For personal representatives
When a probate includes a house.
If you're reading this, someone has died and you've been named to handle their affairs. I'm sorry. What follows is the practical part — written plainly, because most of what's written about probate isn't.
A house is usually the largest thing in an estate and the most work. It also tends to be the part nobody prepared you for. There is a mortgage that keeps coming due, a lawn that keeps growing, insurance that behaves differently once a house sits empty, and belongings that someone has to go through.
None of that is urgent today. It will still be there next month. But it helps to know roughly what's ahead.
What usually has to happen first
Before a house in an estate can be sold, someone has to have the legal authority to sell it. In Florida that comes through the probate court, and the path depends on the size of the estate, whether there was a will, and whether the property was the deceased's homestead.
Your attorney is the right person to tell you which path applies and when you're actually able to sign. I'm not an attorney, and this isn't legal advice — but I've been through the process enough times to know what tends to come next, and to make sure the property side is ready when the legal side clears.
If you don't yet have a probate attorney, that's the first call to make — before any decision about the house. I'm glad to suggest attorneys I've worked with in Central Florida, with no arrangement of any kind between us.
What I can take off your plate
Much of what a house in probate generates isn't really real estate work. It's coordination. That's the part I handle.
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Getting the property ready
Before I sold real estate I ran a construction company that grew to building 400 homes a year. Scheduling contractors, knowing what a repair should cost, and telling the difference between a real problem and a cosmetic one is the part I'm most useful for.
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Repair versus sell as-is — with real numbers
Not an opinion. An actual cost-and-return comparison for the specific house, so the family can decide on facts rather than guesswork. Sometimes the answer is to do nothing.
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When the estate has no cash
Estates are often asset-rich and cash-poor, and beneficiaries aren't always in a position to fund repairs. There are contractors who will work on a pay-at-closing basis, and buyers who will purchase as-is when speed matters more than top dollar. Both are real options.
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An empty house
Utilities, rekeying, the insurance implications of a vacancy, cleanout coordination, and keeping an eye on the place. These are the calls that otherwise come to you.
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When the heirs don't agree
Often the hardest part, and rarely really about the house. I'm a NAR-certified Real Estate Negotiation Expert, and a good deal of this work is helping people who are grieving reach a decision they can each live with.
How this usually starts
With a phone call, and usually not a long one.
You tell me where things stand, I tell you what I'd expect the property to need, and you decide whether it's worth going further. There's no charge for that conversation and no obligation attached to it.
If the timing isn't right — if the estate hasn't been opened, or the family isn't ready to talk about the house — that's a perfectly good answer. It's often the right one.