Someone contacted you about money. Now what?

First: the underlying money is usually real

Recovery companies find these files by monitoring public records. If a letter says your foreclosed property produced a surplus, that part is often accurate. It is not automatically a scam, and ignoring it can cost you the money — particularly on a tax sale, where the window is two years.

Second: verify it for free before you respond

Call the district clerk in the county where the property sold and ask whether funds are being held from the sale. It costs nothing and it puts you on equal footing with whoever wrote to you. Now you know what you are negotiating over.

Third: never sign these

• A deed of any kind
• An assignment of the funds or of your claim
• A broad power of attorney
• Anything with the fee left blank or 'to be determined'
• The back of a check without reading the entire agreement it belongs to

Fourth: get the six answers

• The amount, and how it was calculated
• The attorney's name and Texas bar number
• The fee in percent and in dollars
• What you owe if the claim fails
• Whether you are signing away anything but a contingent fee
• Your actual deadline and which county holds the funds

Any firm that hesitates on these has told you what you need to know.

Fifth: you may shop it, and you may do it yourself

Nothing obligates you to use the first company that found you. You can compare, hire your own attorney directly, or file it yourself. If the owner is living and title is clean, self-filing is genuinely viable and any honest firm will say so.