Buying a property with a deceased owner

[Noah Carrico]

The title and mortgage are all still in the name of the deceased owner. Her closest living relative is a daughter who lives out of state. I have not been able to find any records of a probate, will or deed that would have transferred ownership. Additionally, the mortgage has gone into default and is now in pre-foreclosure and will be put up for auction this December. I would like to try to buy the property before then, if possible. What options are there in a situation like this? Any relevant advice or perspective are welcome.

[Jeff Copeland]

Quote from @Noah Carrico:

Who would I need to arrange that with? Heir(s) and the mortgage company?  And would that be a process of taking over the loan or just an extended purchase? 

A deceased person cannot enter into a contract or convey title to a property, and it's doubtful you could assume the mortgage. In the scenario I described, you'd literally just be making their mortgage payments for them (the lender doesn't care where the money comes from, you just need the loan/account number and a mailing address for payment), in order to buy yourself some time to sort out the probate issue. 

Needless to say, you need to be 100% sure the heirs will play ball, otherwise you'd just be throwing money away. And this already carries a lot of risk, because the outcome and timing of the probate proceedings is unknown, and Cousin Joe could show up out of the blue with a will that left the house to him and blow your plan out of the water. 

In many cases, the heirs just don't want to deal with it, for emotional reasons or whatever. If they aren't fully engaged and willing to see it through, it's a non starter.

Likewise, unless this is the deal of the century with tremendous upside, the juice often isn't worth the squeeze. 

I'd suggest starting with the heirs to see if they need or want help sorting out the probate issue, and determine if, how, and when there's a payday in it for them. From there, your next stop would likely be a probate attorney.