Real Estate Conundrum

[Shunda Walker]

Hey, Y'all!

Seeing that I'm still in the teething stages of this Real Estate game, I ran across something here in my neighborhood and I would appreciate some advice.

SITUATION:

1) I was doing a tax record search and I ran across a property that caught my interest.

2) The house was deeded as "Estate of XYZ".

3) Did more research of Mr. XYS via online public records.

4) It seems like Mr. XYZ's mother deeded the house to both him and his brother before her death.

5) Mr. XYZ's brother lives in Iowa and has quitclaimed the property to Mr. XYZ after their mother's death.

6) Now, Mr. XYZ passed away.

7) There was no will...nothing indicating that he was married or had children or grandchildren.

8) The property owes back taxes of $32K, meaning that not only was Mr. XYZ not paying taxes on said property, but his mother didn't either, it would seem.

I am interested in this property and I would like to buy it. I have a few questions to ask you folks...

Q #1) How can you buy the property if there were no known heirs?

Q #2) Can the brother claim the property even though he waived all interest in the property via quitclaim?

Q #3) Have any of you guys come across such a situation? If so, did you buy the house similarly situated? If so, how did you accomplish that?

Thank you all for any and all replies!

Happy Holidays!