Can I buy my own home?

[cwucowboy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington State

My mother passed away nine months ago leaving the house to myself and my brother. He has no interest in the property and would not agree to any of my offers to buy him out. Now he wants to put it up for sale on the open market. Even though I am half owner of the house can I legally place an offer for the house through the real estate agents?

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by cwucowboy

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington State

My mother passed away nine months ago leaving the house to myself and my brother. He has no interest in the property and would not agree to any of my offers to buy him out. Now he wants to put it up for sale on the open market. Even though I am half owner of the house can I legally place an offer for the house through the real estate agents?

**A: how did mother leave the property to you and brother? Was it by will or via joint tenancy. If via will, the property would be subject to probate.

[cwucowboy]

There was no will. She did not create a will prior to her passing. To my best knowledge both my brother and myself (only siblings) are entitled to 1/2 of the property. I offered to buy him out with an offer of half the value of the house but he continuously tried to tack on additional terms and wanted fees such as interest for as long as it took to pay him (I'm overseas on assignment and asked for some time until I returned). Due to that our "negotiations" fell through. Now he wants to put it on the open market. My understanding is under WA state law it becomes both of ours.

My question is this, once it's up for sale on the market am I legally allowed to place a bid on it even though I have an interest in the property myself. By using a real estate agent or a lawyer of my own, once I return to the USA (in less than a year) can I make an offer on the house or is it considered to be something like a conflict of interest.

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by cwucowboy

There was no will. She did not create a will prior to her passing. To my best knowledge both my brother and myself (only siblings) are entitled to 1/2 of the property. I offered to buy him out with an offer of half the value of the house but he continuously tried to tack on additional terms and wanted fees such as interest for as long as it took to pay him (I'm overseas on assignment and asked for some time until I returned). Due to that our "negotiations" fell through. Now he wants to put it on the open market. My understanding is under WA state law it becomes both of ours.

My question is this, once it's up for sale on the market am I legally allowed to place a bid on it even though I have an interest in the property myself. By using a real estate agent or a lawyer of my own, once I return to the USA (in less than a year) can I make an offer on the house or is it considered to be something like a conflict of interest.

**A: please answer my question. If title was not in JT and there was no will, the property would be subject to probate.

[justalayman]

Originally Posted by cwucowboy

There was no will. She did not create a will prior to her passing. To my best knowledge both my brother and myself (only siblings) are entitled to 1/2 of the property..

As usual, HG is correct but sometimes his brevity causes those without no knowledge concerning a situation even more confusion so;

as HG stated, if there was no joint tenancy, your mothers estate (not just the house) is subject to probate. You may be entitled to 1/2 the value of the house but that cannot be determined without at least researching her estate to determine if there were debts and obligations the estate would be liable for. That is part of what probate does. On top of that, it provides the mechanism for title to a property to be transferred to the proper recipient.

So, as it stands, neither you nor brother actually own the property (based on what you have provided for info) since the mechanism required to transfer title has not been acted upon. Since neither of you own the property, neither of you can sell it. As it stands now, only the executor or personal representative of moms estate can sell the property and that person would be established through the process of probate.


So, now refer back to HG's questions.

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by justalayman

As usual, HG is correct but sometimes his brevity causes those without no knowledge concerning a situation even more confusion so;

as HG stated, if there was no joint tenancy, your mothers estate (not just the house) is subject to probate. You may be entitled to 1/2 the value of the house but that cannot be determined without at least researching her estate to determine if there were debts and obligations the estate would be liable for. That is part of what probate does. On top of that, it provides the mechanism for title to a property to be transferred to the proper recipient.

So, as it stands, neither you nor brother actually own the property (based on what you have provided for info) since the mechanism required to transfer title has not been acted upon. Since neither of you own the property, neither of you can sell it. As it stands now, only the executor or personal representative of moms estate can sell the property and that person would be established through the process of probate.


So, now refer back to HG's questions.

**A: thanks**************..

[cwucowboy]

My brother was named as the executor of the estate, paperwork filed through a lawyer and agreed upon by me as I am not in the USA and it would have been difficult for me to settle her debts. Her only debts left are some medical bills due to her long drawn out treatments and those have been paid off with her residual monies from her bank account.

The property itself had been paid off a long time ago after our father passed away leaving her a large enough insurance policy to pay the rest of the house and live comfortably until her death. All taxes had been paid, bills were kept up on time by her. As I said the only thing that she didn't take care of were the bills that presented after death which we've (myself and my brother) have been clearing with the rest of her money.

[cwucowboy]

If I'm not clear it's because I didn't go to law school and this is my first time with anything like this.

But the impression I'm getting is this:

Even though my brother may be named as the exectuor of the estate it is basically as if it was being sold by a third party. Either of us could make an offer on the house and then the proceeds of that sale (minus the real estate fees, property taxes, title transfers, etc) would be divided in half and given to each of us.

Would this be a correct interpretation?

[HomeGuru]

Originally Posted by cwucowboy

If I'm not clear it's because I didn't go to law school and this is my first time with anything like this.

But the impression I'm getting is this:

Even though my brother may be named as the exectuor of the estate it is basically as if it was being sold by a third party. Either of us could make an offer on the house and then the proceeds of that sale (minus the real estate fees, property taxes, title transfers, etc) would be divided in half and given to each of us.

Would this be a correct interpretation?

**A: the executor position has nothing to do with the title to the property.
You still have not answered my question.