VERY complicated wholesale deal. Advice?

[Bryan Davis]

I've been working on a wholesale deal for the past month that's become a real frustration and I'm about ready to throw in the towel on it and follow up later but I thought I should ask for new insight first. I located a house while "driving for dollars" that upon investigation has been passed from deceased grandparents to deceased children and now to three living grandchildren. There was no will, there is no executor/executrix. After utilizing a skip trace report from findtheseller.com (I'm not an affiliate but I'm a HUGE fan of the service), ancestry.com, and facebook, I finally tracked down the three heirs. One of the heirs is behind bars, one is a state away, and the other drifts between Texas and California. I've come to an agreed purchase price of $20k with the drifter and the jailbird while the other just wants $1000 to walk away. Now that everything SEEMED to be in order, the drifter seems to have "drifted" off again and isn't responding to any contact while the other two siblings are pushing to move forward. The house is worth around $90k repaired and needs $20k-$25k in rehab. Any advice on how to proceed or are we all relegated to waiting till I can herd all three of these cats into a corner? Thanks.

[Rick H.]

As Ellis San Jose mentioned, anyone who thinks the worst case scenario is that they'll receive 2/3 or liquidated proceeds is incorrect.

In dealing with a pre-probate scenario, the decision must be made if you intend to buy the asset, buy heirs' or beneficiaries' interest, or merely focus on plays that make a profit.

If you buy the interest(s) and probate the estate yourself, you become the PR and have the exposure to all known (and unknown) heirs and creditors as the fiduciary. I've had many estates end up with no equity when unsecured creditors like Medi-Cal pop up.

If you want to just buy the asset, someone else needs to be appointed PR or at least complete the summary probate (or similar process in your locale for a small, informal estate).

If you are only interested in making a profit rather than owning the asset, there are many, many exotic and sophisticated plays than can be executed.