Owner died with no heirs or will

[Michael Seeker]

I've come across a property and an adjacent vacant lot a while ago that appeared to be abandoned. I had a wholesaler do some digging to see if we could acquire both the house and vacant lot.

He determined that the owner of record is deceased and left no will. She has only 1 surviving heir, her daughter. Apparently the daughter is/was not mentally stable and has not been seen or heard from for over 2 years (he spoke with somebody who knew both the mother and daughter).

There are also tax liens on the house, but no mortgage. Any thoughts/ideas on how I could go about acquiring this property given this information?

[Account Closed]

I wasn't going to reply to this thread because these kinds of leads can be such a time sink with no deal. However, this is an educational board and you can learn a lot about abandoned property and probate issues in your area by following through on this a bit. Don't contact the County Administrator and don't contact an attorney. The Admin. can't sell you the property directly and there is no evidence yet that this estate needs one. And you don't need an attorney until you know what you need one for.

1) What's the tax mailing address and are the taxes being paid?

2) What does the death certificate say? Death certs. have informant name and address. Informants are often people who are relatives and/or caring for the decedent before they died.

3) Any obituary anywhere?

4) Who is on title? When was the last deed executed and from who?

5) Are there any outstanding liens or judgments?

6) Have you checked your court to make sure there isn't already a probate action filed?

It's impossible to die without heirs. It's just a matter of how many generations back and how many. If the decedent really has a daughter, that's a slam dunk in identifying at least one of them, and possibly the only one.

IMO, you're a ways off from even needing to look for the daughter. I'd start by finding out more about the entire title picture.