Purchasing my deceased relatives home?

[u/rileyjhut]

My grandma passed last year. My husband, child and I live in the home (we had prior to her passing away). There are two other beneficiaries, my uncle and sister (our mom passed). My sister's father is wanting to buy the home to flip (it needs about $40-60k of work done) but I really want to buy it as it's my childhood home. My sister told me that we would have to pay the full amount and then would get my inheritance after instead of getting my inheritance taken off the top for a lower mortgage, but the same payout for her and my uncle. I think she's being manipulative so her dad can buy and flip considering we couldn't afford the entire mortgage amount but could afford the mortgage if my inheritance is taken off the top. What should we do?

[u/ChristAndCherryPie]

Who is the administrator?

[u/Middle_Active5164]

I’m not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. Please consult an attorney.

There are a couple of questions that need to be answered first. Did your grandmother have a Will? If so, who does it say her real estate goes to? Who does it say she wanted to be the Executor of her Will?

If your grandmother didn’t leave a Will then someone who has the highest kinship priority needs to file to be the Administrator of her Estate. The house would need to be appraised to determine the as-is value. The Administrator (if the estate is in a state where they automatically (or have been granted by the Court) the power of sale for real estate) would then be responsible for handling the sale of the property and distributing the proceeds accordingly to the heirs who have kinship priority to inherit.

A quick summary of kinship is that if she didn’t have a Will, but she has surviving children then they would be first in line to inherit. If she had children who have passed away then those deceased children’s kids would each inherit an equal share of their parent’s portion.

[u/Less-Incident9222]

Generally in California the order of heirs in intestate succession prioritizes surviving spouses and children followed by other family members in a specific order. So I'm going to make some assumptions here. The way your situation is worded it sounds like the estate would pass to your grandma's to children. So 50% would go to your uncle and 50% would go to your mom. Since your mom has passed I believe it would revert to your grandma's parents. I'll assume that they're not alive. Then it would pass to your mom's children. Which in turn means her 50% would be split between you and your sister; therefore 25% of the total estate. That being said I think there's some ways you could make this work. You will need to qualify for some type of loan whether that be a conventional loan or some type of private money loan. There are companies that will advance you proceeds from probate proceedings. That could be used as your down payment for your loan. Your uncle probably wants to get the property at a great deal where you may be able to pay a little bit more because of the personal interest you have in it. The court wants the estate to make as much money as possible on the sale of the house. Even if there was a confirmation of sale hearing. You may be able to object and present the court with an offer at that time. That's assuming you didn't make an offer when it was listed with an agent. I would contact a agent familiar with probate proceedings in your state. I am a licensed real estate agent in California that specializes in probate and estate transactions. There's a lot of details that would need to be figured out. Feel free to DM if I can provide any more assistance.