We Buy Homes In Probate – Probate Real Estate Explained

At some point in all of our lives, we get exposed to the mysterious and sometimes frustrating legal process known as “probate”. Probate is the process where a will is validated and carried out by the courts. If no will is left behind when someone passes, the courts follow basic guidelines to make sure that any assets (house, money, cars) are taken care of (sold or passed to rightful heirs) and that any people or businesses owed money have a chance to collect on debts.

When someone dies AND owns a home or other real estate, you get to experience what people call “probate real estate”. What we really mean when we say someone needs to probate real estate is that in order to sell or take full ownership of any real estate, you need to go through probate. As you can imagine or have already figured out, when you a house or multiple properties are involved in someone’s estate, it can get complicated. Do you sell the house or keep it in the family? When can you sell it? Do you need a real estate agent? Who pays for the mortgage or insurance or taxes or utilities or repairs until the house sells?

Relax, relax! It isn’t all that bad. Unless you have a boyfriend squatting in your mom’s house trying to say he has full ownership of the house due to common law marriage status. That’s a hairy one….

What Happens To Real Estate During Probate?

Real estate in probate follows guidelines where all property owned by the deceased is removed from the probate estate, recorded and transferred to beneficiaries or heirs. The real property we’re talking about here is real estate (houses, land), not the personal property we’d find in a house (furniture, kitchen appliances).

This type of transfer usually happens when we are dealing with “real” property; we have to record the title. Recording titles document the sale of real estate during probate. When we’re not dealing with anything we can record, we might have to transfer property in another way (which we’ll go into next).

Staying on the topic of recording for a moment, we need to know that there are two ways we can transfer property if we are NOT dealing with recording. We need to know these two ways so we can decide which method we will use if we find we have to transfer property during probate:

2 Ways To Transfer Real Estate That is Not Recorded (or not recorded yet): Transfers by Affidavit or Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure, and/or Deed from Trustee to Beneficiary.

Probate real estate – quick tips

Seriously though, here are a few quick tips to help you get started with your probate real estate case:

1. Find a good attorney – seems obvious, but a large part of how easy your probate is depends on the attorney. We like to follow the rule of 3 here….interview 3, hire 1. Don’t hire the first person you talk to or the one your friend’s friend used that one time maybe 13 years ago.
2. Keep the family calm – when someone passes away, something weird can happen to close family members. They seem to get the need to acquire the deceased person’s money, cars, and other belongings. Call it wanting to hold onto something sentimental or just looking for something free. We aren’t here to judge, just help. Make sure you keep the family calm and thinking straight.
3. Try not to delay what needs to be done – it may be emotionally or physically hard to push yourself through getting rid of your deceased one’s belongings, but we suggest dealing with it now rather than later. Having purchased many homes in probate and gone through it ourselves, we’ve seen cases take months and even years to finalize, sometimes to the point where the attorney requests a substitute to take his place. It doesn’t get easier the longer you wait, either. Court costs go up….houses get dirtier and more behind on repairs….it can stack up pretty quick.
4. Figure out what to do with the house(s) – The largest and hardest thing to sell or get rid of when someone passes is often their house. It takes time and works to sell a house. Make sure someone has some extra cash to cover expenses before the house is sold, like insurance, utilities, cleaning or repair costs.

What do to with the house???

There’s a lot you need to know about what can and can’t be done with a house that is involved in probate. When can you sell it? Who has to sign off on it? Do you have to pay a real estate agent? This is where we can help….

Probate real estate is one of our areas of expertise at W Properties. We have purchased MANY houses that were involved in probate from families over the years. While we aren’t your lawyer and can’t give you legal advice, we can offer you a quick and EASY way to sell a house. When you sell your house to us…

…you don’t have to clean OR repair anything.

…you can leave stuff in the home that you don’t want to keep.

….you won’t have to waste money on hiring a real estate agent to hold open houses.

…we will pay ALL closing costs.

…you can sell the house and close on it as soon as 2 weeks or as long as you need.

Make sense? We’ve worked with lots of attorneys around town, so we are familiar with the probate process. Our whole goal is to help you sell your probate real estate easily and quickly for a fair price. We aren’t kidding on the whole “leave what you don’t want” part, either. We’ve bought houses that were shiny clean and ones with boxes, clothes, dishes, etc. We donate what we can and toss what we can’t. Why should you spend your time doing that?

Want to talk about a house in probate?

Call us today at 405-673-4901. Whether you are 10 months from wanting to sell or needed to sell last week, we can help you figure out how to sell your “probate real estate”. You can ask us anything, and when you are ready, we’ll come to see your home and make you an offer the next day.