Selling an inherited house: probate, co-heirs, and what to do first

Nobody can sell a house they do not yet have authority over, and the first question is not about the house at all. It is about how the deed was held.

1. Find out how it was held. Jointly with a survivor, in a trust, or in one name alone. The first two often pass without probate. The third usually does not, and that single fact decides whether the rest of this list applies to you.
2. Locate the will and file it. It goes to the probate court in the county where the person lived. If there is no will the court still appoints somebody, it just uses the state's order of priority rather than the deceased's.
3. Somebody is given authority. An executor named in the will, or an administrator appointed by the court. Until that document exists, no title company will close, and that is the piece people underestimate.
4. Debts and the mortgage keep running. Death does not pause a mortgage, the property taxes or the insurance. This is the part that turns a house into a cost while everyone decides what to do.
5. Then it can be sold. With the right signatures and, in some cases, the court's approval on the price.

An inherited house is rarely empty for a week. It is empty for months, and it costs money every one of them.

The mortgage if there is one, the property taxes, the utilities you have to keep on so the pipes do not freeze, and the lawn somebody has to cut. Then the one that catches people out: most homeowner policies restrict cover once a house has been vacant for thirty or sixty days, and a vacant-property policy costs more than the one it replaces. Ring the insurer before the clock runs out rather than after something happens.

None of that is a reason to rush. It is a reason to know the number, because six months of carrying costs changes which option is actually the best one.

Every person on title signs, and the title company will want to see the document giving the executor authority before it will insure anything.

You do not need to clear the house. We buy as-is and that includes the contents: take what matters to you, leave the rest, and we deal with it. For a house nobody has lived in for a while that is usually the single largest thing standing between a family and a closing.

You also do not need to repair anything. A house held by somebody elderly for thirty years is normally thirty years behind on the roof, the boiler and the wiring, and the cost of fixing all three is exactly what a listing agent will tell you to spend first.

General orientation, not legal or tax advice. Probate procedure, and the tax basis of an inherited property varies by state and by case, so ask somebody licensed where the property is before you act on any of it.