When a homeowner passes away without a will, the property often gets stuck in the court system for months or years. Many of these owners were equity-rich but cash-poor, so the mortgage falls behind, tax liens pile up, and sometimes squatters move in. The heirs frequently lose the entire equity to lenders or the state. That distress is what creates the discount.

Our team obtains court appointment as administrator of the estate, typically within 48-72 hours of identifying a property. That lets the fund acquire the home subject to the existing mortgage (often under 5%) without triggering a due-on-sale clause, and at a statutory discount to the court-appraised value. The court appraisal is usually well under the renovated value, which is where the spread comes from. Average capital needed to control a property to date has been about $106k.

They get paid. We locate heirs using licensed skip-tracing and investigator credentials, relieve them of the mortgage debt, and in many cases put cash in their hands that they otherwise would have forfeited. Compassion comes first here. We only win when we solve a problem the family could not solve on their own.

As of March 2026, the team has acquired, renovated, and sold 15 probate properties, generating roughly $2.4M in total profits with an average hold of about four months. Not every deal was a winner. Two of the 15 lost money, which is exactly why the fund spreads capital across many properties instead of betting on one. All figures are unaudited, and past performance does not guarantee future results.

You would receive a 7% preferred return, then 70% of profits (30% to the GP). The fund targets a 2-3X equity multiple with a targeted hold of 4-12 months per property. There is a 2% management fee for the first four years, and the minimum allocation is $50,000. Principals and affiliates of Sage Funds and Probate Brothers are subscribing 10% of the fund alongside you. Of course targets are not guarantees.

The Sage Fund is open to accredited investors only. Click "Get Started," answer a few quick questions, and you will be able to book a call with the team and review the full offering memorandum, including risk factors, before making any decision.

Probate real estate carries real risk. Of the 15 properties exited to date, two lost money (-32.5% and -6.5%).

The main risks:

Court and legal: Administrator appointments can be contested, delayed, or denied, and heirs can dispute payouts.

Title: Liens, clouded title, or claims that require quiet-title action.

Renovation: Squatters, hoarding, and deferred maintenance make costs hard to predict. Overruns can wipe out profit.

Concentration: One state, one asset type, one strategy. A California downturn hits the whole portfolio.

Leverage: Properties are taken subject to existing mortgages, so the fund assumes that debt and its default risk.

Illiquidity: There is no public market for fund interests. Assume you cannot readily exit.

Key personnel: Performance depends on a small team holding the required legal, contracting, and brokerage licenses.
Tenant Issues: California has overlapping laws, at the state and municipal level, protecting the rights of tenants and non-tenant occupants. Even “squatters” with no relationship to the property owner or their heirs can have rights to stay in the property under certain circumstances. We have a number of people, processes, and systems for obtaining possession of the house and making sure the property is vacant for sale, and these have worked well for us in the past. Nevertheless, we can’t guarantee that tenant or squatter issues won’t delay the renovation or sale of properties in some cases.

 Renovation cost increases: The costs of building materials and labor have increased significantly since the pre-COVID era, and even more dramatically in the last two years. While we have substantial margin economics in our favor, and are able to buy many materials in quantity at wholesale prices, we do anticipate costs will continue to increase. We do believe that these cost increases will continue to be offset by corresponding increases in resale prices of our properties, but we cannot guarantee that we can always manage costs to the same profit margins that we have experienced in the past.

These risks cannot be eliminated. You may lose some or all of your allocation. The offering memorandum contains the full statement of risk factors and governs in all respects.