Can a probate sale really be outbid at the confirmation hearing

I read the exact same thing in a course and then read the opposite on a blog the next day. Still don't know which is true, so I'm watching this one.

That kind of confirmation hearing isn't universal. In small rural counties with informal administration, the representative signs and the sale closes at the title company like any other transaction, no hearing and no judge reviewing the price. Whether it applies here depends entirely on the state and the type of administration involved, so that question is worth confirming directly with the estate's attorney.

It's real in some states and it turns on what authority the representative has. Where the court grants full or independent authority, the sale closes without confirmation. Where authority is limited or the administration is supervised, the sale goes to a hearing and the code can allow a higher bid in the room. California has an actual formula for the minimum overbid, which is why a seller's attorney would be careful about it. Get a copy of the letters and any order about the sale and have a probate attorney in that state read them. That's a ten minute answer for someone licensed there and a week of guessing for anyone else.

What I don't understand is the economics of the hearing states. Why would anyone pay 500 for an inspection and 450 for a sewer scope on a deal a stranger can take at the hearing by bidding a few thousand more? Somebody must be doing it, so either the overbid is rarer than the rules make it sound or people build the diligence cost in as a loss they eat sometimes.

That's my worry too, flint. My whole first deal budget assumes one inspection, not three attempts. If two out of three get taken at a hearing my cost per closed deal triples before I've bought anything.

Question nobody has asked: does the person who outbids have to show funds? If they need certified money in the room that's a much smaller pool of competitors than it sounds like, and it changes how much diligence risk you'd accept.

Quarry, the fix is upstream. Ask for the letters before you spend a dollar. In Texas independent administration is the default and the representative signs without a confirmation hearing, so people trained here genuinely don't know the confirmation states exist, which is why your course and the blog disagreed. Your seller's lawyer knows which one you're in. The other thing worth asking her: has the inventory been filed yet, because in a lot of places the sale can't move until it has, and that's your real timeline, hearing or no hearing.