Inherited a house in Pinellas County? We handle the probate and buy the home.

Why families call us

Most people who call us did not plan to be in the real estate business. A mother passed in Largo and the kids live in three different states. An uncle in St. Petersburg left no will, and nobody is sure who the heirs even are. A house in Clearwater has been sitting empty for a year, the taxes are behind, and the lawn is drawing code letters.

The usual path is to hire a probate attorney, wait for the court, then hire a realtor, fix the place up, and wait again for a buyer. That can take the better part of a year and cost real money up front. We built Pinellas Probate Home Buyers so a family can make one phone call instead.

• You don't have to find or pay a probate attorney yourself.
• You don't have to clean out decades of belongings or fix anything.
• You don't have to travel to Florida or set foot in a courthouse.
• Taxes, liens, code fines, and any mortgage are paid from the sale at closing.

How it works, in four steps

1. Talk it through. Call or text Alex at (727) 353-6206. Tell him about the house, who passed, whether there is a will, and who the family members are. There is no cost and no commitment.
2. One walkthrough and a written offer. We see the house once. If you live out of town, a relative, a neighbor, or a lockbox works fine. Then we give you a cash offer in writing.
3. The probate gets filed. If you accept, an independent licensed Florida probate attorney prepares the filings and represents the estate. We pay the cost. The heirs sign with a notary wherever they live, and remote online notarization is available.
4. Close and get paid. Once the court enters its order, the title company schedules closing, usually about a week later. Each heir receives their share by check or wire.

The full step-by-step, including who does what at each stage, is on our how it works page.

What the probate court does, and what it doesn't

A lot of families picture probate as a long courtroom ordeal. For many Pinellas estates it is mostly paperwork. Filings go to the Pinellas County Clerk of the Circuit Court through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal, so nobody has to drive to Clearwater or stand before a judge.

In the probates we handle, the court's job is to confirm who the legal heirs are and authorize the house to pass to them. The court does not set your sale price, and it does not pick your closing date. The heirs decide those.

Estates often qualify for Florida's simplified process, called summary administration (Fla. Stat. 735.201), when the non-exempt Florida estate is $150,000 or less, or when the person died more than two years ago. Protected homestead doesn't count toward that limit. Estates that need formal administration, have a will that must be proven, or have a family disagreement take longer, sometimes months, and we will tell you that up front. Our guide on summary vs. formal administration explains the difference.

We are a home buying company, not attorneys, and this is general information, not legal advice. The estate's probate attorney advises on your specific situation.

Some of the harder ones we've handled

Plenty of our probates are simple: one or two heirs, a clear family tree, a house that just needs a new owner. Some are not.

• 42 heirs, no will. A Tampa Bay home passed to 42 relatives across the country. A title company and a national underwriter turned it down as too complex. We found every heir, and every one of them was paid their share.
• An heir in Romania. A father learned through us that his former wife and son had died in Florida and that he was next of kin. We closed by remote online notarization and international wire.
• Two estates, one family in Russia. Two family members passed within months of each other, leaving two homes. Their father, the last living heir, closed from Russia.

Read the details on our stories page.

Who we are

Pinellas Probate Home Buyers is the probate division of 131 Cash Home Buyers, a St. Petersburg home buying company Alex Jandick founded in September 2018. Our office is at 2529 Central Ave in St. Petersburg. We have bought more than 140 houses across Tampa Bay, and our work has been featured three times on Tampa Bay 28 (WFTS, ABC).

We are the buyer. We are not a law firm and not a realtor. That matters because it keeps the roles clear: the attorney represents the estate, the title company handles the money, and we buy the house. More on that on our about page.

Where we buy, and what we don't

We buy throughout Pinellas County, including St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Largo, Pinellas Park, Seminole, Dunedin, Tarpon Springs, Palm Harbor, Gulfport, and the beach towns. See every community on our areas page.

We buy single-family homes, duplexes through fourplexes, small multifamily, commercial buildings, and vacant lots. We do not buy condos, co-ops, or mobile and manufactured homes. If that's what you inherited, we'll say so on the first call and point you in a better direction if we can.

An honest word about price

Our cash offer is below full retail. In exchange, we pay the probate and closing costs, take the house exactly as it is, and close on a date you choose. For a lot of families, especially when the house needs work, the heirs are scattered, or the taxes are piling up, that trade makes sense.

Sometimes it doesn't. If the house is in good shape, the family has time, and listing with an agent would clearly put more money in your pocket, we will tell you that. You can compare both paths in our guide, probate attorney or buyer.