to use it more effectively. So we have a pretty big launch scheduled in a couple weeks of that product. And then my goal I said as I may have said next year is to kind of transition from it just being about bill selling houses in Southern California to Bill helping 10 other bills around the country, maybe one in markets like Miami, Jacksonville, New York, where there’s probate, real estate, and places I like to go, but to build a team and of of colleagues, not a team underneath me, but kind of a team along with me doing some of the same things I’m doing.

Freddie Steen (13:17)
Bill, that’s big. I I mean, that kind of innovation, rolling it out to the market in mass, especially when you’ve already got this deep dive knowledge in probate and this deep dive understanding from the broker perspective all the way to the bank in place. I mean, the next move can either compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it. Now, I I know a lot of people listening, Bill, are either earlier in their journey or looking to level up like you. And I think they benefit from hearing this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Bill Gross (14:36)
I think the focus on building, you know, relationships are about, I guess they’re more like bank accounts than credit lines, that the relationship is a result of the value you put in the relationship. You think about, you know, as a parent, you know, a child, what does a child really give you in your life? Well, you love the child more the more you do for it. It’s not about what it does for you. And I think in any business relationship, you know, you have a better relationship when you do things for that person. And then they’ll naturally create value for you. Just having those people in your life is of value. Focusing on being the right partner rather than finding the right partner, I think, is critical in business. And I’d say whether you’re starting up brand new, find people that you can help. And if you’re, you know, trying to level up, I’d say y like I had to do, do an honest assessment. Where are you not helping people? Where are you focused on your commission check or your profit and not on creating more value for your customer. Now you can create value cost effectively and make a profit. Nothing wrong with that. But you can’t do that unless you’re creating value for your customers. So you have to really focus on that.

Freddie Steen (15:37)
Yeah, Bill. I mean, creating value, you can’t fake that. I mean, relationships are everything in this space and you don’t want to get a bad one. All right, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing. Sure. What’s the best way for them to reach you?

Bill Gross (15:53)
Gosh, if if if you search me and you can’t find me, something’s wrong. There are two billionaire Bill Grosses in Southern California, and they both have been the cover of Fortune magazine. They’re not me, just FYI. The name’s kind of common. But at Bill Gross Probate and social media, you’ll find me. Probate Weekly is my podcast. You can subscribe to that. Has my phone number, email. I I’m not watching what high is my phone number or email. I d I mean, with technology today, it’s not hard to to filter out the nonsense, but give me a call. People are always calling me and they’re surprised I answer the phone. You know, yeah, why why not? You know, I the good news is I’m in business such that I can answer those phone calls because I’m not spending my time cold calling for hours a day or or door knocking for hours a day. I really can work with people who come to me who have questions and problems. So I’d say find me online. I’m the laprobateexpert.com’s my website. You can call me 310-210-0008. Or just search @BillGrossProbate and any social media you’ll find me there.

Freddie Steen (16:48)
Perfect. Well listen, Bill, I appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. We need more people in the space who are doing it the right way. Thanks again for being here, Bill.

Bill Gross (16:58)
Thank you, Fred. It was a lot of fun. Thank you so much.

Freddie Steen (17:00)
Thank you. And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators just like Bill Gross, who are out there building real businesses. We’ll see you next episode.