No will equals possible mess!

[anteater]

I am paranoid. I am cautious. It must be that "fiduciary breach" word being thrown around. But thanks for answering my question in regards to selling the house.

Aw... That's just Tranq. He likes to scare people. Tranq is primarily a tax guy. Part of the job description for a tax guy is to scare people.

95% of fiduciary duty is The Golden Rule. The "Do unto others..." thing. Even if it is a dirty, low down creditor. Or a bothersome brother....

 

[softy515]

Oh my. One thing I have learned about this process so far? That I will NEVER do it again. NEVER!

Of course with most deceased folks, it won't be so complicated. My Dad, he left a mess.

We siblings still are doing ok, disagreements that are usually based on misread emotions and easily corrected.

I fear that the sibs are in such a hurry to finish this that they are making bad financial decisions that to be honest, I am getting to tired to fight. Fine, lets sell the house for next to nothing to the first offer just to get it over with. Sigh.

In the meantime, I am still working on getting some organization for the unfiled tax years, and there are many of those! Oh, lets not forget the missing car titles, missing titles to mobile homes, missing this, missing that.

A word to the wise: get your personal stuff in order so you don't leave a mess for your kids. And if you have a hoarding parent, don't sign on to be in charge.

One thing, our attorney seems to be on the ball. But he is charging us hourly and WOW does that add up fast. I don't even want to call him with a question unless I have other issues at the same time since a single call can cost a lot. lol

I still think about backing out of this. But I think I would be disowned. lol

 

[softy515]

Can we transfer deeds to property without an attorney? These are the properties out of state.

Our attorney here found another in MD but is very expensive plus it took him like 3 weeks to even get a fee agreement to us. In the meantime, our local attorney is trying to get a hold of him..... which means we are getting billed for all this! To be honest, we need to cut down the amount of time the attorney here is working on our case. It is really getting expensive.

 

[anteater]

Can we transfer deeds to property without an attorney? These are the properties out of state.

Whenever you ask a "Can" question, the answer is almost invariably "Yes" - unless, of course, we are talking about an action prohibited by statute, ordinance, etc.

The question that you need to ask is: "Is it a good idea to try this myself, given that the consequences of a goof-up may not be apparent until well down the road?"

 

[tranquility]

I agree with anteater and note even attorneys tend to answer the question in the negative. Deeds are forever and it is usually best to go to an expert in writing them.

 

[softy515]

Thanks. But should it cost a retainer of 750 and 300/hour?? This is 3 deeds to transfer, how many hours of work we looking at here?

 

[anteater]

Thanks. But should it cost a retainer of 750 and 300/hour?? This is 3 deeds to transfer, how many hours of work we looking at here?

Just for creating and recording the 3 deeds?

If only for that, I'd say $750 seems a bit on the high side. Any more than $750, I would balk, unless things are really messy. It depends on locale, but I was going to suggest $300 - $600.

 

[tranquility]

An attorney does not have to do the work. There might be a title insurance or escrow company with appropriate expertise. (Assuming there does not need to be attorney involvement on the transfer.) Your current attorney should be able to find a reasonably-priced source.

As to the price, around here $150 per deed would be fair.

 

[softy515]

Ok, even the local attorney said the MD guy was pretty high.

I told the local one that I would look around to see who my Dad might have used in the past.

 

[softy515]

Ah heck, another update.

We siblings haven't killed each other. We are all still working on things..... selling, auctioning.... lawyers.... and the list goes on.

On a good front, we located the attorney my Dad used in the past in MD and he is AWESOME! Opening probate down there right now, sending the deeds (should get them tomorrow) to sign/notarize. As soon as probate is officially open (next week?) he will file new deeds at court house.

What he had us do is deed the 3 properties to the three of us equally THEN redeed to each individual. He explained why but I didn't really understand it. Since it wasn't costing more to do the extra step, I wasn't worried about it.

It will still take many more months to get things all sold here in PA.

It's been a wild ride for sure! And I have finally contacted the IRS to get that ball rolling.