Things aren’t exactly breezy in the real estate market right now, so you have to get creative when it comes to investing. There are niches out there that are relatively untapped and yet are virtually immune to recession. Probate properties is one of these niches, and this is what Al Nicoletti specializes in. In this conversation with Tim Herriage, Al talks in detail about the journey he took in real estate and how he eventually found his niche in probate properties. He also tells us crucial things any investor who’s thinking of giving probate a try should watch out for. Tune in and learn how creative thinking can get you success in real estate even when inventory is at an all-time low! — Watch the episode here Listen to the podcast here Recession-Proof Real Estate Investing: Getting Creative With Probate Properties With Al Nicoletti I’ve got my good friend Al with me. Thank you for coming in. I love It. I’d love to let you start off. Tell the audience a little bit about yourself. I could go through a whole thing, but I’ll keep it concise a little bit for you. From Miami, I played violin for fifteen years. I’m a natural musician. When I was in music for that long, I wanted to know what I was going to do with my life, like make money. I knew music wasn’t going to get me to that next level. I had to make a lot of decisions. I picked law school, of all things, not medicine or anything like that. I was going to take that and I was going to do some entertainment law thing. I had no idea where it was going to go. Law led me down a path to real estate because when I got out of law school, passed the bar, took my first job, and it was with a real estate attorney, my first mentor. At the time, we were doing foreclosure defense and dabbling in a little probate. We weren’t as heavy as I am now, but we were getting into a lot of that stuff. I saw for the first-time closings, titles, and foreclosures. A few years after that, I moved to Jacksonville and I had a job up there. That’s when I started my role in the whole probate real estate world. I went from musician to lawyer, marketer, speaker, podcast host, and all the above. It’s been a wild adventure ever since. I’ve been so impressed by your energy level. I’ve never seen anyone bring it and then you bring it more, and then you never stop bringing it. Do you sleep? That’s what a lot of people ask. They’re like, “When do you sleep? You’re constantly working. We see you on Facebook and Instagram. We can’t get you off our feeds.” Yes, I sleep. I make sure that’s something that’s important that you get that rest because you got to keep up that energy level. You are one of the guests that whenever I saw your name come across as a booking, I thought, “I can’t wait to hear this guy’s bottom line up front.” Every week, I asked the guest to help me deliver what I call the bottom-line upfront. When I used to brief generals in the Marine Corps, we were taught to never bury the lead. You got to get the most important thing conveyed in case the general has to get up or you get mortars coming in, or whatever. Take whatever it is you’re thinking about and pour it into the audience. Things that you’re seeing or observing in the market nowadays. Things they should be thinking about, should and shouldn’t be doing. Are you with me? I’m ready. Bottom-line upfront, go. In a market that’s tough right now where inventory is at an all-time low, it’s so important to reevaluate strategies in real estate that you weren’t thinking about before. Whether you were doing wholesaling before and now you get into land or short-term like Airbnb, it’s important to evaluate the market you’re in right now. What’s really important is realizing the niches out there like probate that can provide an opportunity for you in the market because probate’s one of those niches that are recession-proof and pandemic-proof. It is a constant niche. When all-time low inventory is happening right now, you have to be able to look at other things and creative opportunities that exist out there. Maybe it’s not buying the whole house. Maybe it’s buying the partial interest and maybe you are able to find a way to creatively get around that because there’s so much opportunity out there that there are deals everywhere, but it’s a matter of how you make it and get creative that makes the difference in your game. You said foreclosure defense. When was that? That was in 2016. You did a little probate. You went from music to law school to entertainment law to foreclosure defense, and then you found probate and it’s stuck. What was it about probate that attracted you to it? There was an opportunity in the market with real estate. There are so many properties that are out there that are under people’s names. What I discovered was there were probate opportunities where somebody owned the property, but the heirs can’t sell that property without probate being done. What I recognize is there was some issue where you can’t sell it. We had to find a solution to that situation. That’s where I found that opportunity. Thousands of properties out there were able to come in and find a way to solve it. That solution and that overcoming issue to help heirs to help the situation and to offload the real estate, something about that made me tick. It exploded from there. I had Kurt Carlton on, the Founder of New Western Acquisitions. One of the interesting things that he said is we’ve got to
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