Why probate sales fail at ordinary title companies
The title commitment on an estate property reads like a law exam: letters of administration, homestead determinations, spousal and heir joinders, court orders authorizing sale, creditor periods. A processor can list those requirements; only legal work can satisfy several of them. If no probate has been opened — the most common situation — the 'title problem' is actually an unstarted legal proceeding.
Milestone Title closes the identification gap: the title team states exactly what the record requires. Where a probate must actually be opened and run, that is legal work the family procures separately and directly from Muroff, Milestone & Milestone, P.A. — an estate planning and probate firm since 1980, engaged under its own terms and fees — or from any probate counsel they choose; either way, the title file is coordinated with the proceeding's timeline instead of oblivious to it.
The questions that decide your timeline
- Has probate been opened, and in the right court? Florida property generally requires a Florida proceeding even for out-of-state decedents
- Was the property the decedent's homestead? Homestead status changes who must act and how the property passes
- Is there a will, and does the personal representative have authority to sell — or is a court order needed?
- Who are the heirs/beneficiaries, and will any need to join in the deed?
- Are there estate creditors or liens that must be addressed from the proceeds?
For families: sequencing kindness with correctness
Families selling a loved one's home are managing grief and logistics at once. Our job is to make the property side orderly: honest timelines, plain-language explanations, coordination among heirs scattered across states and countries (remote signing helps), and one team accountable from petition to policy. Where the family needs estate legal advice, the law firm side handles it — that is literally the firm's founding practice.