My mother’s house just went on the market, which meant the asking price has gone public. As part of the probate process, the names of all of the heirs were publicly posted a while back. There are skeevy people who are tracking that kind of information, who instantly swoop in and contact the heirs, asking if they’d like a fast advance on their inheritance, for the price of a small, tiny, hardly even mentionable fee, so small that they don’t even mention it, and you won’t know about it until after the estate is settled.
It’s like a payday loan scam run by funeral-chasing ghouls. I think I’ve just learned about a whole ‘nother industry full of people I hate.
My whole family is about to get junkmail from these horrible people who promise painless advances on their inheritance, except for the big bite they take out of it (one company was going to skim off 20%) and the nuisance to the executor (me) and his lawyer. I’m just telling everyone to be patient, we’re making good progress on the estate, and I’m hoping we can get everything cleared up by Christmas, so I only have one complicated tax year.
(In good news, we’ve already had 3 people tour the house, so maybe it’ll go fast.)
Although only a few people have toured the house, I wonder if there’s already a noticeable profile of the average person buying houses in the area. You have to be relatively well-off to consider buying a 400k plus home. I hope the people touring are actual families or people intending to live there rather than those looking for their second summer vacation or Airbnb investment or anything else like that.
Seems an increasing proportion of the human species have adopted the role of parasite in the human ecology.
This is why you want to set up a trust. It won’t go through probate. And you by-pass all that stuff going public.