953 » Deals Gone Bad #16 - Adverse Possession on a Complicated Probate - Lisa Even

For six years, Lisa Even has worked specifically with distressed properties in the Phoenix market. Weird clouds on the title or city violations don’t scare her because those usually mean that the seller is having a harder time getting rid of the property.This particular property was vacant and had a number of city violations, which made it a hot lead because it meant that it wasn’t being taken care of at all. At the time, Lisa went and physically knocked on the door of the woman who filed for probate because that’s how she operated at the time. Up until this time, she’d always operated under the assumption that someone who filed probate was an heir to the estate.Except for this property. The long-time tenant had attempted to quit claim a deed from herself to herself, and you cannot actually do that. Well, you can go buy a form from Office Depot and pretend, but the title company isn’t going to go along with your plan.And yet, even though the quit claim deed wasn’t valid, the long-time tenant did have a verbal agreement and one other very important ace in her sleeve: she’d paid the property taxes for years.Finding the real heir to the property and dealing with another heir that had dollar signs in her eyes was a challenge. And even though the roof was caved in on the property and the house would have to be bulldozed, there was enough potential money in the deal that Lisa kept at it until she had it under contract.What's Inside:—Don’t be scared of visibly distressed properties, or properties with tricky legalities, as long as the spread is big enough.—Why more than one violation makes a property a hotter lead.—How a long-time tenant can gain a claim on a rental property, even if they have no legal contract.