7 Tips for Executors Tasked with a Difficult Job: Selling the House
7. Use estate assets to improve the property before selling. Motivated by the desire to get the home sold as quickly as possible, some executors want to list the house on the market immediately-without spending any estate assets on repairs or improvements. While there are multiple reasons for this, a big one is that the executor is attempting to sell the property as-is. “One problem that can arise during probate is selling the property as-is. Unfortunately, you’ll have a hard time finding a buyer to pay what the house is worth if it’s outdated or rundown. Sometimes probate properties take longer to sell than traditional home sales. Maybe the heirs are out-of-state, or don’t have the resources or the inclination to fix the house up before selling,” explains Kittle.
Then, months later you discover that appreciating assets (like the house) have increased the estate’s value so that it now requires probate. 2. Take control of the probate timeline. Once you file that document, the probate timeline kicks into gear, whether you’re ready or not. And with all of the rules, regulations, and deadlines involved in the probate process, many executors feel rushed and overwhelmed-with little time to gather all the necessary documents, forms, and paperwork. If you didn’t file the will with the court by the state-dictated timeline, then you’ve created a bunch of legal headaches for yourself.
Whether the deceased is your dearly departed loved one, or you’re simply a court-appointed personal representative, the weight of fulfilling someone’s final wishes during probate is a heavy load to carry. Add in the complexity of selling a house during the process and honoring those last requests can feel impossible. While the probate process varies from state to state, there are ways to simplify the process no matter where you live. So, how does an executor sell a house?
5. Make sure your agent has experience with probate real estate sales. Perhaps even more important than when you hire your agent is who you hire to help sell the house during probate. It requires a lot of know-how to sell a house during probate because to make sure you meet deadlines and follow the law-especially if the home sale requires court confirmation through an overbidding process. “Selling a home during the probate process is much more difficult than a traditional home sale, advises Kittle.
Luckily, that timeline isn’t always set in stone. “There can be rules or guidelines for when a will is supposed to be filed in the probate court, but most people don’t have a will so that’s often irrelevant,” explains Sacramento-based probate attorney John Palley, who has been awarded Martindale-Hubbell’s prestigious “AV” peer review rating. While you can give yourself a little breathing room of a few weeks before filing the will-and even more if there’s no will to file-you don’t want to wait too long, or you’ll unnecessarily delay the lengthy, often year-long timeline. “Filing the will with the court triggers many other things during the probate process, including when they’ll be able to sell the house, access the bank accounts, sell the car, and do all of those types of things,” explains Palley.
That’s why it’s important to hire an agent who has probate experience, even if you’re already working with a probate attorney. “The biggest difference is that a probate purchase agreement contains a couple of different clauses. It lays out for the buyer that there might be a need for probate court confirmation, which would likely delay the sale. A probate agent can also help you figure out what to do if your inherited property has a current tenant with a lease agreement, and whether or not the home sale needs to wait until after the lease is up. “In many ways, a probate sale and a regular sale are going to be almost identical, but it’s definitely important that your agent has probate experience, just so that they understand the differences,” advises Palley.
