Discover How to Target a 2–3x Equity Multiple Over a 4–12 Month Hold Through California Probate Properties Acquired 30–50% Below Market

Accredited investors subscribe to Probate Properties Fund I, a $5M first close from Sage Funds and The Probate Bros. The fund acquires distressed California probate properties and CA SB1079 foreclosures, renovates them, and resells into high-demand California markets.

The differentiator is how the properties are acquired. Rather than bidding on the open market, the team obtains court appointment as administrator of the estate — stepping into the legal identity of the decedent’s estate. That allows the fund to take properties subject to existing mortgages without triggering due-on-sale clauses, frequently at rates under 5%. Heirs are located and paid out, and the fund captures the equity upside it creates through renovation and resale.

The minimum investment is $100,000, and the fund is open to accredited investors only.

Fund terms: a 7% preferred return to LPs; after the preferred return is paid, profits split 80% to LPs and 20% to the GP; a 2% management fee for the first four years. Roughly 10% of the fund is subscribed by affiliates of the Sage and Probate Bros principals, so the sponsors hold capital alongside investors.

The fund targets a 50% IRR and a 2–3x equity multiple over a targeted 4–12 month hold per property.

Track record to date, across 15 properties acquired and sold: $2.4M in profits on approximately $2.67M of capital deployed, at an average holding period of four months. Average capital needed to secure control of a property was roughly $106,000, with an average sale price after renovation of about $621,000.

These are targets based on specific sourcing, renovation, financing and resale assumptions. They are not guarantees, and past results do not predict future performance.

Reported results are unaudited, as of March 2026. See the offering memorandum for the complete property-level table and the assumptions behind these figures.

This is a short-duration strategy rather than a long-hold fund. Capital is returned as individual properties are renovated and resold, not on a fixed calendar. The targeted hold is 4–12 months per property; the average to date has been four months.

LPs receive their 7% preferred return before the GP participates in profits. Actual timing and amount of any distribution depends on individual property performance, court and title timelines, renovation schedules, sale proceeds, reserves, and the governing fund documents.

Value is created through execution at four stages the team controls directly, all of it in-house and licensed:

• Proprietary sourcing — personnel on the ground in 12 counties visiting county clerks and coroners, multiple subscription data feeds, and in-house data science cross-referencing obituaries, trust documents and REO/foreclosure records. Roughly 20–30 properties sourced per month.
• Probate administration — licensed administrators and attorneys assume administration of estates, typically within 48–72 hours, with skip-tracing and private investigator credentials used to identify heirs or verify none exist.
• Discounted entry — purchase at under 90% of court-appraised value, typically 30–50% under after-repair value, with control of a property frequently secured for under $50,000.
• Renovation and resale — a licensed general contractor handles properties with squatters, hoarding, and decades of deferred maintenance; an in-house broker’s license handles the sale. Target markets see sale prices above $700 per square foot, with listing to contract typically under two weeks.

Target regions are the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, and Southern California — markets with average incomes above $100,000, population growth above 5%, and ARV sales typically exceeding $900 per square foot.

Probate real estate carries real risk, and the strategy has produced losses as well as gains. Of the 15 properties exited to date, two lost money — one at −32.5% and one at −6.5%. The material risk categories:

• Court and legal risk — appointment as estate administrator may be contested, delayed, or denied; heirs may emerge or dispute a payout.
• Title risk — probate properties can carry liens, clouded title, or claims requiring quiet-title action.
• Renovation risk — squatters, hoarding and deferred maintenance make scope and cost hard to predict; overruns compress or eliminate profit.
• Market concentration — the fund is concentrated in a single state, a single asset type, and a single strategy. A California downturn affects 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, and you should assume you cannot readily exit.
• Key personnel — performance depends materially on a small team holding the required legal, contracting and brokerage licenses.

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