Foreclosure / auction following a death

[Becky Jairaj]

I live in an older condo association and at our annual meeting I learned that one of the owners died January of 2018. The association president has been unsuccessful in reaching next of kin regarding the condo and anyone at his lending agency is unwilling to divulge information. It’s now been 10 months, if and when this goes to auction, how can I be notified? I’m new to this and don’t know much about auctions and if there are any contingencies when it comes to foreclosures due to death. I think it could be a great deal and has great rental potential. Thanks!

[Dave Passey]

@Becky Jairaj Your best option will be to find the heirs. Someone is out there. You will need to be better than the HOA guys at looking. They don’t really care if it gets foreclosed on or not. If you can find the heirs then you will be able to buy the property. Do some skip tracing, talk to a title company to do some research, search for genealogical records connecting them to someone. If you wait for it to go to auction then you will pay more and be competing with other buyers that weren’t willing to put in the work. Plus the bank is tacking on fees and costs every day which increases the amount they wIll be willing sell it for. If you want to wait for the auction, then you will need to have cash (or equivalent) at the auction for the purchase.