You never know who or what the question may be when you answer a phone call. I have turned my efforts toward internet marketing, with great results. This also has increased area from where phone calls are received.
Yesterday I am calling back a young man located hundreds of miles away from my office. I am thinking to myself another referral. I was wrong. It turns out he is selling his Aunt's home. She had passed away accidentally in a boating accident.
As I probe with my questions it becomes clear he isn't in a position to sell his Aunt's home. The property is in probate court and has not been ruled on yet. We can sell the property with a contingent on probate acceptance. The problem is we cannot list the property with our local MLS because we do not have the documents for authorization to sell.
As I share these issues with this young man he says OK well my mom will have to fill out the papers anyway. I am just helping her with finding the right people to represent us.
Even after my questions, my explanations and outlining of the selling process when a home is in probate he failed to share he is the executor of the estate. My first question, "Are you the executor of the estate?"
I finally get the right name, phone number and the information of the attorney representing them in probate court. We have now discussed the situation. The home turns out to be vacant land. The land was inherited 40 years ago and no one has looked at it on set foot on it since being inherited from the grandfather.
I look up the property and it is in the grandfather's name. They changed the tax mailing address to the Aunt's home and she has been paying taxes on the property. A trucking company next door has cleared half the land and now has a parking lot with semi-trailers parked and fenced.
I will be discussing with the trucking company this week the purchase of the vacant land. I wonder what they are going to think when they discover the lot that hasn't been touched for 40 years is for sale and they have to put it back to original condition. They may want to buy it!
You never know what or who your next call is coming from these days!
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