@Benjamin Orr
Hey Benjamin! I live in Beaver County, about 20 miles NW of Pittsburgh. I will share my experience with you since I had a similar situation. In my case there were heirs, but for some reason they didn't pay the taxes. Maybe too much work needed on the house and they didn't want any of it. But someone was mowing the lawn and to this day I don't know who that was.
I bought a house in 2014 at Judicial sale. I'm not brave enough to buy at upset sale without having a professional do a search and I don't want to spend money on a house I may not get; the competition here is fierce. There can be hidden liens on the property that aren't so easy to uncover. Hopefully that won't happen to you.
First off, no title company will insure title until you've owned it for a minimum of a year. There is a reason for this - someone can come back and say they didn't get a notice. Now we all know that in PA there is no redemption period, but a case can be made and upheld. Therefore, my real estate attorney advises to wait one year before doing any MAJOR work on the property. Because if someone comes back to try to claim the property, although you will get a refund of the purchase price, you can lose all the money you put into repairs. After a year I guess they feel it's seasoned and a person of interest had plenty of time to come forward.
Yes, you can change the locks, you can get the house rented if it's in good enough shape to do so without spending too much. But within that year I wouldn't do any work on it that I couldn't recoup in a year from a tenant.
So I waited my year...the house was in really bad shape and needed a total renovation to make it livable. After the year I started the rehab and then put it up for sale.
A buyer came along and, surprise, the lender's underwriter demanded a quiet title. The reason why was because the owners had passed and they wanted to make sure that every heir had received notice of the tax sale. That process would have taken months and cost me thousands of dollars. Luckily, I was able to talk them out of requiring the quiet title since the owners had passed 6 years ago and no one had come forth in all that time. But in your case the death was only 2014, so I don't know how that will work out.
My RE attorney advises that you get the title insurance before you get a buyer so things won't get delayed at sale. Not a bad idea.
The personal belongings are now yours. Sell them, throw them away, whatever. You bought them with the house.
Message me if you'd like a great resource for tax sales in PA. It's written by my Pittsburgh real estate attorney. He calls his courses lawyer in a box and they're cheap. I would post it here but I don't know if that is permitted.
Good luck with your house!
