When driving for dollars, I sometimes find properties where the owner is deceased. Sometimes, these houses have been sitting vacant for years.

I have a few questions about how the process of putting a house like that under contract would work.

1) Is it possible for a person to die owning real estate and no probate process occurs? For some of these houses I find, it seems like the owner died and then nothing happened…like no one got designated to handle anything pertaining to the house, so it just sits there.

2) If it is possible for someone to die and no probate process occurs, if I track down a next of kin and they are willing to become the executor because there’s some cash in it for them, what’s next? I assume that the next step is contacting a probate attorney, but how do they get paid? Are those attorney fees paid when the house is sold or is that an up-front expense?

3) How is next of kin determined when it’s not one of the primary relationships (child or spouse)? For example, homeowner dies and has no spouse or children or living parents, but there are siblings. Or there are no siblings, but there are cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. Assuming I can find “a” family member, what rules govern whether or not that family member can settle the estate? I suspect this may vary by municipality. I mainly look at houses in Maryland, but I do see these kinds of houses in DC, as well.

Basically, what I’m trying to learn is how things work when I find a vacant house of a deceased person and I track down an heir and the heir is willing to cooperate in selling the house. Right now, if I found such a person and they said “okay, I’m on board,” I couldn’t even tell them the very first step in the process.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.