Vacant or reo property

[Scott Kennedy]

Newbie in Kansas City here.   There's a vacant or reo property in town and the county website lists the address of a bank in another state.  I'm guessing this is an reo then?  Can I get some suggestions on which person I should talk to and what questions to ask?  Also, how would I access the property if the bank from another state is the owner.

[Frank Chin]

Originally posted by @Brock Thomas:

Ok let’s say this wasn’t a foreclosure... maybe an elderly person who moved in with their kids or died.  You do a title search and find the owners name and there is no debt on the house.  What would do to find the owner?  I have used some skip trace companies and sent mailers, etc... no luck.  My biggest problem is finding the owners of properties right now.  Who’s your who BP?

I have one such candidate, living in my living room right now. My mother in law is 93, took a fall this June, a cracked vertebrate, and won't be living at home for a while. How long? We don't know.

She has a paid up home. My wife goes there once or twice a month to take the mail, clean up the place. If an investor send her a mailer there, my wife would throw it in the garbage. That's why you have no luck with mailers.

Now, here's the thing. She hasn't given up on her life yet and believes she will be home soon. She has no need of money, and for estate reasons, and the booming market here, a bad deal to sell now. While it's her own home, she won't pay any gains tax, and with the size of her estate, not pay any estate taxes, still, the arguments for keeping it is stronger than selling it.

Also, in her condition now, it would be cruel to expose her to anxious investors. In fact, besides being physically frail, we're even wondering if she has all her mental faculties. So if you spent all that money on skip tracers, be ready to spend more on lawyers defending yourself when you're accused of cheating little old ladies.

If you found a way to find the owners, she has three children, lets say you found us, you would be just another solicitor that we have to get rid of. If she makes the decision to sell, the home contains a lifetime of memories and it'll take a good six months or more to clean up. Right now, we don't have the time to clean the place up for her. I know this as my mom died just two years ago, she lived in her home for over 50 years, and it took my brother over six months to clean up the place, He found my high school year book there, photos of me when I was a baby. 

Your better bet would be getting info from the probate courts. In these cases, if the decedent has children, they would at that point be more ready to decide what to do with the property. If not, if they died intestate,  there is an administrator appointed to handle assets.

Don't waste any money on skip tracers.