I've been investing in real estate for years — wholesaling, land flips, double-closes. Over 100 deals closed. I thought I'd seen most of the angles.

Then I stumbled into curative title work in Texas and I genuinely can't believe more people aren't doing this.

**Here's the basic concept:**

When a property owner dies without a will, their property passes to their heirs by law — but nobody files the paperwork. No probate. No affidavit of heirship. Nothing. The property just... sits there. Taxes go delinquent. The county eventually files a tax suit. And the property rots.

Meanwhile, the heirs usually don't even know they own it. Or they know but don't want to deal with the legal headaches.

**That's where I come in.**

I find these properties through delinquent tax rolls. I track down the heirs — sometimes 5, sometimes 15 — and I buy their interest in the property. A typical deed costs $500 per heir. Once I've got signatures from enough heirs, I file an Affidavit of Heirship (in Texas you don't even need to go to court for this — two disinterested witnesses, a notary, and the county clerk, and suddenly I'm holding clear title on a property that's been stuck for a decade.

**The numbers:**

- Total cost to acquire all interests + cure title: $2,500–$3,500 typical

- Property values I'm targeting: $100K+

- Timeline to clear title: 60-90 days once you have the signatures

Yeah. Those margins are real.

**The hard part? The research.**

Finding the heirs is where most people would quit. The original owner died in 2014. Their spouse died in 2019. They had four kids — one moved to California, one is incarcerated, one is deceased (now THEIR kids are heirs), and one is still local but going by a married name you've never seen.

You're digging through:

- County deed records for the title chain

- Probate court to check if anything was filed

- Tax assessor records to see who's been paying

- Death certificates

- Court filings from tax suits

- Census records on Ancestry

- IDI/skip trace tools for current phone numbers

That's 4–8 hours per lead. Manually.

**So I'm building a tool to automate most of it.**

I'm not going to pitch anything here — it's still early and I'm building it for my own operation first. But the process of building it has forced me to systematize everything I've learned about heir property research, and I figured this community would appreciate the breakdown.

**What I've learned so far:**

1. Probate gap = best deal signal. Owner died 5+ years ago, no probate filed, no affidavit of heirship on record.

2. Always check court filings BEFORE you skip trace. Tax suit petitions list the heirs the attorney already found.

3. Tax payment history reveals hidden contacts. If someone is paying taxes on a property they don't own on paper, they're family.

4. The informant on a death certificate is your first call. They handled the funeral — they're the closest family member.

5. Ancestry.com for $30/month gives you census records, death records, and family trees.

6. Affidavit of Heirship > Probate in Texas. Two witnesses, a notary, $50 at the county clerk.

7. Check MLS first. If it's listed for sale, title is clear enough. Move on.

Anyone else working curative title or heir property? Curious how others are approaching it.