The Deed That Shouldn't Exist: Deed Fraud, Probate Reality, and Protecting Inherited Property | Tammy Legette

REE #330 Transcript

[00:00:00] Tammy Legette: Each property taught me something different. And what I learned as a Realtor who had already been in real estate and, you know, had multiple clients by that point, is that inherited property is a totally different animal.

Hey, welcome back to the Real Estate Excellence Podcast. Most agents avoid inherited property because it’s complicated. Today’s guest built her entire career around it ’cause she had no choice: Tammy Legette, Charlotte-based broker licensed in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Ghana. A certified inherited property navigator, an author of From Death to Disposition: The Deed That Shouldn’t Exist.

[00:01:11] Tracy Hayes: Her platform, Inherited Property Navigator, was born from a deed fraud case involving her own family. Fraud was proven in court, criminal conviction was entered, and the property record still wasn’t corrected. Twenty-six years of experience, fourteen years in mortgage, and a mission that most agents will never understand. Let’s welcome Tammy Legette to the show.

[00:01:32] Tammy Legette: Thank you so much. Thank you.

[00:01:33] Tracy Hayes: I’m really glad you came on. And you obviously aren’t under my normal radar. You went on my website and put in, and I said, “Now, this is gonna be an interesting conversation,” because I think it’s important. And people who obviously educate themselves and maybe go onto your website there, educate themselves, ’cause the pain and agony that families go through when someone passes and you get siblings and so forth. And sometimes it costs them a lot of money to clear up what they, you know, I won’t say, I guess, rightfully theirs. They wanted the parents wanted to go to them, or whoever it was that they inherited down, but the challenges.

So, Tammy, welcome to the show. It’s gonna be a great topic today. Tell us a little bit about, and eventually why you got it, what was it about real estate, what led you to real estate? And then we will, obviously, we’ll talk about your story and why you chose to focus here on this topic.

[00:02:29] Tammy Legette: Okay. Well, of course, I’ve been in real estate for twenty-six years. Back in 1998, my grandmother passed away. When she passed away, I started then to learn about the estate. It was the first time my mom and I had to literally go downtown, open up an estate. I started learning about, of course, property at the time.

At that time, my husband and I owned a real estate company—I’m sorry, a moving company, Legette Moving. And being the person that was the salesperson, always going out to homes, I thought, “I wanna be the real estate agent. I see the signs in front of the yard.” I’d met some of the real estate agents as I was out there as the salesperson for a moving company.

And I came home one day and I told my husband, “I wanna do real estate.” And he said, “Okay.” And one day he literally called me and said, “You still wanna do real estate?” I said, “Yes.” And that was in 1999, October 1999. He said, “Okay, start school.” And I started school on Monday, and I haven’t looked back since.

[00:03:27] Tracy Hayes: Just tell us, we always have some new agents on, a lot of my listeners. I would like to think that, you know, the agents that I have on are always top producers and, you know, sharing a little bit about their beginning in real estate. Obviously, you had been from the moving side, so you had, you know, agents had referred you business. You saw, you know, had an idea of one side of what was going on involving the moving business. But tell us about your first year or two in getting started. Was it easy for you? What are some of the things that you did?

[00:03:59] Tammy Legette: Well, my first year, of course, being self-employed again, from having a business that was already established, going in and establishing this new business, it wasn’t easy. I did have a great broker in charge who took me through all the different tools of marketing, the website, and how to set up my own website.

At the time, I did a lot of lead gen. I mean, I was one of those agents that was boots on the ground. As I teach agents now and train, I let them know, I said, “You remember those signs back in the day that was up that you now see that says, ‘We buy homes,’ or ‘Call me’? See, we were doing that way back twenty years ago. You know, twenty-three years ago, we were out, we were the ones out twelve o’clock at night with our husbands, nailing up those signs. We were the ones that were taking postcards and, yes, we were inside the mall parking lots, putting them on your windshield, you know, every single car.”

We didn’t have the money. See, we were told back then that either you have the money to pay someone to do it, or you do it yourself. You take the time and you do it yourself. So we took the time, and I took the time, and I did it myself. With all the hard work, I began to have my own closings, you know, one at a time. And by the end of year one, I was up to two closings per month. And by year two, I was up to four closings per month.

By the end of year two, I had established my own builder. I was actually offered an opportunity to give a proposal for a local builder here in town, and I presented that proposal, actually won that contract, and had my own company, became a listing agent and agency for Barbara Builders.

I didn’t stop there. Kept going and started filling out paperwork online and became one of the REO agents for first at Wells, Wachovia, and then moved on and became Countrywide. Then the market crashed. So that market crash kind of changed everything. And that’s when I started working at Wells Fargo and began to get the mortgage experience. And they hired me to teach and to start, became a subject matter expert. And from there, I became an instructor, went full back into real estate when the market came back alive.

[00:06:06] Tracy Hayes: To give everyone perspective, ’cause I’m, you know, as you and I know, there aren’t many that have, you know, went through that time period. I started in the business of, you know, I have been in mortgage now twenty-one years in September. So I was there during that time period. You had experience dealing with REO properties and so forth, even before the collapse. So Wells Fargo saw the fact that you had the agent side of the intelligence and now, obviously, doing mortgages and how to actually find that happy medium in the middle is what they saw your talents in.

[00:06:42] Tammy Legette: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And then from there, of course, my heart and love is still real estate, so I continued to train in mortgage, you know, was a loan officer for several years, became a processing manager, and then became the master instructor. So from there, I never stopped doing real estate, though. With this company, I was allowed to still, you know, hold my license.

[00:07:01] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:07:01] Tammy Legette: And unfortunately, in 2015, my mother passed away. My mom was one of my biggest—my family, I would say. In 2003, I started seventeen investors, and like I said, became our REO agent and started working with investors. And my mom bought twenty-nine houses from me. She became my biggest investor. My dad bought fourteen, my stepdad bought fourteen. So my family were investors.

And in 2015, my mother passed away. When she passed away, she left fifteen homes. Fifteen homes. She was in the middle of a divorce. She had two companies. One was a nonprofit that I was the president of. It’s a homeless shelter for children age six to eighteen, homeless, abused, neglected, or in DSS custody. So it was a lot when she passed, with the properties.

But each property taught me something different. And what I learned as a Realtor who had already been in real estate and, you know, had multiple clients by that point, is that inherited property is a totally different animal.

[00:08:00] As Realtors, we look at it the same because we’re selling homes, but selling homes, as I tell my clients now, selling homes, that’s the end product. The beginning product is the grief. The beginning product is showing and telling your clients and letting them know and making sure that they have the right and complete steps.

’Cause as a Realtor, we can get involved and we can put that house on the market. And then what happens is it comes back off the market and it’s withdrawn because all the steps were not completed in the beginning to allow us to sell the home. So we went through everything. I mean, I went through a niece that would not sign, a house that went into foreclosure that, of course, never would want to lose my mother’s house, right?

And as a Realtor, it hurt even more because this is what I do for a living. And here I am with one of my own houses that are going in foreclosure because I have an heir that does not understand the process and would not sign. All the things that pretty much you can go through.

[00:09:00] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. You went through. Tell us because a little, ’cause I think a lot of families experience what I feel you telling me there. You’ve got that one family member who just doesn’t get it or refuses to get it. And, you know, sometimes when I, I’m fortunate I have not had this experience myself. The first thing I kind of assume or come to some reasoning of why this person is being that way is because of an ego, or thinking, you know, because you do know the process and your mom probably left you somewhat in control, or, you know, you knew what was going on. So you’re trying to give them instruction, but because you’re a sibling, they don’t think you’re being straight with them.

[00:09:42] Tammy Legette: Exactly. And I see that so much, especially I’m working with a family right now that this is going on with. Most families assume that, even the parent, as a parent myself who owns property, you assume that I’m gonna buy my homes and I’m gonna leave them to my children.

[00:10:00] General rule, generational wealth, gonna leave these homes to my children. We never imagine the issues that can come up after death. And the biggest one is your children not agreeing. One small disagreement can destroy your whole estate. And that’s the information I want people to understand, and that you must open up an estate.

I’ve had so many people come to me with a home that Mom passed away.

[00:10:27] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:10:27] Tammy Legette: They’ve been living in Mom’s house for the last five, ten years, and now they want to sell, and they never opened up an estate. And we need to go back ’cause you have no letter of administration. Did you have a will? And they say, “Yeah, I have a will. Here’s the will. Mom left me the house.”

Will’s not recorded. Never been probated. They just assume, “I have a piece of paper. I have this document where Mom left me the house. That’s all I need to do.” So my job now is fully on education and making sure, you know, individuals know.

We’ll go to school. We all go to school, but we are not taught in school what to do when something happens to a family member that owns property. Even though nine times out of ten, one of our family members will own property. But no one knows what to do when death happens.

[00:11:17] Tracy Hayes: And in your situation, you just had your one sister to work with?

[00:11:20] Tammy Legette: Well, in my situation, mm-hmm, we actually had multiple heirs. My mom was married in North Carolina, living in North Carolina, even though she was in the process of a divorce. She was still married. She was still legally married. So we have, of course, I had my stepdad to do, to work with. I have one sibling that was still alive. I have a brother that predeceased my mom by nine months.

So nine months before my mom passed, I lost my brother, who also was married and had two children. So that’s what people don’t understand. You think that once a sibling passes that the money or the inheritance just splits up between those other two children?

[00:12:00] It’s like, no, no, no. My brother had children, so immediately we, you know, of course, went down to the estate. My sister and I, she became the administrator of the estate. And as she’s the administrator of the estate, you know, we learned that my brother’s children, they’re not his wife, because he predeceased my mom. So you start to learn all these things. Yeah, because we assume my brother was married, so his wife would be the one that inherited. And he said, “No, she predeceased him. He predeceased her.”

[00:12:29] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:12:29] Tammy Legette: And that severed relationship between he and she and your mother. And once that happened, the children are the heirs. So now we have a fourteen-year-old that is an heir to fifteen houses. Well, I’m sorry, eight houses, because it was split up. She had seven of her homes in a company name, and then the other was in her personal name. Right.

So those that was in the personal name then became the ones that were split between all the heirs. And now there’s a fourteen-year-old involved. And with this [00:13:00] fourteen, getting ready to turn fifteen-year-old, you must go and you must be bonded. And people don’t understand that, right? You have a fourteen-year-old who cannot sign. So someone needs to be appointed for this fourteen-year-old.

Well, that fourteen-year-old turned eighteen when our first property started having issues and went through that first property with no problem, no issue. Everything signed, everyone received their funds. We went on,

[00:13:25] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:13:25] Tammy Legette: We came up to property number two, which had a tenant. Tenant moved. Had been there for many years, maybe about 10 to 12 years.

[00:13:35] Tracy Hayes: Oh, wow.

[00:13:36] Tammy Legette: So we knew this property needed work and would need, you know, a lot of work once she moved out. Once we seen the damage to this property, it was like, no, it’d be best for us to sell.

Signed. She signed. Everyone signed. No problems, no issues. Signed for the listing, signed for the actual offer. Four days before closing, decided, “I’m not gonna sign because somebody’s gonna steal my money.”

[00:13:57] Tracy Hayes: This is the eight—

[00:13:58] Tammy Legette: Eighteen-year-old.

[00:13:59] Tracy Hayes: This is the—

[00:14:00] Tammy Legette: Eighteen-year-old. Someone is going to steal—“Who’s gonna steal his money?” “Steal my money.” So, “Who’s gonna steal it?” “I don’t know either. You’re gonna steal it, Auntie. You’re gonna take my money, or my other auntie’s gonna take my money.”

It’s like, “Sweetie, that’s not how things work. The money comes, we’ve done this before.”

[00:14:14] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:14:15] Tammy Legette: Yeah, you’re on the money come—

[00:14:16] Tracy Hayes: You’re listed as one of the—

[00:14:17] Tammy Legette: Payouts. One of the payouts. And you did the last time you closed. Did you not bring your account number, and did your money not go directly to your account from the attorney? Not through Auntie.

You know, she said no, but someone on the outside made her think that, no, this is what happens. The person that is the administrator, they get all the money, right? And they’re the ones that split the money up, so how you know you’re gonna get your share?

So we went through the rest of the houses, but we ended up losing that house to foreclosure. And currently, that was in March 2019, we are currently still fighting to get that money back. That money went into, you know, it foreclosed. It then goes to the county and then goes to the state for assets, funds, and then you still fight to get your money back.

[00:15:03] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Well, you know, that just goes back to our, you know, we deal with this every day in real estate, just in regular transactions.

[00:15:10] Tammy Legette: Yes.

[00:15:11] Tracy Hayes: There’s always somebody who’s in their ear who knows nothing about what they’re talking about, clouding their mind, of course. And, um, like you had no track record, you or your sister, in screwing them over in any other money. ’Cause I could see that if there was a track record, then someone would be nervous.

But it’s like, well, there’s legal ramifications being the administrator of her situation as well. And if the administrator does not do what they’re supposed to be doing, they can, you know, obviously be taken to court. You know, so there’s, that’s really just—but that happens every day, and it’s sad. I just, yeah.

[00:15:45] Tammy Legette: It’s for different reasons. For different—

[00:15:49] Tracy Hayes: For different—

[00:15:49] Tammy Legette: Reasons, yeah. Mm-hmm.

[00:15:50] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Well, it’s just sad that, you know, I think the listeners, all of us, can think of something, and if you haven’t had this happen, it just hasn’t happened yet to you.

[00:16:00] That you’ve seen it, either someone close in the family where all of a sudden there’s money on the table, and it doesn’t matter if you’re blood. They don’t care all of a sudden, ’cause they’re married and they got another life. And just because you’re brothers and sisters or cousin, whatever it is, and you may be besties your entire life, all of a sudden there’s money on the table, and some people get crazy.

[00:16:18] Tammy Legette: It does. It happens.

[00:16:19] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. So this is going on with you. You get a, just a, obviously, I imagine it stressed you out, stressed your family out.

[00:16:31] Tammy Legette: Yes.

[00:16:32] Tracy Hayes: All, you know, the emotions of it as well. Obviously, the financial ramifications of battling these things out. What happens to you next to really dive into the Navigator, into the Inherited Property Navigator? What makes this your focus?

[00:16:52] Tammy Legette: Okay. So after inheriting the property from my mom, I never focused on my business, I would say, on inherited property. I did go [00:17:00] through all the different aspects of inherited property that, you know, Realtors go through. Not only the heir, but that a Realtor can go through.

And so I started training. You know, I am a trainer, and my company, Lifestyle International Realty, I’m one of the trainers there. So I decided to do a training called Navigating Real Estate After the Loss of a Loved One. That training was for the public, just to tell people and show people how to navigate the real estate and what happens and how things break up in North Carolina and just understanding the laws.

That training was a hit. It was a very, you know, I had agents calling, asking for a copy of that training.

[00:17:37] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:17:37] Tammy Legette: So the next training I did of this sort, I did a training called Helping Your Client Navigate Real Estate After the Loss of a Loved One. This was geared specifically to Realtors, and it was taught to our whole firm, which is, of course, international. And we’re located in, you know, a lot of states, have over 2,000 agents, 3,000 agents.

So this was taught across the board. Same thing, I [00:18:00] got a lot of response from it. Everything went well. That was in October of 2024. But what happened in September 2024 is my grandfather passed away, my mom’s dad. And at that time, my mom had five—it was five siblings, and all of them had passed away. You know, he lost all of his children before he passed.

[00:18:24] Tracy Hayes: Oh.

[00:18:25] Tammy Legette: So they all—

[00:18:26] Tracy Hayes: Oh, wow.

[00:18:27] Tammy Legette: Yeah. Yeah. So that made me not only the oldest grandchild, but the matriarch of our family at 48 years old. And I acted as such. I mean, my family definitely respect me as such because my mom was the matriarch before me and my grandmother before her.

So I didn’t even realize the responsibility that comes with being the oldest female in your family. So it was the two of us.

[00:18:47] Tracy Hayes: And has knowledge in the topic that we’re talking about.

[00:18:50] Tammy Legette: Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So my, and you know, my grandfather passed away in September. I did this training in October. End of October, I started working with a [00:19:00] family that they had inherited property from their parents, and sister was living in a property.

Well, during that time, sister passed away, and we realized, okay, now we need to open up the estate for the sister before we can go on to sell this property. I found that they never opened up the estate for the dad, so we need to go back and open up an estate for dad. Then sister, you know, we did ’em simultaneously.

And during that time, I made a text message, sent a text message out stating, “You may wanna go ahead and open up my grandfather’s estate. I’m working with a family right now that, you know, they took time to open it up, and now we’re having a difficult time because it’s been years and they’ve had another death.”

And I thought nothing else of it.

[00:19:42] Tracy Hayes: Let’s, for the listeners—

[00:19:43] Tammy Legette: Mm-hmm.

[00:19:44] Tracy Hayes: When you say open up an estate, what are you—what does that mean?

[00:19:47] Tammy Legette: When someone passes away, an estate must be opened. There must be a determination of, first, who are the legal heirs.

[00:19:56] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:19:57] Tammy Legette: If there are any bills [00:20:00] or creditors that are due, all of these things are collected. So when you’re opening, you’re going to your city, county, your county estate department. In ours, I’m in Mecklenburg County, so it’s Mecklenburg County Estate Department.

And there you’re gonna open up their estate. They’ll give you a packet of documents to fill out for the deceased. You would bring in a deceased death certificate along with, you know, any other pertinent documents that they would need. You’re gonna account for, you know, you’re gonna do an accounting system, account for anything that they may have in their bank, their bank statements, anything that’s gonna come into this account that then needs to be divided between the heirs, right? Or, you know, and/or need to have transferred.

There are cars. I have a car in my name. I’m deceased. There’s no way to get that car out of my name unless it goes through the estate, and the estate now gives a document. If there is a will, there’s a letter of testimony, and your testamentary, and you’ll be able to take that and now get everything [00:21:00] transferred.

If there is no will, there is a letter of administration, and now that letter gives you the permission to transfer the cars into the estate name or into the legal name that they should go in, or sell them so that they can, now those funds can come into the estate. Right.

So that’s what we were doing for our grandfather’s, trying to make sure we get accounting of everything that he has.

[00:21:22] Tracy Hayes: And did he have any formal will or anything prepared?

[00:21:24] Tammy Legette: He did. He passed without a will.

[00:21:27] Tracy Hayes: Okay.

[00:21:28] Tammy Legette: Which a lot of people do, and that’s why this is important to me also. Yes. So when passing without a will, you then go by the state laws. So it can definitely change what someone would want to happen in their own estate or their own affairs.

Passing without a will, ’cause now there’s no, “This is what my dad would’ve wanted. This is what my mom would’ve wanted.” This is state law.

[00:21:52] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:21:53] Tammy Legette: And this is what we must go by now.

So that’s exactly—you go down and you open up that estate. And once you do, like I [00:22:00] said, they make an account of everything that the deceased owned. They determine who the rightful heirs are. If there are spouses that are involved and children, you know, they determine which portion, how much of each, which each person get, what portion each person gets. Right.

So that’s that text message I sent out. You know, you don’t wanna wait. We know that there was a home involved. I knew that my grandfather had tow trucks and a tow truck business. Right. You know, and I knew that my grandfather did not believe in the banks, and he kept his money at home in a safe, and the rest of it was buried in the backyard. Right. Um, something I’ve known all my life.

So it was like, you might wanna go ahead and take care of this. Man, that happens.

[00:22:43] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:22:44] Tammy Legette: And he could possibly own other properties. So, you know, I just know legally this is what could be done. So go ahead and take care of this.

[00:22:48] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. Question, and I’m sure every state’s a little different. You’re dealing in North Carolina here.

[00:22:53] Tammy Legette: Yes.

[00:22:54] Tracy Hayes: There’s some different little state laws that might be a little different, but if there’s nothing that says this person is supposed to be the [00:23:00] administrator, who assumes that role? Should be, like, for example, there are siblings, there are children. How does that breakdown of who the state focuses on, who that administrator will be, even, you know, they’re not getting any more, they’re just kind of the, you know, obviously, if you wanna call it the point of contact, right? Mm-hmm.

[00:23:19] Tammy Legette: How does—

[00:23:19] Tracy Hayes: The state determine that?

[00:23:22] Tammy Legette: State does not. The state does not. The family does. The family agrees. And that’s where a lot of the confusion comes in because one family member, because I’m the oldest—

[00:23:33] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:23:34] Tammy Legette: I’m the oldest child, I automatically assume that I have the responsibility to become the administrator. So I’m gonna run down and open up the estate. And that’s what I see so many times divide families. Because what happened is, I wanna know, as a sister, who gave you permission? Who told you that you had the right to do it? You know, what made you, you know, bigger than me or more than me?

So I see that a lot. Family should make a decision and [00:24:00] discuss. My sister and I, my stepdad, we actually discussed who’s gonna be the administrator. Well, at that time, like I said, my mom died, and she had companies, she had other responsibilities. I took on those other responsibilities. My sister took on the estate, and we worked together with it.

Just because one admin, one person becomes the administrator—and let’s make sure people understand, you can have more than one administrator. You can be a co-administrator on an estate, so you don’t have to have just one. It can be more than one.

But that one administrator, it has a lot of responsibility. And that’s the second thing that people don’t understand when they say, “Well, my sister just ran down there and became the administrator.”

It’s like, yeah, she just became responsible—

[00:24:47] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:24:48] Tammy Legette: For a lot of things that she may not know that she’s responsible for legally.

[00:24:53] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:24:54] Tammy Legette: So if I were you, I’d be happy she’s the administrator, not me.

[00:24:55] Tracy Hayes: Right. What would you say if you were in, you had a room full of [00:25:00] these children, brothers and sisters, or whatever? What would be one of the things that you would recommend in forward thinking, knowing what you know, say, yeah, here is Grandma, or here is Mom and Dad.

What is the one thing that you would say to their heirs, if you were in front of ’em, or, you know, as an instruction to prepare themselves? Mm-hmm. Because I imagine, you know, when you are in these trainings, especially with people who are maybe prepared their will or want to prepare their will, that they need to have this discussion with everyone before it happens, and they can’t wait till they’re 85.

’Cause as your mom passed before her father passed, I mean, that happens.

[00:25:48] Tammy Legette: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:49] Tracy Hayes: How important is it, you know, help them have that conversation that I think a lot of people fear and procrastinate on, and all of a sudden it’s too late?

[00:25:54] Tammy Legette: I do have that conversation.

[00:25:56] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:56] Tammy Legette: Because not only did I lose my mother at a long—a young age, I [00:26:00] lost my grandmother at 59. So I lost both my grandmother at the age of 59 and my mother at the age of 59.

[00:26:05] Tracy Hayes: Oh, wow.

[00:26:06] Tammy Legette: So seeing both of them pass at such a young age. Mm-hmm. I was 28 years old when my grandmother passed away. I was 28 years old when I had my first will completed because she passed without one. And that told me then how important, and showed me how important it was for me to have a will.

So now a part of me teaching about inherited property, I also teach what you need to do before. And I have found ways around the expense because I have a lot of people that say, “Okay, I have a house. I hear what you’re saying. What should I do to protect my children?”

And the first thing I say is, “Do you have a will? Make sure your will is complete, but don’t think your will is gonna be enough to just protect you when it comes to your property. Make sure you put your home in a trust.”

And I was speaking this, I’ve been speaking this for years.

[00:26:59] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:27:00] Tammy Legette: And giving out attorneys to, you know, help these individuals and my clients put their homes in a trust. But what I found is I was getting calls back with, “Oh man, that attorney said $5,000. I can’t afford that.” “Yeah, they said $1,500. I can’t afford that.”

And then this year, mm-hmm, I, um, was talking—I’ve been in LegalShield since I was 21 years old. My mom was a LegalShield prepaid representative, and I happened to be talking to one of my uplines. And I don’t talk a lot about LegalShield. Like I said, I’ve been in it since 21. I talk about real estate all the time, but no one hear me talk about LegalShield.

And I told her, I said, “Well, I’m having, you know, that same conversation. I’m having clients that are calling me about, you know, trust. If I could find a way to get them their trust done for a reasonable amount—

[00:27:46] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:27:47] Tammy Legette: That could help more people.” And she said, “Tammy, LegalShield does trusts for $250.” And I said, “Are you serious?” She said, “$250. They would do the first property.”

[00:28:00] And I said, “Okay, bam. I got a key. That’s what I needed. That’s what can help people right there.” And I started giving out that information. Like I said, I’ve been only a representative. I’ve been an associate. I’ve sold LegalShield for probably the last 15 years.

[00:28:14] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:28:16] Tammy Legette: Have my own team, but I’ve never connected it with my real estate business. Only when someone needs an attorney right now, as a part of my daily, are you looking to put your home in a trust?

At least reach out because this is important information. You know, they’ll help you with your will. From the—you sign up. Yep. It’s a part of your membership. $29.95, your will is complete. Your doable healthcare power of attorney. You need a power of attorney, it’s completed. And now you have access to a trust for $250. And you still have access to make all your phone calls and get all your information and your knowledge.

’Cause the, I mean, when I call, they know who I am. I call that much. I call that much. ’Cause I have [00:29:00] questions, you know, of course about my real estate transactions. My clients have questions. It’s like, “Oh, hold on, let me call LegalShield next one quick.” Let me—I don’t even say that. I said, “Let me call my attorney.”

[00:29:09] Tracy Hayes: Preparing what you, because now you’re deep into this, you know, it’s become a passion of yours and a focus. The amount of—I don’t know. You can’t really measure the anxieties, the stress, and all that stuff that families can put themselves through in these situations.

But just that stress is only relieved because you got family members fighting and so forth. Then they have to get into the legal world, and then that’s when the bills start racking up. And where they may only be getting a few thousand dollars, if anything, is now being eaten up by attorney’s fees because families, you know, procrastinated on having that conversation, feared about having that conversation.

And then when now it’s time, unfortunately on the reverse side, someone has passed and now you wanna fight, and the only person that wins in that [00:30:00] fight are really the attorneys a lot of times.

[00:30:04] Tammy Legette: Mm-hmm. You are exactly right. And then you come up with the families that just can’t afford to get an attorney to start off with.

[00:30:11] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:30:12] Tammy Legette: Because attorneys are expensive. And even with what we are going through right now, I mean, attorneys are very expensive. And, you know, for an estate attorney, $250 to $450 just to sit down and speak with them. Right. And now you wanna hire them. They’re wanting a minimum of $2,000, $2,000 to $5,000, just to get started.

And there are people that just don’t—there’s a house involved, and they may have that money after they sell the home. They don’t have it in the beginning, which is again, one of the reasons why many times—

[00:30:40] Tracy Hayes: They battle. And like you had a house went into foreclosure because of a battle.

[00:30:44] Tammy Legette: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

[00:30:45] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:30:45] Tammy Legette: Exactly.

[00:30:46] Tracy Hayes: Where you have gotten something, you got nothing because you fight and then, you know, getting the attorneys involved.

I wanna jump into our questions here because this is a great topic, but a tip on your book, From [00:31:00] Death to Disposition: The Deed That Shouldn’t Exist. Explain the title and explain what someone, because you can go on Amazon and get your book.

[00:31:09] Tammy Legette: Yes.

[00:31:09] Tracy Hayes: What is someone going to get out of that?

[00:31:12] Tammy Legette: What you’re gonna get out of it? From Death to Disposition, from death to a disposition. As Realtors or as individuals who inherit property, we’re taking that property from death, from the time that person passes away into disposition. Until we are deciding what we’re gonna do with this property, whether we’re selling it, holding it.

We’re going from death to disposition. In my case, death to disposition came up with a deed that should not exist.

As we go back again, my grandfather passed away in 2024, and I sent that text message stating, “You wanna open up his estate?” Well, that estate was opened up in December 2024, and when it was opened, with a fraudulent affidavit that stated my grandfather had no children, when in fact he had [00:32:00] eight. Five by my grandmother, two that he was not on the birth certificate to, but we didn’t know that, and I would have preferred not to have known that. And then one that he is. Yeah.

Well, when that document was completed and my sister and I went down to check my grandfather’s estate, and, um, immediately as we are looking at, she turns the computer screens around, and here’s this form that says children, and it says NA. And I thought immediately, “If he has no children, who is my mom? Right. You know, who am I? Who are my grandchildren? Who are my children? That means we don’t exist. You know, that can’t be someone.”

[00:32:38] Tracy Hayes: So someone that went down to the county and opened the estate, they knew enough to do that.

[00:32:43] Tammy Legette: Mm-hmm.

[00:32:43] Tracy Hayes: And was trying to get, obviously say there was no other children. Send me everything. I should—

[00:32:49] Tammy Legette: My step-grandmother. I mean, I don’t have to hide anything. My grandmother, my grandfather’s wife, who had been his wife for 40 years, known me since I was 12 years old. Right. Knew all of his grandchildren and [00:33:00] children, went and opened up his—I, that’s who I sent that message to, that text message saying, “Hey, you might wanna open up his estate,” trying to make sure things went smoothly.

Did not really even know all the interest. He said that what happened, but like I said, in December, the state was opened. I did not find out until in May. I checked the estate and then seeing that, like I said, there were no children, immediately I thought, “I need to fix this.” And that was on a Monday.

My sister and I were together. We need to fix this. So we started on Tuesday collecting birth certificates and just thought, “Why would you do this? Why, you know, why would you say he had no children? You know all of us.”

And that just to me, I think that first three days were more of, my mind was just in shock. I couldn’t believe why. That didn’t make sense to me of why you would do something like this. But on day number four, it all made sense.

On day number four, when I go back to the estate department to now take my birth certificates of my mom and her siblings, right, myself and, you know, my cousins, I was asked, I was told at the time, “Well, there were no property. There’s no property.”

I said, “That’s not true. My grandmother and my grandfather had a house, the house that they lived in, the house that he lived in, that belonged to my grandmother and my grandfather originally, you know, and it was in my grandfather’s name only. He had a house.”

She, he said, “No, there’s nothing down about a house. It’s only a partial estate opened up for money only.”

I said, “Well, that’s not right.”

He said, “Could you, do you have a copy of the deed?”

And I thought, “Yes.” And I looked through my paperwork, and I didn’t have it with me. So, “I’ll be right back.” And I walked next door to the Mecklenburg County Register of Deeds and asked for my grandfather’s deed.

[00:34:44] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:34:45] Tammy Legette: And as soon as she printed the deed off, I could tell by the way it was printing. I immediately knew something was wrong. I don’t know how, but I knew something was not right. And when she handed me those documents, it was seven pages, and I had originally, in 1998, I seen my grandfather’s deed. I seen it [00:35:00] again in 2024 when I was teaching the class, Navigating Real Estate After the Loss of a Loved One. My grandfather’s deed is the one I pulled up, so I seen it again.

So when she printed out those seven pages and handed them to me, I immediately said, “Wait a minute. There’s a problem.” I noticed the names that were on that deed were not the names that should have been. The name that was there as a grantor was the children, the stepchildren of my grandfather. The name there, there was, as the grantee, was my step-grandmother.

And I immediately said, “Wait a minute. This is not right. Is there another deed? Is there a deed that my grandfather did, giving this property or transferring this property over?”

And she looked at me and she said, “No, ma’am.”

I say, “Is there any other deeds? My grandfather’s deed was completed in 1972. Are there any other deeds between this deed and 1972? And the one you just handed me?”

And she said, “No, ma’am. Need to contact an attorney.”

And I said, [00:36:00] “Okay, thank you.”

And as I started this to turn around—

[00:36:02] Tracy Hayes: House he owned before marrying her.

[00:36:04] Tammy Legette: Yes.

[00:36:05] Tracy Hayes: That he, because he had gotten, he owned it with my grandmother.

[00:36:08] Tammy Legette: Yes. He actually owned it with my grandmother, he and my grandmother, and their five children. You know, he purchased his house in 1966 with my grandmother. And then in 1972, they divorced in 1971. They divorced in 1972. My grandmother signed off, leaving the home. She did a quitclaim deed and left the home to my grandfather only.

Well, he was married, and in all those years, for whatever reason, he never chose to add his wife to that house.

[00:36:38] Tracy Hayes: Which I imagine happens a lot, actually.

[00:36:40] Tammy Legette: It happens a lot. Yeah.

[00:36:42] Tracy Hayes: Which made it remained. And there were some things that happened over the years. Like I lost my grandmother in 1998 and pretty much the same thing happened.

And my grandfather was aware of that, and I used to make little comments and say little things, ’cause he was very upset about the way things went with my grandmother’s house.

[00:36:55] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:36:56] Tammy Legette: And I would make a little comment saying, “Granddaddy, you’re gonna do the same thing. [00:37:00] You’re gonna die, and everything you own is gonna go to your wife and her family, and your family’s gonna lose again.”

And he said, “No, you won’t.” And I never knew what he meant until I seen that deed. And when I seen that deed, everything changed.

[00:37:16] Tracy Hayes: Okay. So immediately, just to recap and make sure I heard you correctly. So you, the four days go by, you got all the birth certificates, you go back in there, you have them print off the deed, says the house solely owned by his, well, your step-grandmother, but it’s basically his second wife. Mm-hmm. And all the anyone has anything, is all her children, not his?

[00:37:37] Tammy Legette: Yes.

[00:37:38] 330 video: Uh.

[00:37:38] Tracy Hayes: On there. Okay, so red flag goes off. What happens next?

[00:37:42] Tammy Legette: What happens next is I go to work. That was on Thursday. I go back to the estate department, and, you know, they told me that, first of all, there’s nothing I can do. In North Carolina, the spouse has first right to open up the estate, and anything that needs to change in that state, she needs to sign off [00:38:00] on it.

That was on Thursday. On Friday, I’m looking through some documents online, and I’m doggone if I’m on the MLS and I see that the house is listed for sale. And I thought, “Oh my gosh.”

[00:38:15] Tracy Hayes: Already. She didn’t.

[00:38:16] Tammy Legette: How could she—didn’t. How could this happen?

[00:38:20] Tracy Hayes: Didn’t. Yeah.

[00:38:21] Tammy Legette: How could this happen? You must have all signatures of all heirs. How could this happen?

So I immediately reached out to the Realtor and said, “I am an heir to this property. I’m one of several heirs to this property.”

And she said, “I’m sorry, I have no record of you being an heir,” because she was dealing with that fraudulent deed. And on that deed, it had no record of us being heirs. It had no record of us, period, or my grandfather.

So from then I, you know, got in contact with the, asked for the name of the closing attorney. You know, I was reluctant to get that information varied. They did not wanna give it to me. But once I got the closing attorney information, I then started contacting the closing attorney.

Found out it was scheduled to close that [00:39:00] Friday, that they were in the middle of title. And I started sending over paperwork saying, “Wait, this is—we all the legal heirs. Here’s my grandfather’s death certificate. Here’s my mother and all the siblings’ birth certificates, their death certificates. Here are all the cousins’ birth certificates. We are heirs to this property.”

And thank goodness there was a great, just—

[00:39:20] Tracy Hayes: Just take a step back because when he never changed that, uh, he never went in and changed that title in any way because obviously there’s different ways when you buy a home, you know, if you’re married, you know, joint with survivorship and all this other stuff.

He had sole—he was the sole owner of that home in 1972, if I think, recall the gear correctly there, before he married her. So if he never went in and said, added her on, or that this needs to be titled in this, that’s real, that’s start of the challenge right there, right?

[00:39:57] Tammy Legette: Yes.

[00:39:58] Tracy Hayes: Is how it was initially titled.

[00:39:59] Tammy Legette: Yes. But then we found out that, you [00:40:00] know, after we did find out that there was many times that, you know, that the deed, that it was proposed to change the deed, and he just wouldn’t do it.

[00:40:09] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:40:10] Tammy Legette: That he made a decision not to change his deed.

[00:40:10] Tracy Hayes: So—

[00:40:11] Tammy Legette: So—

[00:40:11] Tracy Hayes: He, oh, so he, he thought there was thoughts and he said no.

[00:40:12] Tammy Legette: He was never adding her onto the deed. No, sir. Because, yes, sir, he felt it was his line, his family’s house. It was his first wife’s house.

[00:40:20] Tracy Hayes: Right.

[00:40:21] Tammy Legette: And that’s how he kept it. You lived here, you were able to live here, you know, but the house actually goes back to his, my first wife’s house. Well, his line.

[00:40:30] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, in his line.

[00:40:31] Tammy Legette: In his line. And he made sure of that, even though he never really discussed that with us. I told you, I made my comments because this happened with my grandmother’s house when she passed away.

So, of course, now we’re in the process of I’m finding out this deed that should not exist. You know, I’m contacting the Register of Deeds again because I just can’t believe this. Yeah. You know, I need you to look through the documents again and verify and make sure, and they did again and said, “No, ma’am.”

I called a friend of mine who [00:41:00] is not only a Realtor, but also does title. And we sat, both of us, for hours and went back through history to try to find the original deeds. And we did. No, there’s nothing. And I said, “This is gonna tear my family apart. How could this be?”

And then, like I said, I went through, you know, getting the closing, you know, stopped and talking with the closing attorney and saying, “Well, we are heirs. We’ll move forward. It’s that simple. We just need know that we were supposed to be a part of this, but we’ll move forward.”

[00:41:30] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:41:31] Tammy Legette: And was told no, “We’ll, I’ll die first.”

[00:41:35] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. I think most people, yeah, would never have said anything because they just assumed that they had been married for 40 years, that house is rightfully theirs. She lived with him for 40 years, and they wouldn’t, they never would’ve gone down and said anything.

[00:41:52] Tammy Legette: I probably would not if my grandfather would not have said the words. He said to us before he passed, there were certain things that he [00:42:00] said before he passed. And I can say, one of the things he said to me, the last words he said with my cousin standing there, was, “Tammy, protect my family.”

And it was my cousin and I just kind of looked at each other, and I said, “Okay, Grand—”

[00:42:14] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:42:15] Tammy Legette: Yeah, because it was like, “Protect your—” I said, “Okay, Granddaddy.”

He said, “Protect my family, Tammy.”

I said, “Okay, Granddaddy.”

My grandfather stopped talking after that. You know, he lived for probably another three weeks, but he never said another word after that. Right. Wow. And from that, it did come. And when we got to this point with this deed, you know, many times my cousin, who was there when those words were said, we look at each other and thought, “Did he know? Did he really, did he know?”

[00:42:41] Tracy Hayes: Or he felt—

[00:42:42] Tammy Legette: Or he felt—

[00:42:43] Tracy Hayes: She was doing something scrupulous? Because I’m wondering, did she change the deed after he passed, this fraudulent deed, and like backdate something? Something what?

[00:42:51] Tammy Legette: Scrupulous? No. What? No, this is what they actually did. And that’s why it was so unusual, because you did a deed after he passed. He passed on [00:43:00] September 20th, 2024. Mm-hmm. The deed was prepared on January 28th, 2025. It was notarized on January 28th, 2025, and it was held onto until March 4th, 2025. So for two months they held onto it.

But yeah, that was the biggest red flag because it was notarized, it was signed and notarized that Roosevelt Abraham personally appeared in front of this notary and signed this document, and he was already deceased.

[00:43:33] Tracy Hayes: Oh.

[00:43:35] Tammy Legette: So that’s how the convictions became a part.

[00:43:38] Tracy Hayes: Wow. Yeah, I wish we had more time. I want to dig into these questions because from a time standpoint, but the book, we were gonna go back to the book. If someone buys the book, what knowledge are you sharing with them? If you can just kind of summarize what they should expect and why they should buy the book.

[00:43:55] Tammy Legette: Sure. They’re gonna find out about the 15 properties that I inherited and [00:44:00] the different things and issues that can arise with each property, but not only about the issues, but how to keep those things from happening to you.

At the end of each chapter is a section of questions that asks you specific questions to make sure that you are prepared. You know, do you have a will? Are all of these things prepared? Is your home in a trust, right? Do you have an administrator already, you know, someone you’ve already chosen to be the administrator? All these questions are at the end of each chapter as it goes through my life and what happened with the deed.

Even the deed fraud, it tells you, go to your register of deeds, check your deed, and if there’s a problem, it actually gives you instructions on what to do. So not only do it take you through all my actual and how the fraud began, what we’re doing about it, the petition I started in North Carolina, ’cause I did start a petition to stop deed fraud.

That petition, of course, there’s something bigger [00:45:00] now. We have House Bill 535 and Senate Bill 423, which have both been passed, and it’s now called the Title Fraud Prevention Act here in North Carolina. And we’re waiting for that to become law, which should be soon. And that’s gonna make a big difference.

’Cause of course, in this field now, I receive calls daily from people that this has happened to me.

Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

Tammy Legette: And it’s happening. So I have people, honestly, Tracy, that say, when I say deed fraud, they say, “What’s the deed? What’s the title?”

And I said, “Do you own a home?”

And they say, “Yes.”

And then I go into explaining what a deed and a title is and how easily deed fraud can happen with them. Just with a pen. All it takes is a pen and someone willing to go and record a document that say that they own your home, and they now legally own your home.

Tracy Hayes: Is this legislation—and people need to know that—putting in some steps at the county level on how they’re taking it and doing more [00:46:00] scrutiny?

Tammy Legette: Oh yeah, yeah. Yes. From House Bill 535, that is the one that will now require identification. Even if you are a trusted partner with uploading documents like our attorneys, if you’re not a trusted attorney uploading those documents, you now must show identification yourself.

As you go in there as the recorder, you must show identification of the homeowner that’s transferring. They’re stiffening the laws and penalties around deed fraud, making it harder. There’s so much more that they are doing with this.

When you require ID, number one thing, had identification been required, this couldn’t have happened to my family. The notary, the real estate broker that are in, they are involved now, receives a lot different penalties. My notary received 18 months probation with six months deferred prosecution, which will mean absolutely nothing in a couple months. This law changes that.

[00:46:59] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:00] Tammy Legette: And also changes the amount of money that is attached to it for the penalties.

[00:47:05] Tracy Hayes: The devastation that could—I mean, well, you know that. I mean, I’m sure you’ve heard, you’ve got probably another book on how families were devastated by—

[00:47:13] Tammy Legette: I’m still going through it. I can tell you, Tracy, since I’ve been on the phone—

[00:47:18] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:19] Tammy Legette: And since we’ve actually been on this call.

[00:47:20] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. Didn’t have the money to get an attorney, you know, or just, or didn’t think they did or whatever.

But what do you think is the biggest myth families believe about inherited property?

[00:47:32] Tammy Legette: That property automatically transfers over. That a mom dies and the property automatically belongs to me ’cause I lived here. I’m the daughter that has lived with Mom for the last 10 years. Property automatically goes to me, and most people just assume that it automatically transfer. No.

They don’t understand the estate part and that you must go through the estate before you can transfer or sell that property. So please don’t sign anything before you speak [00:48:00] with a Realtor that is a probate specialist or an attorney that handles estate, because that is what’s happening.

People are what they call heir hunters. They’re looking for people that are inherited property, and they’re coming after your share. But what they’re doing is they’re not just coming for your share, they’re coming to wreak havoc into something that is generational wealth for your family.

[00:48:24] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:48:25] Tammy Legette: And I’m seeing a lot of that happen.

[00:48:27] Tracy Hayes: If you’re sitting in front of, you know, or you know someone that still has their parents or grandparents might be listening to this show right now, you’re sitting in front of them. What are some of the things that you would tell them to start this conversation with their parents or grandparents who may be passing soon? Maybe they’re not ill, whatever it is, but you know, as time goes on, it’s going to happen.

[00:48:58] Tammy Legette: Mm-hmm.

[00:48:59] Tracy Hayes: But to actually start that conversation on, are we prepared? Exactly. And what do we say to them to break the ice with their parents or grandparents?

[00:49:05] Tammy Legette: The first thing is, we all know that we’re going to leave this place. We all know that we’re gonna leave this world.

[00:49:11] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:49:12] Tammy Legette: Do you have a will? Because I can tell you, a lot of times I can ask that question, and the children as a grown adult, 50 years old, do not know whether their 70-year-old parent, their 80-year-old parent even has a will.

So the first thing to do is sit down and talk with parents. Sit down and talk with Mom. Know whether Mom has a will. Know whether Mom has life insurance. And they know what Mom’s plan is with her property because they have their own plans and decisions that they’re making with their property, and it includes you.

And most of the time, we need to know that so we can make sure that it’s planned properly and written properly. ’Cause that’s our issue. We pass away thinking and just assuming that Mom dies, it’s gonna come to me.

[00:49:56] Tracy Hayes: And if they have siblings, to maybe approach them [00:50:00] together. I’m sure you’ve seen this, or, you know, if the brothers and sisters, maybe it is a holiday outing and they could, you know, say, “Hey, we need to go talk in the other room,” you know, and go and chat and have that chat openly together.

[00:50:13] Tammy Legette: And that was gonna be my, definitely, my next thing to make sure, yes, that you’re definitely talking if there are multiple siblings because you don’t want any confusion. And if one is talking to Mom and the other one is not, then one assume that something may be going on.

So let’s both talk to Mom. If there are multiple, let’s sit down and talk to Mom and Dad, and let’s be all on the same page. ’Cause what happens then, when something happens, we already know the process. We already know the plan. And it’s so much easier when we all know the plan than it is when chaos, ’cause chaos happens.

Other than that, we then go into having, you know, chaos. We have grief that’s coming.

[00:50:53] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:50:54] Tammy Legette: And grief comes in different forms behind their back.

[00:50:57] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[00:50:59] Tammy Legette: As we were told, and that’s exactly what happened with my family. As [00:51:00] soon as my mother passed away, she wasn’t even in the ground yet, and I was already hearing, “Well, your sister said this.”

And my sister was hearing, “Well, Tammy said that.”

And my sister and I were talking and thought, we were told, we were prepared. Someone, our pastor, prepared us before my mother passed. So we already knew it was coming, and we just came to each other and was like, “Yeah, that’s exactly what Bishop said would happen.” You know, people started coming, saying, and neither one of us had said a thing. Neither one of us had said.

And it goes back to what they say when we’re growing up: the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy. When it comes to death, it’s like people coming to kill, steal, and destroy the relationship between the families when death comes. So let’s get that plan together so death can’t come and kill, steal, and destroy our family. We already had a plan, and our plan, now we just execute our plan.

[00:51:54] Tracy Hayes: When you’re coaching or teaching, and I’m sure there’s times where people actually just get you and, you [00:52:00] know, get your advice, I can imagine.

My next question is a challenge that a lot of the parents who are trying to prepare this, you know, maybe they have at least two children. One child they trust, is competent. The other one, they don’t have the competence in, but they know when they tell ’em that child A, who’s competent, is going to be the administrator or whatever, child B is going to have a temper tantrum no matter what age.

[00:52:31] Tammy Legette: That’s true.

[00:52:32] Tracy Hayes: How do you suggest they get around that?

[00:52:35] Tammy Legette: I don’t know if there’s a lot of ways to get around that other than your will is your personal will. It is your personal will. And what’s in your will, you know, discussing with your children that you have a will is important. Discussing necessarily what’s in that will is not as important.

And I can tell you, my sister and I decided for her to be the administrator, but there were some decisions that my mother made [00:53:00] before she left this world that just said what you said. She made the decision, and even when it came to her life insurance, she made the decision on her life insurance.

And I had people coming to me saying, “Well, your sister should split the money with you.”

And I thought, “Why would she do that if she doesn’t?”

“You should be mad. She should give you half the money.”

[00:53:22] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[00:53:23] Tammy Legette: I thought, “Why would I do that? Why would I be upset with my sister about a decision my mother made? My mother made that decision. If you honor your mother, you’ve gotta honor her.”

[00:53:34] Tracy Hayes: If I honor her, exactly.

[00:53:36] Tammy Legette: Exactly. Why would I be upset with my sister? She didn’t make the decision to give herself my mother’s life insurance. My mother made that decision. I can’t be mad at her for not doing something that, you know, for something my mom decided.

Same as the administrator. I can tell you right now, whoever the administrator is, the administrator has work to do. There’s really, there’s work to do to be the administrator. So if you’re mad because your sibling decided to be the administrator, you shouldn’t be. Be happy and then [00:54:00] laugh and say, “I’m glad you have the work,” ’cause it’s a lot of work, and it definitely is a lot of responsibility.

The taxes, your parents’ taxes must be complete. That administrator is responsible for getting—

[00:54:10] Tracy Hayes: My next question is, what’s a typical, you know, that you’ve seen, or maybe even just kind of the, what’s the worst case? You start going into a battle or start going into probate. I mean, in Mecklenburg County where you’re at, I mean, how long possibly could it take? Years before things are cleared?

[00:54:27] Tammy Legette: Eighteen months to two years. Eighteen months to two years. If you’re having difficulty, it could take more if it’s difficulties. Mm-hmm. If it’s a simple estate where you’re open and close, you could be done within six, you know, I say six months to a year it could be complete. But if you have difficulties that are arising, it could definitely take much longer. Most definitely.

Just if they have a mortgage, you’re still having to make the mortgage payment.

[00:54:49] Tracy Hayes: You gotta pay taxes on the house, you want to insure the house, so hopefully something doesn’t happen to it. And then you get what’s left and—

[00:54:56] Tammy Legette: You make it, make sure—

[00:54:57] Tracy Hayes: On everyone, and that goes a—

[00:54:59] Tammy Legette: That school.

[00:55:00] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:55:01] Tammy Legette: Yeah. And then you need to make sure you keep up with Mom. You know, first things people don’t understand is the mortgage. Make sure that you’re keeping up with Mom and Dad’s mortgage and making those payments, because a lot of people don’t know Mom and Dad’s mortgage company.

Yeah, make sure you’re checking the mail and you making that payment.

[00:55:19] Tracy Hayes: This next question is kind of educate our real estate agents a little bit. You know, what does a buyer absolutely need to do before purchasing an inherited property? But really, if you’re a real estate agent and you’re representing buyers and you know this is a property that has been inherited, what are some of the things that the agent should, like, perk up to, to find out so they don’t go and make an offer on a house and then find out three weeks later that, hey, this isn’t gonna happen? ’Cause you don’t know when that whole thing might end, right?

So educate the real estate agent on who might be taking on a property like this.

[00:55:55] Tammy Legette: The first thing the Realtor need to do as the buyer’s agent—’cause see, listing agent [00:56:00] should have made sure all of these things were done. But I can tell you that listing agents, sometimes, they don’t even know, right? That letter of administration, it tells us whether that property can sell and who has a right to sell it.

There’s a property on the market right now that is on the market by a grandchild. She’s not even an heir, but she was living in the property. There’s a Realtor that came and listed that property without knowing the steps.

Ask for the letter of administration, letter of testimony. Make sure you’re having those letters. If you have a right to it, it’s public knowledge, and the estate is public, so you wanna make sure you have that document.

Because what happens is, you know, the house gets on the market, it goes through you putting in the offer, your client paying earnest money, due diligence fee here in North Carolina, going through the inspections and spending money, and getting to title. You know, title’s one of the last things that happen. It doesn’t get to title, it gets to title before they find out, “Hey, wait a minute, there’s a [00:57:00] problem. You haven’t been through probate yet. You didn’t open up the estate. You need to go back and do this first.”

If you’re asking for that letter in the beginning, that tells you right away that that agent has a right to put the house on the market first and foremost. Once you get past that, everything else is like a normal sale. It changes for the listing agent. For the buyer agent, it’s a normal sale, once you, you know, confirm that the person that’s selling the house has a right to sell.

[00:57:31] Tracy Hayes: Deed fraud has always been a problem, but AI is changing it. What does the new threat look like for inherited properties right now?

[00:57:40] Tammy Legette: I am truly hoping that laws change quickly because AI can take a deed and make it look like a realistic deed. I’ve seen it. Mm-hmm. It can take a deed and the names on there look legitimate. Everything looks. It’s not like they took it and they actually took the [00:58:00] paper and typed in the deed, you know, what normally used to happen back in the day. They take that deed and they just go in and type it in.

No, these things are looking totally legitimate with legitimate notary seals and everything on them, and they’re being recorded. So we really need to know, and that would be more on the attorney and not us as the Realtor because we don’t really deal with the deed itself.

But what I can say for Realtors, and this is what I even told the Realtor, in my case, as a trainer, I have always trained my Realtors to pull down the deed. So when you’re listing a home, you’re gonna go and you’re gonna pull down that deed, first of all, to verify who owns the house.

Now, what if I pull down this deed, like in my case, this house was listed in April. There was a new deed created on March 4th. Do you think I should look at the deed prior to March 4th, if I’m listing this house in April? I would think so.

[00:59:00] So I would advise every Realtor that if you are looking at a deed that is a fairly new deed that has recently been uploaded and recorded in your county system, check that prior deed to see what that deed stated. If that would’ve been done in my case, the agent may have found a problem.

[00:59:18] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[00:59:18] Tammy Legette: Because there was no chain of title between those two deeds. At least a question could have arise as, “When did you buy the house?” There was no record of a purchase of that home.

[00:59:31] Tracy Hayes: A couple weeks ago, the representative here in Jacksonville from Fidelity National Financial, the nation’s largest title insurer, in there, and fraudulent deeds are their number one payout. I mean, that they’re having to do, someone’s pretending to be the seller. A lot of times they’re obvious, they like to do lots necessarily.

[00:59:54] Tammy Legette: Yes.

[00:59:55] Tracy Hayes: Because, you know, the person doesn’t live there, and they just, they come in and they act as if they’re the seller, and that’s their [01:00:00] number one claim right now, is fraudulent deeds.

[01:00:02] Tammy Legette: Yeah. And it’s actually making, some are making it through title work.

[01:00:05] Tracy Hayes: Mm-hmm.

[01:00:06] Tammy Legette: ’Cause they’re good at it. They’re, you know, AI is making it where it is really good. So some are actually making it past title searches.

[01:00:14] Tracy Hayes: What I find is amazing with today’s technology, but I don’t think, like you said, the legislation that you’re getting through in North Carolina is cutting edge. I guarantee most states are not up on it. Even though claims are in, fraud is going on, no one’s coming through with an educated mind or experienced mind, where you’ve taken this experience and actually done something with it.

They don’t realize that, you know, what the counties, these counties need to be doing at the county level to protect themselves.

You’re with LegalShield, and I think they offer a product on the title too, don’t they?

[01:00:53] Tammy Legette: Mm-hmm. They do, IDShield.

[01:00:54] Tracy Hayes: Yes, because that’s another thing. People going in, what properties are [01:01:00] they—I assume they’re probably preying on more of properties that are actually already paid off versus ones that have a mortgage. Am I right or wrong?

When we see those commercials on TV about title fraud or people going down and, you know, filing the quitclaim deed and putting your title into their name, or their, your, their house into their name, or not necessarily their name, someone’s name. Is that being done a lot of times on houses that don’t have a lien ’cause—

[01:01:25] Tammy Legette: Mm-hmm. It’s easier.

[01:01:26] Tracy Hayes: Yeah, it’s easier. They don’t have to worry about the mortgage part.

[01:01:29] Tammy Legette: Exactly. But I have a friend right now who is actually going through title fraud and she has a mortgage. So people are still, ’cause sometimes they don’t check to see if that mortgage is actually, your mortgage is transferred and you have a release and a paid in full from that first mortgage. And they’re not looking to see that, oh, there was an equity line taken. So there’s still a lien on that property, and they’re finding a way to do that.

You know, ’cause you could still do a quitclaim deed even with a [01:02:00] mortgage, and they’re completing that quitclaim deed and deeding it over. I’ve seen one that’s called a non-warranty deed with no—it said non-warranty deed, no title search. I thought, “That’s the first time I’ve ever seen that.”

[01:02:15] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:02:15] Tammy Legette: So, you know, they’re finding ways to even create the deed to, you know, to go fit their scenario.

[01:02:23] Tracy Hayes: Are they really preying on that bureaucrat at the county office who’s just not paying attention?

[01:02:28] Tammy Legette: Doesn’t, and it’s not their job to pay attention. They have specific jobs, and their job is to verify the validity of that deed, to verify that it is signed, dated, you know, that certain parts of the deed is completed. It’s signed, dated, notarized.

Their job is not to verify that the person’s name that’s on the deed is the actual person that owns the home. In that case, the people name that was the grantor was not the person that owned the home. Their job is not to verify that even the signature that’s on the deed is the [01:03:00] signature of the homeowner.

My grandfather’s signature was not on that deed. It stated that he was Roosevelt Abraham, who personally appeared, but his signature was not there. Yeah. So they’re not actually responsible for verifying any parts of your deed other than it’s valid, meaning that it has all the signatures that it need, it’s recorded. I mean, it’s stamped and dated, you know, that’s it.

[01:03:26] Tracy Hayes: Right, right.

[01:03:28] Tammy Legette: Which is why these bills are so important.

[01:03:30] Tracy Hayes: A hundred percent. No, I’m actually going, you—well, luckily, one of my state representatives lives in my neighborhood, so I’m going to—

[01:03:38] Tammy Legette: Cool.

[01:03:39] Tracy Hayes: Ask her to see what’s out there in Florida law there. Yeah.

[01:03:42] Tammy Legette: ’Cause Florida is getting hit hard too with deed fraud.

[01:03:44] Tracy Hayes: Very much so. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. Well, Florida, I mean, we know South Florida’s the fraud capital of the world.

[01:03:51] Tammy Legette: Yes.

[01:03:52] Tracy Hayes: Medicare.

[01:03:53] Tammy Legette: Yes.

[01:03:53] Tracy Hayes: Especially, yeah.

With the great wealth transfer actively moving trillions of assets right now, what is the one thing you wish every [01:04:00] Charlotte family would do before a loved one dies? And what does your platform actually offer families who are already in the middle of an inherited property situation and don’t know where to turn first?

[01:04:14] Tammy Legette: What I would like every Charlotte family to do, if I could, get their own property, put their property in a trust. Prepare your property and put it in a trust. Your cars, your bank accounts, to make things easier. Transition. Transition is very hard on the family, and we all know grief is very hard, to deal with grief and also deal with the business side also when your loved one has passed.

Yeah, it will help tremendously if our loved ones take care of those things prior to their passing, and it will help their, you know, their children and their heirs.

Secondly, what my platform does, my platform help those that are, like I say, have inherited property, going through inheritance [01:05:00] or may inherit property and know someone that may inherit property. What you can do there, the first thing it does is break down what inheritance look like.

And then it takes you into whether you should keep the home. You can specifically go in and put in your numbers. It’s very simple, very easy. You’re gonna put in your numbers about the property. You’re gonna state how much, you know, what that mortgage is. It’s gonna tell you whether it is best to keep the property, best to rent the property, best to sell. And that’s based on all of the numbers that you put in.

We’re gonna be able to determine who has the right to sign, who has the right to even put this property on. Have we went through all the steps? What should we do the first 30 days? What documents do we need? Some people don’t know where should I find them? All this information is there. Resources are free. You can get a call with me if you want a call with me.

And if you need help with your documents, we’re definitely there to help you through the process. You can go and you can click, and my services are listed on my website along with the [01:06:00] prices. There is nothing that is hidden. Everything is visible. All the services are there, and I’m a phone call away for those that just need some information or guidance.

And there, you know, I know that there’s $297, and I let you know there’s $297 for a phone call with me. Call me. You can get around that $297. I’m just here to help, you know what I mean?

Right now, and I truly mean that, Tracy. And when I started this platform, it was, you know, it’s starting and it’s my business. I’m putting this thing together. But as I have began to be more in it, you know, I got a video out now that just hit a million views. The calls that I’m receiving from people that need help, I notice if I’m saying, “Yeah, $297,” they’re not calling.

They need help, but I know that inherited property is more about trust. They’ve already been through grief. They’ve already dealt with someone, maybe in their own family and friends, that, you know, has given them this mistrust, and they need someone that they can talk [01:07:00] to.

My part of it’s that I’ve been here. I’ve been through it. I’ve lived it. I’m not only just as a Realtor, been through it as a real estate agent helping someone sell their property. I’ve lived this thing myself in all aspects, which gives me a little bit more compassion toward it. You know, this is what I’m most compassionate about right now.

[01:07:19] Tracy Hayes: I apologize about that. I didn’t put that on silent.

For our real estate agents who are primarily listening, what is something they can do to be better informed? Obviously, I would obviously recommend just hearing about your book. I want to get the book, ’cause I’ve got both sets of my parents and my in-laws are still with us, and let alone my wife. I mean, uh, you know, we’d like to think we’re still young, but you know, like you said, yours, 59, your grandmother. I mean, it can happen, whatever. It could be a car accident, totally unexpected.

As a real estate agent, a professional in our industry, in having to deal with this, I think any real estate agent’s been [01:08:00] in the business long enough has dealt with an inherited property or situation like this. What can they do to be a better professional in this area?

[01:08:09] Tammy Legette: Well, I created a certification called the Certified Inherited Property Navigator. And with the certification, it actually does just that. It takes you through all the modules, all the information you need to become an informed Realtor and help your heirs or your families that have inherited property.

It’s gonna take you through not only what the deed and copies of a deed, it takes you through deed fraud and what that looks like and what we as agents need to know, what to look for, because this is our time, money, energy that we are putting into our job. And we sit down and write that offer, and we’re putting a house on the market, and we just went out and spent, you know, $800 on photos to advertise this million-dollar property that is not even, but does not even belong to the person that, you know, signed that contract.

So what the Certified Inherited Property [01:09:00] Navigator does is it does teach us as professionals how to work and serve our inherited families, ’cause it’s more than just selling a home for them. You know, there’s, first of all, grief that’s involved. So we understand the grief, we understand the process, then we understand the steps that need to take to go from death, of family member dying, to disposition, where we’re actually unloading this property for the family, and they’re able to walk away with their goals, which is the money from their property.

And sometimes we have to get in there and stop a foreclosure. And that’s in there too.

[01:09:36] Tracy Hayes: Yeah. I think it’s definitely a niche that anyone in their general area, to become a more expert. But like I said, everyone comes across it in their career.

I had a question at the top of my head. It’ll come back to me here. I was just thinking when you were answering that. Oh, I want to finish with this. I want to, just last, you have to have, I would imagine, [01:10:00] some sort of a success story of how you helped someone.

[01:10:05] Tammy Legette: Got one right now. Yes, sir.

[01:10:07] Tracy Hayes: Let’s do it.

[01:10:08] Tammy Legette: Currently working with—six months ago, six months. Took me six months.

So six months ago, I received a call from an administrator that had a property that was going into foreclosure. Dad passed away. Siblings were not all in agreement. And when she reached out in January, I got started with the first heirs, was able to get everyone to sign except for one heir. By March, I had all signatures. One heir held out, and he just said he was not gonna sign. He gave all his reasons of not signing.

And, well, then I received a phone call about a week ago. Well, yeah, about a week and a half ago now, that he was ready to sign. He stated that he seen my video. He and his wife—his wife actually seen one of, I’ve been texting them since January. His wife seen one of my videos, and [01:11:00] she said, “Tammy, I seen the name on it.” And my name is, of course, Tammy Barbara Legette on social media. Right.

And she said, “I seen the name, and I thought, is that the same person that’s been texting us all this time?” She said, “I go back to the text message, and I put it together that this is the same Tammy.”

It was one of the inherited property videos I did actually in front of their home, in front of the father’s home. So she seen the video, spoke with her husband, who then called me, talked with me, and said, “You know what? I trust you. I might not trust everybody else, but I trust you. I’ll sign.”

And he signed, six months. I called the admin and said, “Six months, but we got it done.”

She said, “Tammy, I knew you could get it done.”

[01:11:41] Tracy Hayes: So you were listing the property for the family? Is that where it started?

[01:11:46] Tammy Legette: I started out working with them as the Certified Inherited Property Navigator, helping with the document-ginning. Everything was straight, doing the CMA on the house, [01:12:00] helping the estate in the beginning. So I was hired to help the estate.

[01:12:05] Tracy Hayes: Okay.

[01:12:06] Tammy Legette: And from there, yes, we transition over to the listing agent. So that is a part of the navigation, and we are gonna not only just help you, you know, in the beginning, but we’re gonna see you from the beginning all the way through. And that is with the disposition of the property also.

And then I have clients that everyone does not choose to sell. Some choose to retain the property, so of course we help them with the documents in the beginning, and then we see them through getting the property and getting a renter into the property.

So the goal is to help that heir the best way we can, or the family member the best way we can, to give them the least amount of stress. They’re already dealing with grief. My job is to come in and remove the stress from that grief.

[01:12:44] Tracy Hayes: Was his concern or big, you know, I don’t know if he had several, but based on your story, I assume his biggest concern was the trust factor.

[01:12:54] Tammy Legette: His biggest concern was trust. Yeah, same thing. He assumed that [01:13:00] sister went down and opened up that estate without discussing it with all the heirs. She’s not the oldest, and the oldest says, “I am the oldest. I should have been the one to open up the estate.” And all the siblings were pretty much upset because that brought in the trust factor. Why would she go open up the estate without speaking to us? You know, “I don’t trust her. She’s trying to take the money.” And that’s exactly what it all led back to: trust and money.

[01:13:24] Tracy Hayes: Yeah.

[01:13:25] Tammy Legette: And once we came, you know, he just happened to see videos and go back to see videos and say, “Oh, this is what you do for a living.”

I said, “Yes, sir, this is my job. You know, every text message that I’ve sent you, my job is to take the stress away from you. I’m not here to bring more stress. I’m here to actually alleviate it.”

And since I’ve come in, things have become so much smoother now that he started talking to me and figured out who I am and that I am that Realtor. Now, first signature we received, he signed on the listing agreement. I said, “I’ll have this house under contract within a week.” I had the house under contract in three [01:14:00] days, and he was the first person to sign.

[01:14:02] Tracy Hayes: Awesome.

[01:14:03] Tammy Legette: First person.

[01:14:04] Tracy Hayes: I, you know, that just—what I just heard, by them bringing you in as the consultant initially—

[01:14:11] Tammy Legette: Mm-hmm.

[01:14:12] Tracy Hayes: To consult them on how to go through this process, and then obviously then hiring you as the listing agent, it made—you know, wasn’t one or two people. You had how many, what did you say? Five or six?

[01:14:23] Tammy Legette: Seven. Seven heirs. Seven.

[01:14:25] Tracy Hayes: Seven people involved. And you had one that didn’t trust this process. And because of your professional reputation, someone hiring you is saying, “Hey, we’re hiring a professional to consult us. She’s neutral to all of us. We’re all hiring and paying her, so she’s going to be telling us all the information we need to know.”

So what I’m saying is for family members that might be in this situation, to reach out to Tammy as that consultant, to be the mediator in a way of, “Hey, this is how the process works. You’re not hearing it from your [01:15:00] sister or your brother that you, you know, fought with your entire childhood. You’re hearing it from me, the pro who’s done this enough times and has a book out on it, and video.”

Cool. Yeah. Awesome.

[01:15:13] Tammy Legette: Yes.

[01:15:14] Tracy Hayes: Tammy, I appreciate you coming on today. This is really, you know, important, very important information. ’Cause I mean, yes, all the money that people—and when I turn off the video, I’m gonna tell you about a situation that’s going on in my family that I know you’ll find interesting.

But, you know, everyone has to reach out. Go on Amazon. Let me read the title again: From Death to Disposition: The Deed That Shouldn’t Exist. Go on Amazon and pick up her book. And obviously your website, TheInheritedPropertyNavigator.com.

Here, PropertyNavigator.com. PropertyNavigator.com is Tammy’s website. But she’s on LinkedIn. You can go on LinkedIn. Obviously, all that stuff is going to be in the show notes, and any time and all the reels that were pulled out, your links will be on there as well.

So if you are [01:16:00] catching this on a short form or whatever, just look down below. Her link will be there so you can find her information. But Tammy, I appreciate you coming on today.

[01:16:08] Tammy Legette: I appreciate you, and thank you for getting this information out. It is definitely important.

[01:16:11] Tracy Hayes: Yes. Very, very important. Hang on, and I’m gonna shut off the video.

[01:16:14] Tracy Hayes: Okay..