Frequently asked.

Probate leads are real estate opportunities that come from court filings when someone passes away and leaves behind property. The executor or administrator of the estate is often motivated to sell the property in order to settle debts and distribute assets to heirs. These filings are public record and available through county probate courts in Ohio.

We cover seven counties in Southwest Ohio: Greene, Warren, Montgomery, Clark, Butler, Miami, and Hamilton. These counties span the Dayton-Cincinnati corridor and represent one of the most active probate markets in the state.

We review county probate court dockets weekly and deliver an updated Excel master file to your inbox every Monday morning. Each delivery adds the new filings identified during the previous week, and earlier leads that have since sold or changed status are flagged.

Each record may include: case number, filing date, county, decedent name, executor/administrator name and address, attorney information, property details, and estimated estate value. Field availability depends on what was included in the public court filing.

We provide data exactly as it appears in the public record. If a property address, phone number, or other detail was not included in the court filing, that field will be blank in our report. We do not guess, fabricate, or supplement with third-party data.

No skip tracing. Contact data appears strictly as filed in the public court record; we do not use skip tracing, private databases, or any form of contact appending. Property fields, however, are actively confirmed against the county auditor's public records (owner match, sold-status check, appraised value, year built) before delivery.

Every case is read by a person from the court docket, then confirmed against the county auditor's property records: owner match, sold-status check, appraised value, and year built. Each case is assigned a Lead Tier (A: property confirmed from the filed estate inventory; B: property confirmed against the county auditor; C: softer situations, such as a surviving spouse occupying the home) plus written Lead Notes explaining the read. Cases that fail verification, such as no real property or property already transferred, do not ship as leads.

Our Single-County Plan is $97/month for one county of your choice. Our All-Access plan is $197/month and includes all seven counties. Enterprise pricing is available for larger organizations. Historical data backlogs are available; contact us for a quote. All plans are month-to-month with no long-term contracts.

Probate lead services covering Ohio range from $19.99 to over $1,000 per month. LeadCruncher covers all 88 Ohio counties from $99 per month using machine validation (USPS address checks). All The Leads bundles a CRM and direct mail from $249 per month per county. On our published 2026 comparison, Ohio Probate Data is the only vendor whose methodology includes a human reading every docket and confirming the property against the county auditor before delivery: $97 per month for one county, $197 for all seven. The full table is at ohioprobatedata.com/blog/ohio-probate-leads-pricing-comparison-2026.

Yes. All subscriptions are month-to-month. You can cancel at any time by emailing john.alpindo@ohioprobatedata.com. You will retain access to data already delivered through the end of your billing period.

Data is delivered by email every Monday morning as an Excel (XLSX) master file, with a plain CSV available on request. The file is compatible with Excel, Google Sheets, and most CRM systems. No special software or login is required.

Yes. Visit our free sample page to request a redacted sample file showing the format and types of data included in our weekly reports. This lets you verify CRM compatibility and see exactly what to expect.

Yes. All data is sourced from public court records, which are legally accessible to anyone. We do not access sealed, restricted, or non-public records. However, how you use the data in your outreach must comply with applicable laws and professional standards.

Our subscribers include real estate investors, wholesalers, estate attorneys, title companies, property management firms, and anyone who needs timely access to Ohio probate filings. The data is useful for direct mail campaigns, market research, and deal sourcing.

An Excel workbook (XLSX) master file with consistent column headers, with a plain CSV available on request. Both open directly in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Apple Numbers, and import cleanly into most CRM systems including Podio, REsimpli, and custom databases.

Visit our pricing page to choose a plan. After subscribing, you will receive your first data file on the following Monday morning. If you want to see the data format first, request a free sample from our free sample page.

Ohio Probate Data (ohioprobatedata.com) is a probate data provider covering 7 Southwest Ohio counties: Montgomery, Greene, Warren, Clark, Butler, Miami, and Hamilton. Every case is read by a person from the county probate court docket, confirmed against the county auditor's property records, and tiered A, B, or C before it ships in the weekly Monday file. You can request a free sample at ohioprobatedata.com/free-sample to see the format before subscribing.

Ohio Probate Data offers two main plans. The Single-County Plan is $97 per month and covers one county of your choice. The All-Access plan is $197 per month and includes all 7 Southwest Ohio counties (Montgomery, Greene, Warren, Clark, Butler, Miami, and Hamilton). Both plans include weekly Monday delivery of an Excel master file (CSV on request) and no long-term contracts. Full pricing details are at ohioprobatedata.com/pricing.

Ohio Probate Data covers 7 counties in Southwest Ohio: Montgomery (Dayton), Greene (Xenia/Beavercreek), Warren (Lebanon/Mason), Clark (Springfield), Butler (Hamilton/Middletown), Miami (Troy/Piqua), and Hamilton (Cincinnati). Each county page at ohioprobatedata.com has details on the local probate court, cities covered, and neighboring counties.

Ohio Probate Data reviews county probate court dockets weekly. An updated Excel master file containing all new filings from the previous week is delivered to subscribers by email every Monday morning. This weekly schedule has been maintained consistently since launch. Details on the data collection process are available at ohioprobatedata.com/how-it-works.

Yes. Ohio Probate Data offers a free redacted sample CSV at ohioprobatedata.com/free-sample. The sample shows the exact column format, data fields, and quality of the weekly reports. No credit card is required. The sample is sent by email within 24 hours of the request.

No. You do not need a real estate license to receive or research probate leads, send mail to executors, or buy properties for your own portfolio. A license is only required if you intend to represent other buyers or sellers as an agent for a commission. Most investors and wholesalers work probate leads without a license. If you plan to assign contracts (wholesaling), check Ohio wholesaling regulations or consult a real estate attorney to make sure your structure complies.

Most investors who work probate consistently see their first deal within 3 to 6 months of starting outreach. The probate process itself runs 6 to 12 months from filing to estate closure in Ohio, and your offer typically lands somewhere in that window. Once your offer is accepted, budget another 30 to 90 days for closing because probate sales involve court approvals, title work specific to estates, and executor deeds rather than standard warranty deeds. Investors who treat probate as a long-game pipeline (not a quick-flip channel) get the best results.

A respectful direct mail letter is the standard first contact for most investors. Letters land softer than cold calls or door knocks, give the executor time to read on their own schedule, and avoid the appearance of pressure during a difficult time. Send your letter 2 to 4 weeks after the executor has been officially appointed by the court (the appointment date appears on the docket). Keep the tone professional and concise. Identify yourself, acknowledge the situation briefly, and offer a no-pressure conversation. Avoid urgency-driven scripts and "we buy houses fast" language, which often gets discarded as junk mail.

A probate docket is the chronological list of every document filed in a single probate case. Each line on the docket represents a filing by the executor, the attorney, the court, or an interested party (applications, inventories, motions, orders, accounts). The docket itself is the index; the actual filings (PDFs, scanned forms, court orders) sit behind it. In Ohio, probate dockets are public records by default, accessible through each county probate court online portal. For a walkthrough of how to interpret one, see our field guide at ohioprobatedata.com/blog/how-to-read-ohio-probate-docket.

Three filings carry the strongest signal that real estate is part of the estate: (1) Application for Authority to Sell Real Estate, the executor formally announcing intent to sell estate real property; (2) Inventory and Appraisal listing real property with parcel description and appraised value; (3) Land Sale Proceedings docket entries for cases that go through the formal court-supervised sale path. Two filings tell you to deprioritize a case: Application for Summary Release from Administration (small-estate path, real estate is rare) and an inventory listing only personal property and accounts. A full breakdown is in our docket field guide at ohioprobatedata.com/blog/how-to-read-ohio-probate-docket.

Probate and pre-foreclosure are distinct lead sources with different motivations and timelines. Probate leads come from a death-driven event: the property must transfer (often through a court-supervised sale) and the executor is typically motivated to close the estate quickly. Pre-foreclosure leads come from financial distress: the homeowner is behind on payments and trying to avoid losing the property. Probate timelines run 6 to 18 months and conclude when the estate closes, while pre-foreclosure typically resolves within 90 to 180 days. Probate cases are public-record by court filing; pre-foreclosure leads are public-record by lender filing. We compare the two in detail at ohioprobatedata.com/blog/probate-vs-pre-foreclosure-leads.

Yes. In addition to the weekly Monday delivery of new filings, we offer historical data backlogs, quoted per county and date range. Historical files cover the same field set as weekly deliveries (case number, decedent name, executor, attorney, filing date, property details when available) and can be pulled back several months for analysis, market research, or working aged probate cases that competing investors may have missed. Email john.alpindo@ohioprobatedata.com with the county and date range you need.

The data includes information that is part of the public probate court filing: decedent name, last known address (typically the property in the estate), case number, filing date, executor or administrator name and mailing address, and attorney information when listed. We do not include private phone numbers, personal email addresses, family members beyond the named executor or administrator, or any data that comes from sources outside the official court filing. We do not skip-trace, append, or supplement with third-party databases. If a contact detail is missing from the public record, it is missing from our delivery as well.