Buying probate home from heir w/ probable medicare medi cal debt

[Steve VanKast]

An older friend died who had a daughter. She had no will and claimed she "signed her house over to Medi-Cal in order to receive benefits. The tax role says it's still in her name. The daughter has not reported the death and was planning not to and just letting "them" take the house because she assumed there was more debt on the house than it was worth.

I like the house. It's right next door to my apartment complex and it's in horrible shape in a run down rural neighborhood. Kind of my specialty.

I called Medi Cal asking questions in general and they didn't have a clue. I assume the house would go into probate and that their debt is more than the house is worth. Where do I go from here? I thought perhaps to make a token offer to the daughter for a quit claim deed and have her or me report the death to Medi Cal and finding out how much is owed. There may also be some Medi Care or other debt.

Seems like a quit claim deed from the daughter would be enough to pay a title company to do a title search. Would the Medi Cal debt show up on that or would I have to wait till after the death is reported to them to find that out? I know nothing about how probate works. Should I ask the daughter to appoint me as executor of the estate in order to let me deal with the court in addition to a quit claim deed or be going another route entirely?

If there is more debt than it's worth I'm thinking that the court will order the property sold to pay for it.  Perhaps I'd be better off trying to buy it outright from whoever the court appoints than buying it from the daughter.