All Forum Posts by: Christopher Olsen

Here's an update:

On July 14 we finally got administrative rights to the estate. 3 days later, we sat down with her and our realtor and offered her a very generous relocation package amounting to six months rent if she moved out that weekend. She turned it down. She did agree, however, to cooperate with us selling the house while she was still living there. She even signed a COVID-19 waiver.

The next day, a for sale sign was on the lawn and we had an offer three days after that.

I had previously reached out to her family and they were somewhat sympathetic to our dilemma. They had not, up until that point, agreed to co-sign a lease for her if she found another place. Her only income was $900 a month social security and her credit was not good. I was more than willing to pay a lump sum of money, but I had to draw the line at co-signing a lease for someone I barely knew. But without a co-signor she was not going anywhere any time soon.

The final deal went like this: I gave her $3500, a room full of furniture I didn't want and an old truck that we were planning to donate to charity. Her daughter and sister co-signed a lease on an apartment. She moved out a week before the house closed. As it turned out, according to her family, she had actually deluded herself into thinking that she was going to get to live there indefinitely. What turned her around was the for sale sign going on the lawn and the realization that we were serious about selling the house. 

The money came out of my dad's estate so I didn't really miss it, considering the house sold for 40k over what we asked and about 100k more than what we had thought we would get for it at the time my dad passed away.   

@Robert Schulmeisters you will need to go to the district website and read the board agendas. All public info. Also a great cure for insomnia.

Another source may be the website of the local teachers association (“union”). If they are in contract negotiations there would be chatter about the budget, teacher layoffs etc.

Redfin: $395,000

Zillow: $456,000

Realtor: $419,500

Median price per square foot x Square footage: $425,000

2018 remodel (down to the studs), the house is turnkey. 

I'm pretty sure the neighbor knows all of this, and also knows that we know all if it too. He's not stupid and knows we aren't either. 

 How much lower would an iBuyer offer be? There are reasons other than a potential "good deal" that this guy is interested in our house - a place for his niece, some control over who is neighbors are etc. He may be willing to pay close to full market value, in other words. 

I think they call this a "less than arms length transaction."

My brother and I will, hopefully, be selling our inherited house this summer. The neighbor across the street has expressed an interest in purchasing it. He wants it for his niece to live in apparently, and apparently can pay cash. 

If we reach a deal before putting the house on the market, can it all be done without realtors getting involved? Are there any other savings in such a deal?

Risks? Pitfalls? 

I've been reading a few stories about how Bay Area tech companies may let employees work from home indefinitely even after the pandemic is over, and that may cause a shift in real estate values. Specifically, people would no longer need to live commuting distance to their job in SF or the Silicon Valley, and would be tempted to move out into the central valley where real estate is about half the price, but they could still drive into the office if they really had to.  

Would that mean that things don't look so bleak for selling the house in Sacramento that my brother and I are inheriting this summer? It's a turn-key recently remodeled 3/2, biking distance to downtown and CSUS. All paid off. We'd love to get 450-500k for it. 

Also, might my wife and I be able to snatch up one of those 1m Bay Area condos for cheap because home prices near bay the end up tanking while our house in east Contra Costa county holds steady? Just dreaming. 

Good News! (hopefully)

We have already been to the house several times to collect valuables, photos, our own personal property, and important papers. Another thing I inherited was POA and sole trusteeship for my 100 year old grandmother. My dad kept really bad records, and shared zero information with me (I didn't even know my grandmother had a trust) and there was a lot of detective work involved in getting this info.

The tenant has been mostly cooperative, albeit very nosey, with us in that regard. 

As I mentioned in my original post, it is mostly things she has said that have us very worried that she would not leave willingly. If she truly had nowhere to go and only to $900 a month SSI, I actually wouldn't blame her for trying to stay there for the absolute longest amount of time all the way up to the day the sheriff arrives. Added to that were comments of a very sentimental nature about it being "her home" and how my dad and her were "planning a life together," and clincher -  "Your dad said you would take care of me."  As I said, my brother and I barely know this lady. 

Well, I finally reached out to one of her family members (oldest daughter) who has assured me that if she has not found a place to stay by mid-June, that she will come and get her or help her out financially in order to find a place. It turns out that this person does have some options. She also, in my opinion, might be growing very tired of living there with all of my stuff (which I'm pretty sure she has not touched). 

So hopefully, we are back on track for being able to put the house on the market in July. 

We filed for co-administration in January. Our original court date was in April, and now is pushed back to July. 

What I'm trying to do is avoid the whole eviction process. In that scenario, everyone loses. 

I've been researching this a lot as I am an adopted child of someone who recently died without a will. In California, the remainder would be divided between the remaining siblings unless the adopted child who died had a spouse or children, then his or her share would go to them. 

The probate code should be very clear about it. In California, it says that adopted and biological are treated the same in most cases. 

You purchase a house. At closing, you find out there is a person - maybe an adult child, relative, or friend, who was living with the family and refuses to move out. They claim that since they have lived there for a certain amount of time, they are a tenant and that you will have to evict them.

What do you do?