Modern Traditions Realty Group, RE/MAX Center
https://www.moderntraditionsrealty.com/blog/unclaimed-property-in-ga-and-how-do-you-look-this-up-with-kristy-vallee


Unclaimed Property in GA and How Do You Look This Up? with Kristy Vallee

Posted By: Cleve Gaddis In: Gaddis Real Estate Radio
Date: Fri, May 12th 2023 1:44 pm

-This is a transcript from Go Gaddis Radio to listen to the episode click here-> https://on.soundcloud.com/qmKiz 

Do you have unclaimed property with your name on it? Find out by clicking here to search: moderntraditionsrealty.net/unclaimed-property

Welcome back to Go Gaddis Real Estate Radio right here on AM nine 20. We appreciate you sticking with us. Through the break. Have you ever seen those commercials on television that say maybe somebody out there owes you some money, maybe something a bank owed you, or something the state owed you, or something like that?

I have always wanted to know if there is any unclaimed property in my name in the state of Georgia. I'd really like to know everywhere else, and so we have got a special guest, a segment that's gonna tell us exactly how to do that. In the state of Georgia, my business partner Kristy Vallee, how are you?

Welcome. Hey, good. How are you today? You have not been on in a couple of months and I'm so glad to have you back, and I love it that the topic we're gonna discuss is sort of real estate related, but it's also related to lots of other things as well. If anybody's listening and you want to reach Kristy or you want to meet, reach Cleve.

To be able to work with us and our team. We've got agents that help buyers, sellers, investors, and landlords, all over metro Atlanta. And it is easy. The number is 77 0 4 9 7 0 0 0 0. So Kristy, can you give us, please, an explanation of what is unclaimed property? And then if you don't mind, if you could just tell me how much the State of Georgia owes me.

It will save me from having to do any research. So unclaimed property is when a. Or even a government agency or a bank, any institution has sent you or tried to send you your rightful funds that are owed to you. Right? There are, maybe you have moved and it has been returned to them. Right? Or they just can't figure out how to get the funds to you, and so they report it.

They report these funds to the state revenue department. Okay. And the revenue department keeps a list. Of all the people that they have funds that they're holding that are due back to them. When they don't know how to find them, essentially. So that's so interesting. So if, uh, I overpaid property taxes for an example, and, uh, Fulton County sent me a refund and, and maybe they had the address on the property misspelled or something like that, and it was returned, I did not realize that there was an obligation in the state that if you have funds that are due to someone, you can't just keep 'em, you have to actually submit them to the state who I assume.

Holds them in trust for our benefit. And at some point in time, I would assume they, they, they cash the checks and spend it on something. That's the way governments typically work, but, so it's any kind of money that might be owed to me for really anything if they can't get it to me, yeah. But the most common things would be bank accounts that have gone inactive.

Okay. Maybe you have a safety deposit box that you've forgotten about, and there are contents there that they have to record as a part of the own unclaimed property. Oh, wow. Yeah, would they actually save the physical property? So if I had a safety deposit box, would they save it or would they, would they discard it?

Gimme, I believe there is a time limit, just like you mentioned, there's a time limit on that. Yeah. You need to be careful that you definitely, definitely go and check and make sure that your name is not on that list of unclaimed property. Perfect. Perfect. Okay, so now you found out, and you might have known before, but you found out about unclaimed property.

Because your uncle, I believe, or maybe it was an, I don't remember, uh, actually has a story. And so I would love to hear that story and I know the listeners would too, would love to hear it as well. So, you know, we know realtors all across the country because we've been in this business for a long time, and I saw some other realtor had posted that they were able to claim property.

And so I thought, wow, huh, let me search for myself. Yeah. And see if there's any unclaimed property under my name. So I, I searched, I've been married for a long time now, so I searched my current name, but then I decided, well, let me check my maiden name and see if maybe a long time ago there was something reported under my maiden name.

And what came up was my uncle's name. And so I gave him a call and said, Hey, you have unclaimed property. And it listed, uh, that it was Fulton County. So it sounds just like the story that you're talking about. Probably property taxes maybe. Okay. Property tax. Yes. Uh, but they were very, very fast in processing it.

He put in his claim for the property and I think he got $200, something like that. That's $200. Found money cuz he had no idea it was owed to him. So. Because your maiden name is his current last name. The system just pulled up something that had your, your maiden name, and it happened to have a different first name.

That is so cool. And it's 200 bucks. Now, was there any, uh, finders fee that was paid? Kristy, I mean, oh my gosh. He kept the whole 200 bucks. He kept the whole 200 bucks, no finders. Fee. And when you go in to search, the search is free. So, and it, it breaks it down by first name, last name, and I think it even allows you to search by an entity name, which would be like a company name or an estate name.

Uh, so there's a lot of different ways you can search for. Unclaimed property on the Georgia website. So as you were mentioning this to me, I actually went in and typed into Google, Georgia Unclaimed property search and a Department of Revenue website came up. And I, I looked and studied the, the homepage, but there's a little button to the left.

It says, search for unclaimed properties. And when I did that, it took me to a different website. It's Georgia claims dot unclaimed property.com. It asked me if I wanna search for unclaimed property or check the status of, of a previously filed claim. So I clicked on search for unclaimed property. I'm gonna type in my last name.

If you, if, if there's something here for me, Kristy, I'm giving you a cut of it because I think you deserve it. And let's just see here. I don't know if wish I had a drum roll or something like that cuz this is really quite suspenseful for me. I'm gonna click on search the properties. Oh wait a minute. I gotta click on, I certify that I possess an interest in the unclaimed property.

Okay, I can do that. And I'm saying search for. It says, no properties match your search criteria, but you know, I should do that for all of my daughters and see if they have any, any unclaimed. So it looks like there's no charge for this. No charge. Yeah. You don't, yeah, it, it's free. Man, wouldn't that be great?

If you're listening to this show, uh, go to the, you know, how to, how to just site searching. Google the Georgia Unclaimed property site. Follow the instructions, put in your name. I would probably put it in it, put it in several different ways. Uh, just to make sure that you're, they're matching up the names.

Like my name is Cleve, but my real name is Cleveland, so I used Cleveland. Uh, cuz that's the way most of my official documents would be. And I'm very disappointed that I didn't have any, any anything there. But what a cool concept. Um, Kristy, do you have any thoughts about. Um, how we should keep our property from becoming, evidently I've done a good job cause I don't have any unclaimed property or maybe the state's already spent it, but do you have any suggestions on things that, uh, we should, steps that we should take to make sure we protect ourselves from losing something?

So, one, you need to keep some accurate records of your accounts. You need to know what accounts you have open, right? And anytime you move. You need to make sure that you have forwarding addresses set up so that you are getting notifications when things come in after you've made a move. So a lot of times these things can happen because we move, right?

And our address. Change. And if we don't make the correct updates on our accounts, then people can't find us. So those are two ways that really are the, the top two things that you can do to make sure that you're keeping up with your assets. Well, you just got me panicked because I'm in the process of moving and the thought of having to change.

All of my information after 24 years, it is just overwhelming. By the way, if you work with your local real estate professional, and we'd love it to be Modern Traditions Realty Group, we have ways to help you, uh, shortcut that process so it's much easier for all of your utility companies and other vendors to know that you've changed addresses.

Now, Kristy, you mentioned something that didn't register with me when you said it, but I believe you said that you could search by, you know, a legal person's last name, or you could search by the name of an entity. So I would assume. That that means by the name of a business, but also maybe by the name of an estate.

Because my guess is there would be a lot of unclaimed property, um, where they couldn't get it to the heirs of the estate or didn't even know what to do with it. And it went to the state of, of Georgia. So is that right, is my thinking on that right. Yes, and the best way to do that is this search query allows you to put in like one name and it will show you anything that has that name in it.

So if you know that the estate of John Smith is something that you're searching for, you can just search John Smith. I'm sure there will be a ton. For you to look through, but it will show you any estates that are under that name as well that may have a balance that is unclaimed. So very interesting. I went back and just typed in just Gaddis so that it might pick up the name of my company or maybe the name of, of, of people in the past.

And there is a lot of gaddis now. There are, there are 25 pages. Worth of unclaimed property that have the name Gaddis somewhere in the title. I'm not going to, during this segment actually look through all 25 pages of those, but it'll be interesting. Maybe it was in my father's estate or something like that, but there's, you know, there's Alicia Gaddis and Amanda Gaddis and Angie Gaddis and Anthony Gaddis.

There's Gaddis is everywhere. So if you're listening to this show and your last name is Gaddis and it looks like there's a lot of us, you need to get on in there and. Do a little searching. Kristy, thank you so much for being on with us, and thank you for bringing this amazing tip. You and I became business partners, um, in October of last year.

We've known each other for a long time. My, I've been friends of your family and, and your father and my mother we're in real estate business for years and years and years. And, um, I wonder if you just take a second and, uh, tell. Tell anybody who's listening, why they might consider either working with a Modern Traditions Realty Group on the seller side or on the buyer side.

We've got about 45 seconds left and I'd love to hear what you have to say. Only 45 seconds to explain how awesome the service, sorry. Sorry. Modern traditions. I think that when you work with this team, you just get a sense that you are well cared for throughout the whole process, from the time if you're listing your home, there's an exact process that we follow and we wanna make sure that nothing is.

Gonna fall through the cracks, and we are very detail oriented. So every, from every step from the time we list your home, or from the time you decide to buy a home, we have you covered with everything that you would need to know for your real estate process. I love it if you're, if you're worried about making a mistake, go to go gaddis radio.com or call 7704970000, Kristy.

Left out a couple zeros. Kristy, thank you so much for being here. We gotta take a quick break when we come back, is there really a new tax on well qualified borrowers to fund less qualified borrowers? And do you really need an agent when buying a new construction home? We've got those subjects and more.

Stick with us. We'll be back.