Buying From Executor Of Estate...
Is there any room for creative financing on this deal?
I have located a piece of land about 1/4 mile from the city limits which is nearly 5 acres! A local bank is probating the estate and is trying to sell it for $238,000 and told me they have turned down offers in the $180-190k range. There are three heirs, all out of state.
I was thinking it was worth $160-$180k because it needs about $60,000 worth of repairs. The executors position is that the land is prime for development and the home should be buldozed!! There is a string of about 6-8 properties that would make this very hard to do because they are all similar in size and nature.
What options do I have?
Agreeing with flacorps, i'd also advise you that it's not difficult to find out who a deceased's surviving heirs are.
If you can learn about when & where the deceased died, then contact some Funeral Homes (mortuaries) in that area, you can quickly find the one who handled the funeral of the decedent, and they'll happily send you a copy of the obituary with details of surviving heirs.
"A local bank is probating the estate "
Sorry, this doesn't make any sense. A will is probated by the appropriate COURT, not a bank! Not their role or their right.
You need to go look up the probate file in the probate court, find the name & number for the person who's been appointed Executor and talk to him/her.
I applogize for the confusion. A local bank was appointed executor of the estate.
Ah, I understand, but would tell you that MY legal experience with IA banks is much less than satisfactory.
e.g. my little elderly woman client who was living on SS, got a letter from an IA Bank advising her they "represented" her sister in IA, and on her behalf offered to by my client's half interest in an IA SFR for $1000.
Turned out on my doing a little checking that their Mom had died recently and both sisters had inherited some RE in IA worth about $100,000...but da** bank was trying to slick my poor old woman into believing it was "nothing much" and trying to steal it from her...for the other sister!
Because of my intervention, my client got about $50,000 from these thieves.
If the bank is the Ex'r, then I would advise you to forget it and move on...bankers in general are too lazy to do great or even competent job in administering any estate, and work hard to favor their depositors & friends, and the mistakes they make are the stuff of legend and lots of newspaper copy everywhere.
I sure have run into lots of them I wouldn't trust across the room, much less across town.
If you're not bound by any professional ethics (like lawyers are) that require you to deal only with the estate's attorney or executor, I would prepare an offer at your preferred figure, and make darn sure all three heirs get a copy at the same time the executor does.
One or more of the heirs may be quite surprised, having heard nothing much from the executor. Better still, two or more might like your offer.
And even where one or more don't want to sell, you might be able to cause a distribution, get control of the property and keep the non-selling heir(s) as a partner in your deal. There's no telling what could happen.