How to Verify What is Said by A Real Estate Agent?

Attorney Thomas B. Burton answers the following question:

"How to Verify What is Said by A Real Estate Agent?"

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Today's question has to deal with real estate and the reader ask the following:

“Home-listing, the owner’s deceased and the agent says, ‘the kids told him they have the right to sell’. How do we verify?”

So first of all, this sounds like if the owner’s deceased, this is a property held by probate estate. So whoever's name this personal representative of the estate, if there was a will or no will, it would be called the personal representative or if the home was held in a trust, it would be the trustee, would have the authority to enter into a contract to sell the home.

To verify you can ask the children for the letters testamentary issued by the Probate Court which give authority to the personal representative to act in administering this estate. Or if the home is held in a trust, ask for a copy of the trust document which shows who is named as trustee and what authorities they have after the person who made the trust dies. That would be the way to verify who has the authority to hire the realtor and sell the home under a listing contract.

So great question and thank you for asking.

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