The house is free and clear and the lady has been paying the taxes on the property for that last two years to keep it current.From my research in the Illinois probate process, it seems like you can file the paperwork yourself for small estate valued at less than $100k (which would be the case in this situation) and avoid going through the courts.

May be the case in your area.

I wonder if that is the case in all of their markets??

My realtor however says he has never had a case in which this happened before, and he has been in the business a long time.

That is not the case in other states, such as Ohio, where you can transfer to your LLC or personal name and only have to pay a recording fee of around $50

In any case in the current world and political climate I strongly recommend working with a property manager even though thats an 8-10% hit on gross revenue (though a good PM is very much worth that IMO)  I would recommend trying very hard to avoid buying a single house to rent out.   

I believe that is the case in Montgomery, Howard, Frederick and Baltimore Counties and City.

Suppose if you're caught in a few other things like people involved in the Trump campaign, they can get after you.In our case, in our purchase, my wife had a $100K account with her mom that she manages, plus we got ourselves a $120K HELOC which we haven't used yet.

Case in point true story : went to look at a house owner said "I just closed on a note expensive property and just want to sell this one.

They are a special case in most states.