The seller's dead father is still on the deed of the 18 acres I bought

Before Tuesday I'd get a dollar figure and a calendar from the title company on the heirship piece. Every version of this I've read about ranges from a few hundred for an affidavit to several thousand and months if a court gets involved. You can't decide between assign, extend and walk without knowing which end of that range you're in, and right now you're guessing.

Naive question, but couldn't the seller and his sister both sign quitclaim deeds and be done with it? Two heirs, two signatures, no court.

@ember that's the move everyone reaches for and it usually doesn't get you insurable title. A quitclaim conveys whatever those two happen to own. It doesn't answer whether there was a will, whether there are other heirs nobody mentioned, or whether the estate had creditors, and the underwriter is the one who decides if they'll insure over it.

I had a 30 acre parcel two years ago where the record owner had died and the family swore there were three heirs. Turned out to be five, one of whom hadn't spoken to the others since the funeral. Seven months from contract to close. I got paid, but the fee was the same fee I'd have made in three weeks on a clean parcel.

@rigging the number I'd want is what the builder does when he sees the commitment. If he's built in that county he's seen worse.

You're calling this a 26k spread. It isn't. A builder who reads that commitment comes back at 56 or 58 and points at his attorney's invoice, and you'll take it because you're 9 days from a decision. Price the deal at the retrade, not the handshake.

There are title shops that do nothing but curative work on land and quote flat fees for heirship packets. Worth two calls Monday so you walk into Tuesday with a price instead of a shrug. If the number is 1,800 and 45 days, that's a very different conversation than 6,000 and a court date.

The mineral reservation is the piece I'd chase. If the builder is going to sell finished lots to buyers using ordinary residential financing, some lenders get itchy about severed minerals with surface access rights, and whether that's actually a problem depends on the state and the specific reservation language. Also nobody has asked who maintains that dirt lane once four houses use it.

The question I'd be embarrassed to ask in a room: why is the commitment a secret until Tuesday? @rigging you're spending days ranking three options when the person whose money decides all of this hasn't been shown the document. Send it tonight and let him tell you whether he cares. His answer collapses two of your three choices.