Hi, I’m Beth with TB Properties Buys Land. Last week we discussed that if you had rural vacant land that you wish to sell, if your name was not on the deed, we answered the question of whether you could sell that property or not. We had discussed several different scenarios.
One of the things I want to talk about this week were a few examples in which we had purchased property from sellers, where their name was not on the deed. One of the circumstances is where somebody had purchased the property and had never added their spouse’s name to the deed. Sadly, they had passed away and their spouse was left to pay property taxes. Something like that is fairly straightforward, every state or county is a little bit different in what they require, but for the most part, so long as the county in which the property exists has a copy of the death certificate, they can go ahead and clear that through title and allow the spouse to convey that property, to sell that property to somebody else.
We have worked with spouses before, in which they’ve sold property where they weren’t on the deed, but they were able to sell that property. We’ve also purchased property before in which the property was in the name of a trust where maybe it was left to somebody, the people are still alive, but it was in the name of a trust. It could be one person who was the executor of that trust, or it could be multiple people. So long as the title company that we’re working through has paperwork, all the trust paperwork, they can sell your land. It can certainly be a little bit frustrating because they tend to want the big, big packet… all of the paperwork from the executor of that estate in order to convey that property.
When you work through a title company like TB Properties Buys Land, you can trust that it’s going to be done correctly. It might be a little frustrating getting all that paperwork to the title company, but they’re going to be able to right the chain of title and allow you to convey that property and sell it to somebody else. We’ve had a couple other purchases in which we have purchased land, where the deed was in somebody else’s name and they’d passed away and it was inherited, but they were not in a will. Before I get to that though, we did have a situation where somebody had passed away, there was a will and it did go through probate. The will was still in probate when we purchased the property. In this scenario the gentleman was able to sell his land to us and the money went back into the estate. So as soon as probate’s taken care of, he’ll receive those funds through probate.
Again, working through a title company, we’re confident that everything’s going to be done correctly and legally, the right way.
Another example I can recall is where someone had reached out to us, a family member and said, hey, we’ve got land that we’d like to sell. This was in the name of a great, great grandmother. The property was in her name, but they had been keeping up the property taxes and were ready to finally sell. Well, the big concern with this is how many other heirs are there. Can we track them all down and can we get them all to agree and to sign on a price and go through title? In their case, they had four living heirs, and they were all in agreement on a purchase price. We had worked with them, come up with a purchase price that everybody agreed upon. And one of the group of the four was kind of in charge. They were in charge of getting everybody to sign and everybody to agree. We were able to get paperwork out to all four of them. We sent them eSign paperwork and they all signed the contract and when it came to closing, they all got their paperwork notarized and signed and sent in.
Now, not always does this workout, but this was a case where we were able to buy property from this group of people, in which the land was in somebody else’s name. This was a couple generations back and nothing had been remedied in the chain of Title for all that time. There was no will, there was no probate or anything like that. Yet the sale was able to take place.
There are circumstances in which your name may not be on the deed, but you may be able to convey the property, may be able to sell your land. TB Properties Buys Land, we’re not like every land investor out there. We do close through a title company. This is going to protect you as the seller, it protects us as well. We’re also confident, both sides can be confident that Title will to do everything the right way, the paperwork’s going to be right. And if you’re trying to clear the chain of title in order to sell that property, they’re the ones who’ll be able to do it.
If there are affidavits of heirship that needed to be completed, like with the last example I gave you, they can do that kind of thing and make it right. If this was a spouse and your name wasn’t on there, very easily, they can explain what paperwork that needs to be turned in so that they can clear that and allow you to sell your property.
If you have any questions, if you’ve got rural vacant land and you’re interested in selling, the land’s in your name, or if the land’s in somebody else’s name, but you believe that you have a clear right to sell the property, reach out to us. We’re happy to answer any questions. It can’t hurt to get the information from you and consult with the title company and find out if you can sell your land to TB Properties Buys Land. We hope to work with you soon. Thank you again for listening and take care.