I came across a great buy on an old fixer house. The seller informs me that because of her fathers directions gave the house to a lady with something called a life Deed, and explained in all the years since, the lady has never paid the taxes and she is borrowing water from a hose next door that she also owns and just sold. She tells me the occupant is 72 yrs old and will be forced out because of the water situation and is technically in default for the taxes.
On top of all this, she has it listed with a mean old Realtor, I offered the realtor a ridiculously low price which the seller accepted. The realtor called and asked to meet her to do the paperwork and give her a $1,000 deposit, I said I will do a 100 dollar deposit. The ol battle ax tells me Oh No, I never accept less than $1,000 I tell her Im not doing that cuz its too much of a risk with a house with a bad title. Then she says either you want it or you dont. I tell her I want it, if its got a transferable and clean title. She then says, so your offer is contingent on a clean Title? Then she got really irate and told me she wud get back to me.
What kind of mess is this? And why wud this realtor and seller be involved in trying to sell a house with a clouded title? Why does the Earth wobble on its axis? So many questions.
A life deed in states which uphold them is a life time right to use the property with out payment, and the person who owns this deed has to either convince this lady to leave and sign her rights away or wait for her death.
You don’t want this property as the county tax assessor will eventually have first rights to collect all back taxes, interest and penalties first from the property. So there may not be any equity left after this depending on the property value.
Well, thats not the problem, the seller claims she has been payng the taxes for the old lady and its current.
I never heard of the life deed. I cant think of a reason this old lady wud want to leave, except soon shes going to be without a water source and cant afford to fix the well. This old lady cud live another 30 yrs,
If she no longer likes or wants the house, she could very well hope to take her cash and move somewhere else. But just because the old lady has a life estate/deed does not make her the property owner. It appears as though you will need to negotiate purchasing the old lady’s life estate rights plus purchasing the real property as well. Unless the resident is willing to sign off and leave, you are not looking at any value here.