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 a title file that moves with the proceeding's timeline from petition to policy. Where the family needs estate legal advice, the law firm can provide it under its own separate engagement — estate work has been the firm's founding practice since 1980.