They may be holding it so the daughter can inherit it with a stepped up basis.
Maybe, but the house isn't worth much, especially since it's falling into disrepair. The county and Zillow both have it valued at about $60k and I think that's optimistic. This one is brick, but the wooden garage for the house next door owned by the same woman and also apparently uninhabited is falling down
And the part I left out, because it felt stalker-like and creepy, is that while I've been coveting this house for a couple of years now, I found out today that the woman died two weeks ago, so if they are waiting for a step up in basis, they'll have it now
ETA: I was planning of pretending to not know that she had passed when I wrote the letter since it might seem like I'm trying to take advantage of a grieving family when really I'd been wanting to do this for years and my price hasn't changed. Maybe that's not right? I'm open to opinions on that as well