The Reality Behind FIGHTING Over an INHERITED Property
I’m Brad from Georgia Probate Resource. Thank you for watching this video.
Probate Story
Today, we have another probate story to share. I just got an idea for this last night and I want to tell you about a situation we are dealing with. We are working on a deal where a family had a property, and there were a brother and a sister, along with their parents. After their father passed away, the house was transferred to their mother. She lived in the house until her passing in 2015.
Who Should Be The Administrator Of The Estate
When the mother was sick, her son and his wife moved into her house to take care of her. The mother’s daughter lived in another state and was not present during this time. After the mother passed away, the son and his wife continued to live in the house. The son filed for probate following his mother’s death and petitioned to be the administrator of her estate since she did not have a will. The sister of the son contested his petition to become the administrator.
So the sister did not want her brother to be appointed as the administrator. She presented a rebuttal to contest this decision. However, she eventually sought legal counsel to represent herself and the matter went back and forth in court. Ultimately, the brother was appointed as the administrator. After this, the sister expressed her desire to become the administrator instead.
The Rebuttal
In response, the brother wrote a two-page-long rebuttal contesting her fitness for this role. The main message of his rebuttal was that his sister was not present when their mother was alive, whereas he and his wife took care of her. In fact, his wife even quit her job to become a full-time caretaker for their mother.
Also, the brother had to bear all the expenses related to the property as the sister didn’t contribute anything. He paid the mortgage payments and maintained the property using his own money because he had been living there for a year or two before their mother passed away. They also sold their house to become their mother’s caretaker. This proves that the brother wasn’t just a perpetual renter and was not looking for a free place to live.
The court approved the son, or brother, to be the administrator of the estate. But, was he doing a good job at it? It’s debatable.
After talking to him, I can tell that he’s a bit of a scatterbrain, although he’s a super nice guy. We had a long conversation with him last night. He also mentioned that he runs his own business, which I can relate to.
I tend to be a bit scattered myself. It’s amusing how selective memory can be—remembering some things vividly while forgetting others. I find it relatable; running my own business means juggling numerous responsibilities. If you’ve ever managed your own business, you know the feeling—wearing multiple hats, handling a multitude of tasks, and sometimes even stepping in for employees. It’s not something that easily switches on or off. I could leave work at 5 o’clock at my previous corporate job and unwind. However, disconnecting and reconnecting with your own business is not as simple. The demands persist, making it challenging to switch off entirely.
It’s just not the same as having a regular job where you show up and get paid. Those of you who are entrepreneurs and business owners can relate to this. If you’ve never been in that position, you may not understand, but that’s another story for another day.
Cleaning Out The House
Basically, he was an administrator for a few years and his mom was a hoarder. They had to clean out the house and ended up with a substantial amount of stuff that needed to be disposed of. He and his wife spent their own time and money on renting dumpsters, donating items, and putting in effort to get the house cleaned out.
They managed to clean out the house and even allowed his sister to come in and take whatever she wanted. She arrived with a U-Haul truck, but only because she planned to collect furniture from a friend’s nearby house.
Selling The House
Later, during a court hearing, the sister expressed her desire to sell the house for monetary gain, even though the brother still lived there and acted as the administrator. She claimed he wasn’t fulfilling his duties, so the house needed to be sold.
Many situations end up in a “he said, she said” scenario. Consider there are always two sides to every story. In this case, he explains, “I intended to sell the house,” while his sister believes it’s worth a different amount. I have my estimation of its value.
Moreover, the brother works in contracting and repair construction. His perspective is that the house is in severe disrepair due to our mother’s hoarding and multiple cats. There’s cat urine throughout, clutter everywhere—it’s in a dire state.
We spoke to him again last night and looked at some pictures of the house. The rehab required for the house is going to cost around $100,000. I know it sounds crazy, but it’s quite common for houses that need a full rehab. We need to replace everything and take everything out, which can add up quickly. We looked through the house thoroughly and got this lead from one of our private investors, who invested some money in our business. He knew the person who wanted to sell the house.
So we received a lead and upon inspection, we estimate the cost of rehabbing the property to be anywhere between $75,000 to $100,000. However, it’s difficult to determine an exact cost as there is still a lot of stuff in the house. In fact, we recently purchased another hoarder house, and only after cleaning it out, did we discover a foundation issue that was previously hidden by all the clutter. It’s easy to miss such problems when the house is filled with so much stuff.
Disagreement On The Value Of The House
It seems that there is another house that requires $10,000 for the rehab budget to fix the foundation problem. The total cost for the rehab work is expected to be around $100,000. There is a disagreement between a brother and a sister about the value of the house, which is causing delays in selling it. The sister thinks that the house is worth a certain amount of money, while the brother thinks it’s worth a different amount. The brother has received offers from a mom-and-pop investor, a real estate agent, and Opendoor or Offer Pad. The Opendoor offer was declined.
Most people don’t realize that companies like IBU, Offerpad, and Opendoor have a limit on the amount of repairs they are willing to invest in a property. If a house is in really bad shape, these companies might not purchase it since it would require too much work. In this case, the house required extensive repairs, but a purchase offer was still made.
The buyer offered a price for the house along with an estimate of how much the repairs would cost. The brother had a good understanding of the house’s value and the amount of work required to make it marketable. However, the sister was overestimating the value of the house and thought it was worth much more than it actually was.
The Legal Battle Continues
So, the brother and sister were in a legal battle regarding their family estate. The sister fired her attorney and hired another one, which caused the brother to hire his own attorney as well. This led to multiple attorneys representing each other’s side and a long legal battle in probate court that lasted for years.
Finally, in 2022, it was decided that they needed to appoint a court-appointed administrator to handle the estate, as they could not come to an agreement about who should manage it.
They had to appoint an attorney and pay them to be the administrator of the estate because they couldn’t agree on who should be the proper administrator. The back and forth continued until the administrator finally completed the probate process. Then, they had to sell the house.
The administrator decided to deed the property into 50-50 ownership between the brother and sister to settle the estate. The brother continued to pay the mortgage as he lived in the house and there was only a small balance owed.
The property has a mortgage that is almost paid off. When the property was deeded over to the brother and sister, the mortgage went with it. They are now 50-50 joint owners of the property.
After the estate was settled in probate, the probate court handed over the responsibility of dealing with the property to them. However, a year later, they are still fighting over the property. The brother mentioned that his sister has consulted an expert who says that the property is worth around $380,000 to $400,000 when fixed up. They have also compared the sales of similar properties.
What’s the Appropriate Value for the House?
I do this for a living, so I analyze the numbers before coming to a conclusion. According to my analysis, this house is worth 325,000 at best, all fixed up. I don’t know where the other person got the number of 380,000 from, but they are mistaken. They will be in for a rude awakening when they put all this money into the house and try to list it for 380,000. It’s just not worth that much money and it’s not going to sell.
Many people make this mistake, they don’t evaluate properties accurately, and they think that the house is worth more than it actually is. So, they end up dumping a lot of money into it, but when they go to list it, it just sits on the market.
Many homeowners make the mistake of pricing their property too high in the hopes of making a big profit. However, when their property fails to sell, they start blaming their real estate agent and fire them. They repeat this process several times, not realizing that the problem all along was the high price of their property.
The solution is simple: lower the price. Real estate is a game of supply and demand.
There is a price point at which someone will buy the property. Many people make the mistake of thinking that their property will sell for an unreasonably high price, and they keep increasing the price. This is a problem, especially in a hot real estate market. However, we are not in a hot real estate market anymore.
Overpriced House
If your house doesn’t sell within a day or two, or even three, it means you’ve overpriced it.
The market has changed a bit now, and the average days on the market is around 30 days. So, if your house doesn’t sell within a month, it’s your pricing that’s the problem. You should reduce the price, and that will fix everything.
However, people tend to count their eggs before they hatch. The same thing happened with another house, and it ended up sitting on the market for a long time.
This house, too, will likely sit on the market for a while. As I mentioned earlier, around $100,000 is needed for the house’s rehabilitation. At one point, the brother received a cash offer of $150,000 from an investor like us.
The siblings had a small balance on the mortgage and $150,000 left. They were going to walk away with over $100,000 in their pocket, to split between the two of them.
The sister decided to evict her brother from the house and partner with an Investor to rehab the house. They plan to sell it for $380,000, but they may be in for a rude awakening as the house is only expected to sell for $325,000. It will take at least six months to rehab the house due to the level of the rehab required, after which it will be put on the market. The comps suggest that it will ultimately sell for $325,000.
They are selling the house for $325,000, but it would take around $100,000 to renovate it.
So after deducting the renovation cost, they will be left with $225,000. However, there are additional expenses like realtor commissions and insurance costs that they have to bear.
So, in the end, they can expect to get around $200,000 from the sale of the house. The owner has an investor partner who they will have to pay a share of the profits. The profits will be split 50-50 between them, and the brother will also get his share.
Despite all the legal battles and hiring an attorney, the net profit will only be slightly higher than the $150,000 cash offer they initially received from another investor.
The Wiser Choice
Yes, they might earn a bit more by flipping and rehabbing the house themselves. However, when you consider the legal fees, the prolonged court battle between the brother and sister, the invested time, and effort over the past few years, it’s a different story.
Initially, accepting the $150,000 cash offer might have been the wiser choice, concluding the matter swiftly.
Tripping Over Dollars
Presently, while they’re generating more profit, they seem to overlook the expenses incurred to attain that extra money. There’s a famous saying—though I’m not sure of the origin—that fits this situation: “Tripping over dollars.
In the pursuit of picking up nickels, you’re missing the dollars right in front of you. It’s like focusing on the nickels, trying to collect them, and stumbling over the dollars nearby. That’s precisely what’s happening here—they’re so focused on grabbing those nickels that they’re stumbling over the dollars. They’ve lost sight of the bigger picture. Accepting the $150,000 cash offer from the investor could have resolved everything without these complications.
In my opinion, the offer of $150,000 was fair. Since this was an investor cash offer, no agent commissions were involved, and it was an off-market deal. This means that each of them would have walked away with about $60,000 in their pocket after the sale was done.
This is what we specialize in – easy, hassle-free deals.
As an agent, I can list the property for you or offer you a cash deal. But in this case, there are no fees or commissions involved. So, it would be a good idea for each of them to pocket the $60,000 and be done with the whole thing.
The Moral Of The Story
They fought this out for years in court and spent tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees, to battle each other over a few bucks. The moral of the story is, is it worth it to you? This happens a lot, where families end up fighting each other and it’s no longer about the money. It becomes about getting revenge on a family member who has caused offense. And this is what it all boils down to. The question you have to ask yourself is, is it really worth it? Is the revenge worth all the time, effort, and energy you put into fighting each other over this? Ultimately, it’s important to consider whether it’s worth putting yourself and your family through all this to get revenge.
If You Are In This Situation
I understand that this video is quite long, but I felt the need to share this crazy story.
We often deal with families who are in conflict, and it’s like being a referee in the middle. I try to make them understand that they need to step back and think about the situation. What are they going to achieve by fighting like this? It’s up to them to answer this question.
If you’re going through a similar situation, I encourage you to pause and think. Unfortunately, the only people likely to watch this video are the ones being bullied and not the bully. But, if you are the bully, and maybe you’re not aware of it, please take a moment to reflect. Is it worth ruining your relationship with your sibling? Only you can answer that question.
Sometimes people place too much value on money when, in reality, it is just a thing. If you don’t learn to control money, it will control you. Therefore, it’s essential to ask yourself whether you’re controlling your money or letting it control you.
I hope this video has opened your eyes, and maybe you found it entertaining. We have many more stories like this, and I appreciate your time.
Let’s Connect
Again, my name is Brad and I represent Georgia Probate Resource, a real estate solutions company based in Metro Atlanta. We purchase properties all over Georgia, with a focus on probate and inheritance properties.
If you’re looking for a quick and easy cash offer for your property, we are happy to buy it, even if it’s full of stuff. Alternatively, if you prefer to list your property with an agent and get the highest possible value for it, I am a licensed agent myself and can help you with that. My agency is called One Source and is located in Woodstock.
Thank you for taking the time to watch this video and consider our services. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or if you’d like to discuss your options further.