It depends on the estate. If a single personal representative has authority under the will or court appointment, they typically have the legal ability to sign a contract and close on the property without unanimous heir agreement, though most do try to align with the heirs out of relationship considerations. If the title is held jointly by multiple heirs (rather than through an estate), all owners on title generally need to sign at closing. Your estate attorney can confirm what authority you have. Whichever version applies, our team works with whatever signing structure your attorney sets up.

That's common and not a problem. The mortgage gets paid off at closing from the sale proceeds. Whatever's left after the mortgage payoff, closing fees, and any other liens against the property goes to the estate or directly to the heirs based on the estate documents. If the mortgage payoff exceeds the offer amount, we'll talk through the math with you. Sometimes the path forward involves a short sale conversation with the lender, and sometimes the honest answer is that selling now isn't the right move. We'll be straight with you either way.

In some cases, yes. In an independent probate administration, the personal representative can typically sign a contract and close the sale before the estate is fully closed, since the closing is one event within the larger administration. In a supervised administration, the court usually needs to approve the sale before closing, which adds time. If the property was held in a trust or transferred via a TOD deed, probate may not apply at all and you can sell directly. The cleanest answer is to ask your probate attorney about your specific structure. We're happy to coordinate timing with whatever the attorney determines.

You take what you want and leave the rest. We buy houses with everything still inside, including furniture, clothing, dishes, photo albums, paperwork, garage contents, and anything else that's been left behind. If there are specific items the family wants to keep, take them whenever you're ready. If you don't want to walk through the house yourself, you don't have to. Our team handles the cleanout after closing. Many of the families we work with describe this as the part that brought them the most relief.

Inherited property typically receives a stepped-up cost basis as of the date of the deceased's death, which often means little or no capital gains tax on a sale that happens shortly after inheritance. That said, tax treatment depends on multiple factors specific to the estate and the heirs (federal estate tax, state taxes, holding period, improvements, etc.). For specific tax guidance on your sale, please consult a CPA or tax professional. We can describe what we typically see, but we are not tax advisors and won't pretend to be.

For a trust-held or TOD-deeded property, 14 to 30 days from first contact is common. For independent probate, 30 to 60 days. For supervised probate, 45 to 90 days. If the estate hasn't been opened yet, add the time it takes to open probate and appoint a personal representative, which can be a few weeks to a few months. The actual cash sale portion of the timeline is usually the fastest part. Most of the wait is the legal process catching up.

Yes. The process can be fully remote. We can coordinate the walkthrough with whoever has access locally, and the title company handles signing through a notary near you. Funds are wired to whatever account or accounts the estate documents specify on the closing date. We've closed with heirs in nearly every part of the country, and the distance does not change the process.