June 17, 2014

Selling an Inherited House with Title Issues

Landon’s mother passed away in January of 2014 at her home in Silver Spring, Maryland. His father had passed years before and his sisters lived out of state. Even though Landon’s siblings came back for the funeral, Landon was left with the burden of funeral arrangements and later on, handling his mother’s estate and will.

There was only one problem- Landon’s mother had previously named his sister, Angela, as executor. Basically, this meant it was Angela’s legal responsibility to settle the estate, including going through the probate process and figuring out what to do with her mother’s house. The average probate- the legal process of passing on a deceased person’s estate to his or her heirs- takes about one year. Neither Angela or Landon had a lot of free time to work on this so they were quickly overwhelmed.

Angela had a full time job and two kids of her own in North Carolina and was not able to spend much time in Maryland and Landon, though residing in Maryland, was not the executor so could only do so much without Angela being there.

Toward the end of February, while sorting through paperwork, Landon realized his mother had built up considerable debt during the last few years of her life. Seeing that this would fall to him and his sisters, the need to sell the house was even more pressing than before.

With the probate process just getting started, Angela in North Carolina, and the discovery that his mom was still paying off the mortgage at the time of her death, Landon knew he needed to sell the house fast but feared how complicated the process might be. That was when he noticed a letter in the mail from 4 Brothers Buy Houses.

It was a cash offer for his mother’s house.

Since this was not the house Landon and his sisters grew up in, they had no hesitations about selling the house quickly. He decided to call the number on the letter to see what the offer was.

After hearing a preliminary offer, Landon got the OK from his sisters and decided to work out the details with 4 Brothers Buy Houses. He was worried about the legal stipulations surrounding the sale since he did not technically own the house and since his mother did not own it free and clear when she died.

We told him we could help.

After working through the probate process with the Montgomery County probate court and negotiating a number of liens that were on the property- including an old HOA lien- we helped Landon get clear title to the property and were able to buy his mother’s house in less than a month.

If you own an inherited house and aren’t sure how to approach the probate process, how to sell the house quickly, or how to sell a house with title issues, give us a call and see if we can work something out.