In 2020, we were contacted by a woman in Yukon, Oklahoma who had found an old postcard we had mailed to her parents years earlier about purchasing their home. By the time she reached out, both of her parents had passed away, and the property had since been damaged in a fire. She was ready to sell — but the situation was more complicated than a typical estate sale.
She wasn’t the only heir. Her sister was also entitled to half the property, and her sister was incarcerated. Beyond that, her sister didn’t have a valid ID, which every title company in the state requires before anyone can sign closing documents. The sale couldn’t move forward without both signatures, and without an ID, her sister couldn’t sign anything at all.
Most buyers would have walked away from a situation like this. We didn’t. We started by visiting the jail in person to get a purchase agreement signed — the first step to keeping the deal alive. From there, we took it further: we posted her sister’s bail ourselves and gave her a ride home once she was released. Then we helped her navigate the process of getting a new state ID so she could legally sign for her share of the inheritance.
Once everything was in place, both sisters signed the sale documents. They walked away with the money from the sale, free of a fire-damaged house neither of them was in a position to deal with, and free of a situation that had felt impossible to untangle on their own.
Some sales take more than a cash offer. This one took patience, problem-solving, and a willingness to go wherever the sellers needed us to go — including the county jail.