Today we are discussing the top three things you need to know about selling a home through probate. The information in this article is applicable to both people that are selling the home, as well as realtors.
The first thing is you need to acquire are what's called "the letters". This will be either letters of administration or letters of testamentary from the probate court before you have authority to actually list the property for sale. This is done early on in the probate process, and a lot of people don't realize they can't just list the property when they don't have the authority to do so until the court grants it to them.
Number two: If you're working with an attorney, generally, there's language that should be put in the purchase agreement regarding the probate sale. Make sure you get with your attorney realtors before you actually finalize the purchase agreement, because this is language that most attorneys want to have in the agreement.
And number three, if you sell a home through probate, then it's literally like auctioning the home. Even though you're going to accept the highest and best offer through an MLS Realtor potentially, you still have to have the sale approved by a judge. A hearing will be set, and the judge or the commissioner is going to ask if anyone wants to bid it up, so the buyer is not guaranteed the property until after the hearing because other people can bid it up at the hearing. This is very important for each side to understand during the transaction, and this way there's no surprises. Both sides can attend that hearing bid if they want to if there are other bidders.
Those are the Top 3 important things in regards to probate home sales. If you want to talk more about probate - or estate planning so that you can avoid probate entirely - please feel free to Contact Us. We offer complimentary 15 minute phone consultations.