An inheritance is one of those things where even a gain can often feel like a loss. The circumstances for most inheritances being disbursed is either severe illness or death of a loved one. Such situations can be incredibly difficult to get through and yet they must be dealt with as they arise.
A common object that is passed down as inheritance is a home. In such cases you really only have two options: rent the home out to someone else and generate some income on the side or sell the home after holding an estate sale to sell of the items within the home.
Today we’ll walk you through the intricacies of selling a home that you’ve inherited so you can make the best decisions possible.
Preliminary Considerations
Before you can begin in earnest, you must figure out a few things with respect to the property you’ve just found in your possession. The first thing to take care of when selling an inherited house should always be to find out how much the home is worth. Professional evaluators can do this job for you and they are a better option than using online estimators.
This is because the pros can tell you what you are likely to get not what you should get. Estimators only give ballpark figures and don’t factor in market conditions. You will also have to contact the mortgage company to find out how much of the mortgage is still outstanding.
Along with the mortgage, you should probably take a look into any and all debts that may be associated with the property as those will be deducted from any sale. The same applies to the mortgage. All these calculations will provide you with realistic figures surrounding the property.
You should lastly account for how the windfall from the sale of an inherited home will have to be reported on your taxes. You will have to look into what exceptions you are and are not eligible for and make decisions accordingly.
Selling the Home
Now we move on to actually selling the property. Before selling an inherited house you will want to clear out all the belongings in the home. This means that first you and your loved ones should distribute objects of sentimental value. After that, you should hold an estate sale or a yard sale to empty out the things in the home.
This is because you have no need for these things and the proceeds from the sale can be used to fund other aspects of the home sale. You should then find a good realtor who can take care of the legal and financial aspects of selling an inherited house. You should also determine who has the legal responsibility to carry out the transaction. This would normally be the executor of the will.
The next steps are simply to wait for an appropriate offer to arrive and then iron out the final details of the sale with a real estate agent.
