Who owns this Indiana home???

Question

My neighbor passed away last year. He lived alone and has no family or good friends in the area. His house has gone unkept and I fear that it will crumble until the county takes it due to delinquent taxes. I' love to get my hands on it first as it could be a good flip/rental but do not know who is in control of the property. I have heard rumor that he had an estranged daughter that has control of the estate because she is the heir-but I cannot get her contact information to save my life. Does anyone know of a way to find out who is in control of a specific estate? This is in Indiana-not sure if that matters.

Looking forward to some feedback!

Mark Pedroza · Answer

@Kyle Galloway

Request a copy of the death certificate from the county viatical statistic dept. If the daughter (or whomever) filled it out will be your first point of contact.

If hopefully probate has started and there is no will the administrator (Personal Representative) will file for Letters of Administration to represent the estate.

Ron Patton · Answer

Could skip tracing work here? Not really positive, so my suggestion is really more a question.

Adrien C. · Answer

Give me a call and i'll see what we can find. I'm pretty good about tracking down family members.

Chase Cannon · Answer

Kyle- you don't sound like an idiot. An idiot would be the person not asking the questions. Usually, when a person dies without a will, state intestate laws control who gets what. And, yes, most of the time, if someone dies without a spouse and has children then the estate goes directly to them. I can't comment on specific Indiana intestate laws, but they are very easy to google and understand. They shouldn't be hard to find.

If none of the court records exist to determine the daughter's contact information, then I would watch the property as someone will be coming soon to take inventory. Consider it your first experience of door knocking. The other thing to watch is the County Tax Assessor's property search online tool. As soon as the county switches the deed over, they will switch the tax records over, which should give you the owner's name and possibly their address. The same is the case with the wills/probate office. This is all dependent on how the specific county does their work. You just need to be able to go with the flow and work through the process in the moment. They are all public records so you shouldn't have a problem with access. It will just be a learning curve on the process. Usually, there are fees if you want to print anything, but where I am located there are no fees to access the information.

The thing about the property's records office is you need to know how to look up a title, which should be a skill every investor should at least know how to do. The clerk's office staff may show you how to look up the title, but they may not. It will depend on how friendly they are at the time. You don't have to give them a reason. You just tell them you would like to look up a piece of specific property information. Consider it like the public library. You can read and access all the books you'd like. You just have to figure out how to find the right book.

Kyle Galloway · Answer

I am going to assume that the neighbor did in fact own the home. I am also going to bet that there is no will. If that is the case and the daughter is the only heir am I correct that the daughter is the owner? And is there a way to get this person's name?

You provided some great insight and tips. I will visit my local courthouse. Is it as simple as requesting this information with the address of the property? Do I need to give them any reason? Are their typically fees? Same question(s) on the will, deed, probate records. I've never done anything like this so I apologize if I sound like a big idiot. It's probably because I am!

Chase Cannon · Answer

Kyle - there are a number of ways to find this information, and most of them require you going to the local courthouse where the property is located. If I was tracking this down for a client, I would first go to County Clerk's office and make sure your neighbor owned the property at his death. There could a situation where he had a life estate or some other scenario where he lived there but the property is owned by someone else. I would then check to make sure your neighbor had a will. This should give you a good idea of who is in charge of his estate as well as who may receive the home after his death. Sometimes the deed records and the probate records are in the same building, and sometimes they aren't. It depends on the county.

If your neighbor did own the home at the time of his death and his daughter is the Executor, here comes the tough part. In every will that I prepare, I provide the Executor's address at the time the will is drafted so there is no confusion. However, most wills don't provide Executor contact information so the tough part will be getting contact information for the Executor. A will may state who it was prepared by so you could contact the attorney who drafted the will and see if they can provide the contact information. Also, usually, a probate process will require notice in a local publication for other beneficiaries so you could watch the local newspapers. One key thing to remember is preparing an estate for probate takes time, and an Executor is not able to act until certain court proceedings have taken place. I know Indiana has several types of probate processes dependent on beneficiaries, amount of assets, etc. so I would check with Indiana Probate laws so you are aware of all types of situations. Hope this helps. Good hunting!

Who owns this Indiana home???

Most Popular Reply