The first thing almost everyone tells me is that they called a lawyer, got quoted a few thousand dollars for probate, and hung up. Then the house sat for another six years. Most of the time you can sell an inherited house without probate, and that quote was the only thing standing in the way.
I’m Raul Bolufe. My company buys the share of an inherited house that belongs to one heir, across Texas and Florida. I’m not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. It is what we do on real deals.
Most of the deals we close are exactly that.
Why probate is not the only door
Probate is a court process. It is the formal way to prove who inherited. It works, it is sometimes the right answer, and it costs money and months.
There is a second door that most families have never heard of. It is a sworn document signed by people who knew the family, recorded at the county, that states who the heirs are. Title companies accept it every day. That is how we sell an inherited house without probate on most of our deals, and it is why families who were quoted thousands end up paying nothing.
It is not magic and it does not work on everything. If there is a will that somebody actually wants enforced, if the estate is being fought over in court already, or if a lender needs a court order, probate is the road. We will tell you that instead of wasting your time.
One thing families get wrong constantly: recording a will at the courthouse is not the same as probating it. Filing the paper is administrative. Probate is a judge. A recorded will sitting in the deed records does not give anyone authority to sell.
What the affidavit needs
To sell an inherited house without probate, the affidavit has to hold up for the title company. The structure matters more than families expect.
- One affiant. A family member who signs and swears to the family history.
- Two disinterested witnesses. People a couple of layers away from the family who get nothing from the sale. A neighbor, an old family friend, a cousin. Not a son, not a daughter, not a brother or sister. If they stand to gain, they do not count.
- Death certificates for everyone in the chain who died. Sometimes that is two or three people, because heirs die too.
- A full family history. Every marriage, every divorce, every child, including the ones from a first marriage that nobody mentions until the title work comes back.
- A lien search on every single heir. Not just the property. Each person, because a judgment against one heir attaches to that heir’s piece.
Why they get rejected
Title companies kick these back, and it is almost always one of two things.
The first is the witnesses. Somebody used the deceased’s children because they were easy to reach. Those are the people inheriting, so they are not disinterested, and the affidavit is worth nothing.
The second is that it simply is not written properly. Not enough information. Gaps in the family history. A marriage nobody mentioned. A child left off. The document has to close every loop or the title company will not insure over it, and they are right not to.
That is the part worth paying somebody to get correct, and on our deals that somebody is us.
What we handle and what you do
Here is the honest division of labor.
We pull the title work and find out who actually inherited, which is regularly not who the family believes. We track down the heirs nobody has talked to in years. We draft the affidavit and find the witnesses if you cannot. We order death certificates when the family cannot produce them. We send a mobile notary to wherever you are, including out of state. We record the deed. We pay you after it records.
You tell us the address, who died, and roughly who is in the family. You sign. That is the job.
That split is the whole reason families can sell an inherited house without probate at all. The work did not disappear. Somebody else is doing it.
If an heir is in prison, that is not a wall. Most units give access to a tablet with email, and contracts get signed that way. We closed a Fort Bend County deal with an incarcerated heir doing exactly that. If someone is in a nursing home, out of the country, or simply refuses, we work around them, because your share does not depend on their signature.
What it costs you
Nothing.
You do not pay for the title work, the affidavit, the death certificates, the notary, the recording, or the attorney time. We carry all of it. If the deal dies, we eat it, and deals do die.
What you get for your share is a few hundred to a few thousand dollars depending on the size of the deal, the property, the condition, and how complicated the family is.
And when the house has liens on it, back taxes, a child support lien, a judgment, a demolition order, code violations, those become ours once we own a piece. We call, we negotiate, we pay. In Brazoria County we settled a six figure lien for under five percent of face and got a demolition order lifted on the same property. You are not in those calls.
What this means for you
- Being quoted thousands for probate does not mean you are stuck.
- You already own your share. Probate proves it, it does not create it.
- A recorded will is not a probated will. Filing it changed nothing.
- You can sell your own piece without the rest of the family agreeing.
- An heir in prison, out of state, or unreachable does not stop your sale.
- Every heir gets run for liens, because one person’s judgment can eat their own share.
- The witnesses cannot be the people inheriting. That single mistake kills more affidavits than anything else.
The short version
- Most families can sell an inherited house without probate using a recorded affidavit of heirship.
- It needs one family affiant, two disinterested witnesses, death certificates and a complete family history.
- We build all of it and pay for all of it, which is what lets you sell an inherited house without probate at no cost to you.
- You sign with a mobile notary and get paid after the deed records.
If the house is still in a dead relative’s name and probate is what stopped you, call or text me at 936-380-6384, or fill out the form. Tell me the address and who passed away.