What should I do while waiting on probate to close?(first deal)

[Steven Sprague]

Just a little bit of the backstory… I work for a pest control company in Jacksonville Florida and we were called in to take care of a rodent infestation at a customers house whom his father had just passed away. The son lives in Missouri and had come into town to find his late father's house full of rodents. Long story short, I took care of the issue, and a year later I drove by the house and noticed it was still distressed and did not appear to have been worked on or lived in at all. I contacted the son and asked him if he would be willing to sell the house, and after inspection and getting an estimate together for repairs I offered him $20,000, and he verbally accepted. It needs about $30-$35,000 worth of work and should have an ARV of between $90-$100,000 once completed. It is currently a two bedroom one bathroom concrete block house but has had an addition started at the back where the walls were built for an additional bedroom ,but no roof, electrical, HVAC, etc. was completed. Obviously, we will be utilizing the space and converting it to a three bedroom one bathroom.

When I spoke with him and made the offer in December 2020 he had not yet started the probate process as he did not know what he wanted to do with the property yet. He contacted an attorney and is now going through the process to get it in his name to sell. From what I have been told his dad did not have a will and he is the only living relative.

We have kept in touch since then but my question is ...how long can I expect this process to take?I live in Florida and as I said before he is in Missouri. This is my first deal ,but I also was wondering should I continue to keep my eye out for other opportunities or should I wait it out and finish this deal first to get the experience before moving on? My wife and I have about $80,000 saved up so I could possibly get another property in the mean time (with financing ,because this will be an all cash deal which leaves about $25k ). This will be a rental and I plan on refinancing to reuse my cash once everything is completed and the seasoning period Is over.My gut tells me I should probably wait until I have the experience of a rehab under my belt before moving onto another one. I have a good bit of construction experience and the ability to do a good bit of the work myself but I don’t want to get too overwhelmed with that in my full-time job and wife/kids at home.On the other hand time is valuable and I do not like to let it go to waste ,and possibly let another opportunity slip through the cracks in the meantime. Just curious on why you guys would do in this situation and about how long can I expect to wait for the probate process to get completed? Anything you would recommend doing in the meantime? Thanks in advance and I look forward to any advice any of you may like to share.

[Ken Naim]

@Steven Sprague Hi Steven, don't wait keep looking and if you find another deal go for it. If this deal comes through it may takes or months or possibly never. Courts are backed up and slower thsn usual due to covid and probste court is slow to begin with. If you get into a situation where you have moe deals than time or money there are solutions, you could flip it as is, wholesale it, partner, finance the rehab, hard money etc. Don't waste time by waiting snd don't lose money by passing on a good deal