Probate?
One of my coworkers told me about a friend of his who recently passed away. His friend was not married and owned this house. I know nothing about the house.
He said the deceased mans sister is in charge of selling this house. She plans on listing it with a realtor soon. Apparantly the house had some issues such as the last deed not being able to be found and maybe some other title issues. There was no will or anything left by the man. My coworker said the sister was going to list for around $80k. Well its not worth near that but I figured I could make an offer and see what happened.
So is this considered a probate case? I am not at all familiar with these. Can the sister sell the house? Is it just a normal sale? Can I just make an offer?
Thanks
Bill
In my state, probate is mandatory in the situation you describe. If there was no will, why does the sister believe she has any rights to the property and has the authority to sell it?
Perhaps the property was jointly owned by the man and his sister with rights of survivorship. If so, then this may avoid probate but it does not get around title issues if the county courthouse has no record of the most recent deed.
I am not sure why she thinks she has rights. What if she doesnt? Who gets the house?
If she does have the ownership, do I just make an offer as normal?
If she does have rights she will have to file as the executrix or heir of the property at the county court house. If I were you I would get a current owner search done, and then figure out my next step.
Lori
[addsig]
In most states the next of kin which may be the sister will become the estates beneficiary. If their are any other living siblings they may claim a share of the estate. Have a title company do a preliminary title search on the property. It may cost a few bucks but could help answer some questions.
Boy I really dont want to pay for a title search first. What if I just make an offer to her if she thinks she is the owner? If she accepts I can then do a title search. If not then I wont spend money. Please tell me if my thinking if off here as i said I am new these situations. Thanks all.
Your tax office could tell you who is currently listed as owner, for no charge.
Would they know even if this place is in limbo?
Why don't you get the lady's name and talk to her? It sounds to me like you have so far only talked to your co-worker who told you about this friend who has a sister etc. You are asking questions that can best be answered by the woman herself. Get her name and call her up. Ask her if she is the personal rep for the estate and if she says yes, ask her if she has the court docs that prove it. (she has to have them to sign the papers and the deed). Simple![ Edited by Sandbahr on Date 02/11/2004 ]
I am going to do that. I was just trying to get some heads up beforehand since I have to experience with this. Thanks
I've purchased a probate property before. When the man died his sister most likely hired an attorney to file a probate case with court after which a case number was assigned. You can go down to the courthouse (or perhaps online if yr courthouse has probate cases listed) pull the register which lists probate case numbers and then request the files. The clerk will then pull out the actual probate file which contains all the original paperwork in it (probate is a public record). In my county you need to know about when the case was set up because they only list numbers , not names. Then just pull out 10 + cases , in numerical order, until you find the specific case you are looking for. You can do the same thing online (I would call the courthouse and ask for a clerk ,talk with them a little and see if you can find out what the current case no. is, then begin accessing case numbers back around the time you think it was filed). After you find the file online it will tell you who the executor is. That is the person who has the right ot make decisions regarding estate assets. I would then go to the courthouse and pull the file. It shows all liens on the estate, the people who are to receive shares of the estate and other pertinent info. You can then approach by phone or letter the executor (s) and try to make a deal. Whichever parties have a right to the house can sign a deal with you without the lawyer even being involved... try to keep him out of it. You may or may not have to wait for probate to be settled to purchase the house. You're in before anybody else even knows about the property. It's very doable but takes a little time. Hope you can sort this out. Probate can be a little vein of gold.
Cheers,
Bob
Every home should have SOME kind of www.record.Ownership/title holder etc. This info is free too, so you don't have to do a title search.
Quote:
On 2004-02-11 09:33, billfaith wrote:
Would they know even if this place is in limbo?