All Forum Posts by: Lenzy Ruffin

When driving for dollars, I sometimes find properties where the owner is deceased. Sometimes, these houses have been sitting vacant for years.

I have a few questions about how the process of putting a house like that under contract would work.

1) Is it possible for a person to die owning real estate and no probate process occurs? For some of these houses I find, it seems like the owner died and then nothing happened…like no one got designated to handle anything pertaining to the house, so it just sits there.

2) If it is possible for someone to die and no probate process occurs, if I track down a next of kin and they are willing to become the executor because there’s some cash in it for them, what’s next? I assume that the next step is contacting a probate attorney, but how do they get paid? Are those attorney fees paid when the house is sold or is that an up-front expense?

3) How is next of kin determined when it’s not one of the primary relationships (child or spouse)? For example, homeowner dies and has no spouse or children or living parents, but there are siblings. Or there are no siblings, but there are cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. Assuming I can find “a” family member, what rules govern whether or not that family member can settle the estate? I suspect this may vary by municipality. I mainly look at houses in Maryland, but I do see these kinds of houses in DC, as well.

Basically, what I’m trying to learn is how things work when I find a vacant house of a deceased person and I track down an heir and the heir is willing to cooperate in selling the house. Right now, if I found such a person and they said “okay, I’m on board,” I couldn’t even tell them the very first step in the process.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

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I determined that probates are something I'd have to come back to later when I had time to figure out a better way to do it. Going to the courthouse every week was terribly inefficient for me. It might be different for you since you're in the same city as the courthouse.

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I looked into probates in PG county briefly last year. Unless things have changed, you have to go down to the courthouse to get the info you're looking for. They have a couple of computers that you can look up the records on and see the actual court documents and that's where the real property information will be, if the decedent owned any real property.

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Welcome to BP, Alston.

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Go Army. Welcome to BP.

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Welcome to BP, Steve.

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If you can get the course with the book and CDs you mentioned for $1 and then immediately cancel the subscription (don't even wait until the 29th day, do it right away), then that's an incredible bargain that you should take advantage of since those materials are free, honestly. I'd even be okay with those materials costing you up to $500. All of those training courses are legit, but it doesn't mean that they will work for YOU. Successful real estate investors are successful because they have a system that they execute day in and day out. The system any given course teaches may not be one that you personally will be willing or able to execute day in and day out, so you will not be successful using. Here's a blog post that does a great job of explaining that.

http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/05/17/dirty-truth-guru-programs/

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So if you can get the training for $1 or even $200 - $300, go for it. Other than that, pass on it. Either way, save the links you get from this thread into a document and use them as the basis for building your own, free training package. It will help you and you can pass it on to someone else who needs help getting started.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2015/01/31/ultimate-beginners-guide-real-estate-wholesaling-2/

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/02/14/70-rule-bible/

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2010/7/10/new-investors-focus-target-markets/

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/04/11/your-target-real-estate-market/

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2010/06/30/introduction-to-real-estate-analysis-investing/

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/01/19/real-estate-math/

https://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2014/04/09/direct-mail/

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/93/topics/54108-buyer-s-list-how-to-

4 Votes