What to Do With Inherited Property You Don’t Want or Need

A windfall is heading your way! Americans will inherit around $15 trillion over the next decade. Some people are inheriting cash, but many people are inheriting homes and real estate properties.

Dealing with the loss of a loved one is hard. Dealing with a piece of property you may know nothing about can make things even harder. Yet you can make the most of your inherited property, once you know what to do. 

What legal hoops do you have to jump through? How should you prepare your property for sale? How can you sell your property? 

Answer these questions and you can find your path forward with your inherited property. Here is your quick guide.

Look at the Legal and Financial Paperwork

You need to understand everything about your house before you can sell your home. Figure out if there was a mortgage attached to the house and if the mortgage has been paid off. Run a title search to see who the title belongs to and if there are multiple heirs to the property. 

If you are the heir and the house has a mortgage, you must make mortgage payments. Talk to the mortgage lender and see what schedule you can make for payments. 

You will need to pay estate taxes on the house’s fair market value. When you sell the house in the weeks to come, you will pay capital gains taxes.

It may take some time for the property to come into your hands. If your loved one had a living trust or a life estate deed, you may receive the title to the house in a few weeks.

But probate inheritance can take months because you must go through the courts. Talk to a lawyer and figure out a way you can expedite the process.

Evaluate the Inherited Real Estate Property

Once you have your legal process figured out, you should learn about how much your property is worth. Contact a real estate broker and have them conduct an appraisal of your property. 

After they do their work, you should go and get your own sense of the property. Think about what improvements you can make to increase the value of the house. You may need to renovate an exterior area or the basement. 

You should also talk to your family about the property. If people have deep emotional attachments to it, you need to smooth things over with them before you sell the home. Some people may want keepsakes from the house, so you should hand those pieces of property over. 

Nominate a Personal Representative

You should look at your loved one’s will to see if they named an executor. If they did not, you should name someone to act as the personal representative. 

This person will be responsible for maintaining the property until it is sold. They can be a member of your family, but they should be emotionally prepared to handle the property and able to negotiate with family members. The representative can and should receive help from an attorney and other experienced professionals.

Improve the Property

Even if you don’t need major renovations, you should take steps to improve your property. This will make it easier to sell the house. 

Do a deep clean of the property from the attic down to the basement. Make sure you clean the flooring and walls and take out anything that threatens the integrity of your property. If you find pests or mold, you should hire someone to come in and clean your house.

Take any items of personal significance to you from the house and then declutter the home. You can leave items like furniture that the next homeowner may want.

But try to sell everything else. You can conduct an estate sale, which can double as a promotional effort for selling your home. You can give items away to homeless shelters and thrift stores.

If you find decluttering emotionally difficult, ask someone else to do it. You can supervise the operation and find additional items to take home with you.

Try to boost the curb appeal of your property by grooming the lawn and painting the house. You should install new windows and doors and remove dated details like window valances.

Close the Sale

You can contact people interested in buying your house whenever you want. But you should wait to get a cash offer until after you have touched your property up.

You can make a quick sale on your home once you contact a professional experienced in quick sales. You should prepare your home for sale by removing all personal effects from your house. The fewer personal effects there are, the more potential homeowners can imagine themselves in your home. 

You can give tours to potential buyers, but let the sales professional do their job. It may take a couple of weeks for your home to sell, so be patient and remain in touch with the person you hired. See if there is anything you can do to sweeten the deal, like leaving behind outdoor furniture.

Sell Your Inherited Property

You must do a few things with your inherited property. You should pay your taxes and mortgage on it and figure out who the heirs are. Get an evaluation of the property and put it in the hands of a personal representative.

Start improving your property with a deep clean. Then take small and effective steps to make the home more valuable. Contact a professional in selling homes and work with them to seal the deal.

You don’t have to go far to sell your home. We Buy Houses Memphis serves the Memphis area. Contact us today.