How do I find relatives of a home in preforclosure when the owner is deceased

[Deb Kurtz]

There’s a home in my neighborhood I’d be interested to buy. It is in preforclosure with no listing agent. Initial research shows the owner to be deceased. His wife is also deceased. Where and how do you locate relatives? Or how do you proceed? Thank you for reading my post 

[Jeff Copeland]

The owners can't sell their house if they are dead. 

This will likely have to go through probate, and/or foreclosure (it's not uncommon to see both happening simultaneously), which can take months, or even years. 

These usually get listed on the MLS with a realtor once the estate, or the bank, has free and clear title.

There is a small chance that the owners had a will, and the heirs just need some help navigating a more simplified probate process. In which case, you'd need to figure out who the heirs are (one possible approach is to simply ask the neighbors, you could also search local court records online) and see what they know. 

It's not uncommon for their to be multiple heirs, none of whom agree on what to do with the property (or how much it's worth), so often the juice is not worth the squeeze. But you never know.