“FIRE YOUR BOSS!” That appealing advertisement no doubt caught the attention of thousands of New York Times readers on March 22. Next, they read, “Now you can work for yourself and profit from real estate you find at 30% to 50% below market value.” Many were so intrigued that they showed up a few days later to attend a free seminar on investing in probate real estate sponsored by J.G. Banks at the New York Sheraton Hotel.

After many years of middling stock market returns, the get-rich-quick crowd has gravitated to real estate. Anecdotally, everybody knows somebody who’s made a killing by buying and selling properties. The pitch from the Banks crowd is that the world of probate real estate is relatively uncluttered by competition; therefore, the returns are very high.What they are actually selling, though, is a three-day course in how to invest in probate real estate, for which they charge $5,995.

They also offer an “optional” $4,000 software product, which got decidedly tepid reviews, and extra mentoring.

For attending the course, a customer becomes a “Certified Probate Specialist from the J.G. Banks Institute.” That, of course, has all the gravitas of you being designated a “certified New York Sun reader” in return for your 50 cents and half hour of time.

What is the concept? According to the persuasive speaker, Mark Gonsalves, properties that are part of a dead person’s estate may go into probate. This means they are tied up in a legal process through which the executor, or personal representative, disposes of assets, pays required taxes, and distributes the remaining contents of the estate.

Occasionally, those managing the estate are “motivated sellers,” eager to dispose of properties to raise money to pay taxes or other debts. Instead of hiring a realtor to sell the bequeathed real estate, the personal representative may try to sort it out on his own, and may therefore be open to unsolicited offers. Mr. Gonsalves gave an example of a fellow in Ohio who inherited a house in Vermont that he did not want. Because he was far away, the heir had little knowledge of the market or little time to fix it up and get the best price.

Mr. Gonsalves became aware of the property and offered $350,000. He emptied the house, painted it, and spent $15,100 on improvements. He then sold it to a realtor for $515,000. After various other costs, the transaction netted Mr. Gonsalves more than $99,000.

Not bad for a few months’ work. What are the secrets of the trade? First, you must know how to find such properties. They are not usually listed in the newspapers. However, there are an increasing number of online services that deliver court records. The trick is to sift through the filings and find opportunities. Mr. Gonsalves said the investor had to sort through 20 to 25 properties a month to find one attractive investment opportunity. He claimed that this was no “get rich quick” scheme, and acknowledged that no one needed a special license of any sort to invest in probate properties. He did advocate having a “professional trainer.”

The audience for the Banks seminar was keen to get started.They were mostly people 40 and older of all shapes, sizes,and colors – in other words,a typical New York mix. They responded with pep-rally enthusiasm to rhetorical questions such as: “Is $99,000 a good return for six months’ work?”

Some were knowledgeable and eager to affirm that other types of real estate investing paled in comparison. For example, foreclosure real estate investing is apparently old hat, and way too competitive. A few years ago, foreclosure auctions were miserable little affairs. Now they attract a crowd just slightly less excited than the LSU fans at the Final Four. Not a good place to be looking for profits.

Having said that, Internet traffic would suggest that probate real estate investing is also coming into its own. Not only are there many sites offering to train would-be practitioners, but there are also sites dedicated to rating the trainers and blogs where the gurus make fun of each other.

Criticisms of Mr. Banks’ seminars focus on the difficulty of finding estates where the personal representative is so out of touch with reality that he is willing to sell the property below market price. In other words, the stories of quick profits tossed around during the seminar may be true, but such examples are exceedingly rare. As one reviewer pointed out, Mr. Banks is conducting dozens of seminars each year; someone is occasionally bound to strike gold.

Though the popularity of this kind of investing has not reached mainstream status, there are good reasons to imagine this activity picking up.The country is aging, and consequently, there will be a greater number of estates going into probate. Already, the sum is about 1 million a year. Also, that aging means an increasing number of people will be looking for part-time work they can do in retirement.

Having said that, there is always something troubling about an investment arena where the major players appear to spend more of their time initiating newcomers than actually practicing what they preach. Can it really be more profitable hosting training seminars than buying properties at 60% of their real value? The answer is yes, but that’s the subject of another column.