How can I find Deceased owner's family

:banghead
My son was cutting grass right next to a property that has been vacant for 3 years. After some digging, I found out that the owner died in 2005. The property is full of his belongings. To make it even better, There was another house on the block that he also owned and is in the same condition.

The man was about 98 when he died and none of the neighbors seem to know anymore than that. There are taxes for both totaling just less than $20,000. The ARV is 150,000 or more. Does anyone have any other ideas in finding the family of this man. They are solid properties and I would like to buy them.

Cjm - have you checked to see if someone have already bought the tax liens? If it has been 3 years I would guess that if someone bought the liens he/she would be able to foreclose soon.

The other idea is to check with the probate court. They may have information - and I believe the probate procedure is open to the public - one of the reasons why people try to avoid it…

Good luck!

I would suggest doing a skip trace on the property or the deceased person and they will be able to give you names, phone numbers, and addresses of any possible relatives that you can contact. Also contact the county. We are currently in the same situation with a vacant home that we found. The county records showed the owners name, but we had to call them to find out that he was deceased. We paid for a skiptrace from findtheseller.com and mailed and phoned all the contacts they gave us. We have heard nothing back from them, but the home is going into auction after the summer and we plan to attend as the tax balance is only 20,000 and the house is in a neighborhood where you can easily wholesale it to a builder. Goodluck!

Thanks for the answer back. I had never heard of skip tracing. I DID try it, unfortunately, they did not have any relatives listed. Iwill be using this method again.
I called the county courthouse and they told me to give written request for Probate records. If the house is in probate, it should show who is responsible right now.
This is a great deal for 2 properties and I can’t do anything. :banghead
I will keep going.