Thank you for your reply. As you can tell, I am a little new to this. I was contacted by a lawyer. His client has a condo that will be willing to let the property go for an 18% discount. The only thing is that they want their cash soon. I can?t Sub 2 the property. I was thinking of putting a 90 day option and trying to sell it within that time period. I just don’t want to make an offer that sounds like I don;t have any idea what I am doing. This lawyer says that he has 4 other properties that he would like me to look at if all goes well with this one.
I was wondering if anyone would be willing to share some of their exit ideas when dealing with probate. Once you get control of a property in probate, how do you get rid of it? Thank you for any help.
when you say you have “control,” what precisely do you mean? Are you the Personal Representative appointed by the court?
Here are some general ideas which will be substantially true in most states:
Person dies and owns real property in his name. (not a trust or any other entity, and not jointly).
Someone (spouse, child or other interested party) petitions the probate court to (a) open a probate, and (b) name them as PR.
Once the court approves the PR appointment, a document is issued (often called Letters of Administration or Letters Testamentary). This document gives the PR his “credentials.”
Armed with credentials, the PR can take control of the decedent’s probate property (not all property, mind you, but only the stuff which will be probated. This includes selling real estate which is part of the probate estate.
If the petition opening the probate sought and successfully obtained “full powers” for the PR, the PR may be able to sell real property without seeking prior court approval. It all depends. In California, a PR with full powers needs only submit a Notice of Proposed Action to the court and other interested parties, and can transact the deal without a hearing. But your state may be different. Do not try to do this without counsel.
Don’t even think about doing a sweetheart deal from your position as PR. The PR has a fiduciary duty to the estate beneficiaries, and PR’s get sues all the time (just like other fiduciaries (trustees, general partners, corporate officers, etc.)
As for transcting the sale, you can engage a realtor and list the property, or not. Probate sales are a lot like any other sale, except the PR does not usually have to make disclosures about property condition.
Tales about buying probate properties for 10 cents on the dollar are BULLS-H-I-T.