All Forum Posts by: Bryan Davis

You're just looking for a way to contact whoever currently controls the property. If the owner of record is still alive, that's the person that you want to talk to. If they're deceased, you want to talk to the heirs or the executor. The beauty of sending a letter to the property address is that they will often get forwarded to the current owner's property address, not always but enough to be worth a stamp. If you don't know what to say in a letter I'd be happy to share mine. Now if you notice that the mailbox is overflowing, this isn't the case, don't waste your stamp cause they aren't getting the letter. If the owner doesn't want to sell than all the info in the world won't help ya so get in touch with them first and worry about the rest once you know that there is a deal to be made.

A few things that have helped me in similar situations:
First I like to talk to the neighbors, you'd be amazed at how much they know. If that fails...
Send 'em a yellow letter. I used to own and operate the website cheapyellowletters.com (and that's not a plug, I shut down the website a couple of years ago) and I still use them myself. They work wonders. Finally...
If that doesn't work, try a skip trace. I use American Information (Matt Foley) to be exact. It's a private investigator service and they'll track down the homeowner for about $68.
I just left my 9-5 and got back on the horse after being out of the game for a few years so you can be certain that I'm practicing what I'm preaching. Good luck with your first deal. - Bryan D.

I am currently working with the widow of a deceased homeowner and the situation is a bit complicated. The homeowner and his first wife purchased the house but never had any children but the first wife had children from a previous marriage. The first wife died but the homeowner never took her off the deed. The second wife was married to the homeowner for 6 months and had no children before the homeowner died; she was never put on the deed but according to the widow she is the executor of the estate and has 60% ownership of the property. The property is now abandoned, the widow has moved out of state, and the property may have a year of back payments from a home equity loan the homeowner and his first wife took out in 2004. Now to my question. Does anyone know what I would need and from who to purchase this property? The widow is totally compliant with getting rid of the property and is happy to sign off on anything, likely for free. I'm trying to figure out if I need to track down the children of the first wife from her previous marriage and if so, what would I need from them. Furthermore, since Texas is a homestead state is that why the second wife/widow is the executor even though she was never put on the deed? Thanks for any info.