Whole sale deal, seller not up front about deed

[TamaraFaye Smith]

Need some expert advise on a whole sale deal I’ve been working on for over a month. Was supposed to close last week and seller is just now telling me title insurance won’t be offered because the relatives “can not go on the deed”. To my knowledge you can not sell a house with out all signatures to the deed let alone offer title insurance or list it on the market. If the relatives aren’t on the deed then there signatures shouldn’t be required right?

[John Teachout]

If it's an inherited property, it's possible there's a number of heirs that have a legal piece of ownership and haven't "signed off" their portion. So in other words, the people selling the property don't have full ownership of it. This is speculation on my part based on the very limited info you provided but it's one reason why houses sit empty for years and years and eventually fall down or get scraped by the city.