Dealing with a probate home, and probate, or even selling a house is not something your normal person goes through every weekend. We get that and understand you might have questions. Most people do. Heck, you might even have questions about us and who we are. Totally normal. Below is a list of questions we get asked pretty often. Hope you find it helpful!

Can I sell a home during probate? When? – Yes. One of the main goals with probate is to give one or more family members the legal power to sell a house that is owned by a deceased relative. Typically your attorney starts probate and will appoint one or more relatives as the “personal representative” of the estate. This could be called other names but the point is this – someone is in charge. That personal representative can sign a contract to sell the home after they’ve been appointed.

How can I get the most money for my probate home? – This will be different for each situation. Our suggestion is to get all your options together – offer from Probate Home Helpers, talk to Realtor, get quotes for repairs/updates needed, see if any family wants to make an offer. Then compare all of those honestly. Factor in how long each will take and costs associated with keeping the home during that time – utilities, insurance, mortgage. Generally speaking, if your house is in a great area and need no repairs/updates (updated in last 5-7 years), then your highest chance of making the most money is to sell via a Realtor (or use an entry only agent, we can help find one if you don’t know one, saves you 3%). The downside is this takes time which is risk. Will the house sell in 1 month? 3 month? 6 months? If your house needs a little bit of updating/repair work, you will find that it’s 50/50. You would do about as well to update it and sell it via a Realtor than if you sold it to Probate Home Helpers. If the house needs a lot of work, generally your best option is to sell as-is for cash to Probate Home Helpers.

What are the best updates to make to a home to sell it fast? – flooring and paint on the less expensive end. Kitchen/bathroom counters, bathroom tiling on the more expensive side. Also don’t ignore the boring stuff – roof, heating and air, water heater. If those are working but older than 15 years, you’ll want to replace them. Would you pay full price for a house that had a 20 year old heating and air system that should only last 15 years knowing it will die any moment???

My Realtor says the house is worth more than I think, what are the risks there? – A Realtor isn’t going to write you a check to buy the home. They have no skin in the game. If the house doesn’t sell, they lose nothing. If it does sell, the get paid. So the risk of trying to sell a home for more than it is worth, is your time and money. This isn’t true of all Realtors, but some like to fluff a little bit on the value of a home to entice people into working with them. We get it, but we prefer the honest path even if it isn’t what people want to hear.

What is a wholesaler and why should I avoid them? – A wholesaler is an investor that is presenting themselves as a buyer of your probate home with cash in hand. In reality, they only want to sign a purchase contract with you so that you are stuck which allows them to sell the home for a markup to another investor. Example – wholesaler signs a contract with you for $100,000. They then call Probate Home Helpers and say this house is for sale at $105,000. The wholesaler makes the difference or $5,000 as profit. The main risk with wholesalers is you’ll end up selling for less than you could and/or you waste a lot of time/money.

How do I identify a wholesaler? – It’s hard sometimes but mostly there are 2 things. First, they only put down $10 or $100 earnest money. Earnest money is typically 1% of the sales price and is owed to the Seller if the Buyer backs out. Since wholesaler often back out, they only want to lose a small amount of money. Secondly, their contract will say “and/or assigns” or “this contract is assignable”. Those phrases tell you the “buyer” is actually not a buyer, but a wholesaler.

Is Probate Home Helpers a wholesaler? – No. We have lines of credit with local banks and our own money to purchase homes. We never wholesale and always close.

Can I sell a home that is in foreclosure but also probate? – Yes! It can be more challenging but we’ve bought a ton of homes in foreclosure and probate. Just give us a call and we can help.