Hey everybody!
I have a motivated property owner who is ready to sell. The issue is that he added another person to the deed when he purchased it back in 1996. He has not spoken to this person in 25 years. How would we go about getting this deal done? I think this individual is an ex-girlfriend and he has no desire to try to contact her or find her himself.
@raeganbuysland, that’s a fun one. Do you have enough information about the person to try to skip trace them yourself (find a phone number or current mailing address)? I recall that RETipster has a blog post about skip tracing, and I’ve personally had some good results using https://www.fastpeoplesearch.com/ as a free tool.
If the deal is worth it, and if you find what appears to be a valid current address for the 2nd owner, and if this person doesn’t respond to phone/text, then you might consider sending them a letter via FedEx. Regular mail can easily get tossed in the trash or left unopened for weeks at a time. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t open a FedEx courier envelope when they get one. I had to do that once when a seller (who’d already signed a contract with me) stopped responding. It worked and I was able to salvage my double-close deal. Also, if FedEx is not able to deliver it, I think you’re more likely to get a timely notification of that. With regular USPS mail, depending on class of postage, you either won’t be notified at all that it couldn’t be delivered, or if you are notified, it will probably take several days longer at the very least.
@dl7573 This is going to be a can of worms. Say you find the person. You will be asking for a quit claim, I presume, or is your client willing to share the proceeds of the sale. Even if the person is dead, her estate is entitled to her share.
Good luck.