Guy died and had no family... I want his property

[Phillip Metzger]

In a neighborhood I've been watching for several years - there is a house where a man recently died, he was 90 something.

The house was in a trust and since he had no family it looks like it ended up in the bank's hands? Which is strange because he lived in that house for 20+ years. I thought he would have owned the house by now.

I'm thinking of calling the bank and seeing if they will sell me the house before auction. Do you think the bank will go for it?

The house is up for auction in Feb, 2010 for $60,000 - I want to offer the bank $40,000 so I can get a loan for $70k and have $30k for replacing the carpets, cabinets, bathrooms, etc. The house is assessed at $110,000 for 2010. I think it would be worth a max of $170k in good eco.

Has anyone bought a house in this situation before? Or insight into what it will take to buy that house?

[Terryn Barill]

If it's a trustee sale, you may be able to contact the trustee of the trust. They usually have the option to sell, list or auction the property (caveat -- if the trust specifically states that the property must be sold at auction, you can't get around that).

Since a direct sale has lower costs than any other option, the trustee might go for it, providing your offer is good enough to increase their profit vs getting a higher bid at auction.