Good morning folks. I’m heading down to Mableton, Georgia this morning to go take a look at a house. A couple’s in foreclosure and needs some help, and they’re behind on payments and need to sell the house. So I’ll go check it out and see if I can help them out. I think I might be able to. Just rough napkin math shows the numbers work pretty well. So I think we might be able to make something happen.
But anyways, I wanted to take a second to talk about the probate process, and if there’s one thing that everyone should understand about probate is that it can take a long time and there can be a lot of things, really like anything in life, a lot of curve balls thrown at you. I’ve been working on two probate deals since September and they’ve been dragging out.
One of them we ended up having to cut our ties on a couple of weeks ago. The family just couldn’t agree on the house, and there was just a lot. Unfortunately family members sometimes come out of the woodwork when there’s money involved and they’re never to be found any other time until there’s money involved and in the now they want a part of that, want a piece of that pie.
Unfortunately, that sucks for the rest of the family. But that’s something that can happen and that’s what makes selling the house in the probate process or an inherited house very difficult sometimes for people, very emotionally taxing, not only the paperwork and all the legal rigamarole you have to go through, but then dealing with family members that their behavior changes when there’s money involved.
So anyways, that particular house was basically about to be foreclosed on. They had been slowly keeping up the payments here and there just to keep it from getting foreclosed on. But there wasn’t a lot of meat left on the bone and it basically they just decided to just let the bank have the house because the fight between them was just not worth it. So that’s one thing that can happen.
But I got some good news on our other probate deal yesterday, and things are moving forward now. In this particular instance, the municipality or the county that was handling all this through the probate court, they dropped the ball and they didn’t do what they were supposed to and serve the proper people paperwork. Then they made, this individual that I’m working with to buy the house from, they made her go back through the whole process all over again even though she had already gone through it, and that’s just terrible.
She had put the ads out in the newspaper like she was supposed to and gone through a probate attorney and they had crossed their T’s and dotted their I’s, had done everything they were supposed to, and then the county didn’t do what they were supposed to and said, “Oh, sorry. You’ve got to start over again because this paperwork is no longer valid because so-and-so didn’t get served.” That’s terrible.
So she had to go through all of it. I’ve been very patient through the whole process, checking in on her and make sure there’s anything that she needs from me. Finally, we got word yesterday that all the paperwork was done and the leave to sell was signed and her admin paperwork was signed. So we’re ready to roll, and we can buy the house.
That all started back in September when all this started, when she first reached out to me. So if there’s one thing you should understand about probate is that the process can take time, and I don’t mean to scare you there. I just want you to understand and be prepared that this can take time and you just have to be patient and you got to roll with the punches and at Arbor View Properties we’ll be there along your side. We’re more than willing to wait and help you out with whatever you need help with. If you need referrals to a good attorney or something like that, we can get you in touch with a good attorney to help you with the probate process.
My attorney that I use is really good with closing out. My closing attorney is good with closing out these probate deals. He’s very knowledgeable. Even though he’s not a probate attorney by specialty, he’s been through enough of these sales that he knows the process and can help navigate through it.
So again, just understand it takes time. It’ll eventually happen, and things will happen. You’ve just got to be patient. Good things come to those who wait, right?
So I hope that little nugget helps you out. I wanted to have everyone understand that. So I hope y’all have a wonderful day and we will talk to you later. Thanks.