Merrell and Krystal give examples of common real estate fails and how they show up in probate. It’s important to get in front of the right attorney, one who practices in their area predominantly.
Timestamps
:48 – Example 1: Dad is getting ready to move into assisted living, and wants to sell his condo. But there are some major issues with the deed (as in, Dad doesn’t own the condo because of a quit claim deed from 1994 that conflicted with his mom’s will from 1996.)
2:44 – Life Estate definition
3:30 – Example 1 – Incredibly, the same attorney who prepared the quit claim deed was the same one who prepared Mom’s will and created the mess. Krystal explains how Dad’s siblings also own this property. Two have passed away. Each sibling’s interest passed according to their will, or laws of intestacy. Someone has to open probate for the deceased siblings before the property can be sold.
5:20 – Example 2 – A piece of Florida land owned by 59 people that took multiple probates to clear it up.
6:50 – Example 3 – Mom and Dad had separate trust-based plans, so the homestead was owned 50% by each. But Dad’s half never went into his bypass trust when he “got on the bus.”
7:50 – Clean up a title before passing a mess on. Or it will be costly, and several people/multiple generations of family will need to find a way to come to an agreement.
9:25 – Deed swaps are complicated and create taxable events.
10:05 – Why it’s important to meet with all of your documents so that an attorney can get the whole picture.
11:10 – Merrell’s frustrations about “threshold law” (as in, ‘anybody who crosses the threshold of the door, we can do it.’) Also, shout-out to attorney Joe Seagle in Orlando, and why we outsource all deeds work to his office – because he’s really good at that.
12:35 – Back to example 1, Grandma thought she was doing everything she should have been doing. Unfortunately, it looks like she was, but she was getting it done by someone who didn’t know what they were doing.
12:50 – Example 4 – YCLF looked at four wills a few weeks ago. Not one had a residuary clause. No excuse, because three of four of those wills were prepared by attorneys.