Deceased property owner with tenants and no will

[Nick Kim]

I’m trying to purchase the neighboring property of my clients investment property but the owner is deceased (2017) and has no husband or kids. I found out that the deceased property owner has an attorney friend that rents out the house and is collecting the rent and is probably paying off the property tax.  There is no mortgage and I tried contacting her to purchase the property and mentioned that the owner is deceased. She then got upset and hung up on me.

Hypothetically if the deceased owner has no will, can the attorney friend do this? Is she even able to sell the property since it’s still under the deceased owners name? How can I put some pressure to go into probate in order to have the chance to purchase the property from the state?