One Owner Thinks He Owns the Whole House. He Owned a Fraction.

If you are stuck because one owner thinks he owns the whole house, this one is for you. On a house in Richmond, one heir was certain the entire place was his. It was not. It took six months to get there.

I’m Raul Bolufe. My company buys the shares of individual heirs in inherited houses across Texas, and about once a month I meet a man who is sure he owns a house he only owns a piece of. I’m not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. It is what happened in Fort Bend County.

The deed that started the argument

The house on Boss Gaston Rd had been in the family a long time. When we pulled title in January, the deed had something on it that trips up a lot of families: survivorship language.

Survivorship language on a deed means that when one of the owners named on the deed dies, that person’s share goes to the other owner named on the deed, not to their kids. That is the whole idea. It is one sentence on a piece of paper and it changes who gets what.

On this house, that sentence, plus who had passed and in what order, made “who owns this now” a genuinely hard question. Hard enough that the title team we work with and our attorneys spent months on it.

And one of the heirs, I’ll call him Terry, had reached his own conclusion. He owns the whole house. All of it.

When one owner thinks he owns the whole house

I have a lot of patience for Terry, and I want you to have some too if you are the sibling or cousin on the other side of a man like him.

He was not lying. He believed it. To him the matter was settled. Every offer we made, he answered the same way. He was not selling a share of anything, because there were no shares. He owns the whole house, end of story.

Meanwhile the heirs who wanted out had signed with us. We owned their pieces. So now Terry was in a standoff with a company that owned part of a house he thought was entirely his. That is a strange place to be, and he was there for about six months.

What happened, beat by beat

January. The title report comes back. Survivorship language, more than one heir, back taxes owed to Fort Bend County.
Spring. The heirs who wanted out signed and were paid. Terry did not.
The affidavit. Our attorneys needed a sworn statement from an heir for a court filing. Marchel on my team walked into her own Bank of America branch and got it notarized for free, no appointment. Best price we got on that whole file.
The deeds. Two of the recorded deeds came back with notary scans so bad they could not stand. My paralegal spent an hour fixing them and getting them recorded again. A notary’s scanner should not be the hardest part of a deal, but some weeks it is.
The taxes. The back taxes had to be dealt with. We funded a tax loan and paid Fort Bend County. Our money, not the family’s.
July. Terry came around. What changed was not the offer. It was the math.
August. We closed with Independence Title.

The conversation that finally landed

I am going to give you the two sentences that ended six months of arguing, because if you are dealing with a Terry of your own, they might help.

One. You do not own 100 percent of this property. The deed, who passed when, and the family tree put your share at a fraction, and the paperwork shows it.

Two. The back taxes come off the top before anyone gets anything, and we are the ones paying them.

That was it. Once Terry understood that his share was a piece of what was left after the taxes, and not the whole house free and clear, the number we were offering him for that piece stopped looking like an insult and started looking like money. He agreed in July. We closed in August.

Nobody yelled. Nobody had to drag him anywhere. He just needed the math to be about his actual share, not the house he thought he had.

What this means for you

A deed with survivorship language does not automatically mean one person got everything. Who passed first, and who else is on the paperwork, changes the answer. Let someone pull the title before anyone plants a flag.
The heir who says he owns the whole house is usually not a crook. He read something and believed it. Facts, laid out patiently, work better than fighting.
You can sell your share while he is still arguing. The other heirs on this deal were paid months before Terry agreed. His opinion did not hold their money.
Back taxes come off the top. Every heir’s share is a share of what is left. That is the sentence that ends most standoffs.
The paperwork problems are ours. Bad notary scans, court affidavits, tax loans to the county. None of that landed on the family.

The short version

A house in Richmond with survivorship language on the deed and more than one heir.
One heir told everyone he owns the whole house. He owned a fraction.
The other heirs sold to us and were paid. We handled the court affidavit, two bad deed scans, and a tax loan to the county.
Six months in, he understood the taxes came off the top and his share was a piece of the rest. He signed.
Closed in August with Independence Title.

If somebody in your family says he owns the whole house, and you are tired of arguing about it, call or text me at 936-380-6384 or fill out the form. Tell me the address and who passed away. I will pull the title and tell you what you actually own.

About the author

Raul Bolufe has bought and sold real estate since 2012, closed more than 800 deals, and paid more than 100 heirs for their share of inherited property across Texas and Florida. He hosts the Flipping Miami Podcast. More at raulbolufe.com.

He Said He Owns the Whole House. He Owned a Fraction of It.