Sell, Keep or Rent the House

An inherited or estate home can be sold, kept, rented, or transferred to an heir. The options differ in cost, ongoing work, and the legal steps involved, and none of them suits every estate. The decision is worth making slowly.

A family home carries emotional weight, and that is normal. Decisions still go better when the emotional and practical questions are kept separate.

Before deciding anything, establish the facts:

• What is the property worth? (professional appraisal)
• What condition is it in, and what would it cost to prepare it for sale?
• Are there mortgages, liens, or other encumbrances on the property?
• What does the will say about the property?
• Who has legal authority to make the decision?
• Are all the heirs in agreement, or are there different opinions?

Once the facts are clear, the options become much easier to evaluate.

Selling is the most common outcome for estate property, and often the most practical. Proceeds are liquid, can be divided among heirs according to the will, and eliminate the ongoing costs of carrying a property.

What to consider:

• The property may need preparation before going to market: cleaning, repairs, cosmetic updates. This takes time and costs money, but typically increases the sale price.
• The timing of the sale may be constrained by probate. In Washington State, the personal representative can sell only after the court appoints them, and needs court approval for the sale itself only if the court did not grant nonintervention powers.
• Estate sales often work differently from standard sales, with multiple decision-makers, emotional attachment to the home, and timelines driven by legal and care considerations rather than market conditions.

A broker who regularly sells estate property will be familiar with these issues and can help the family plan the sale around them.

Sometimes heirs want to keep a property: for sentimental reasons, because one heir wants to live in it, or because the family believes it has rental income potential.

What to consider:

• If one heir wants to keep the property, they typically need to buy out the other heirs at the appraised value. This requires financing or liquid assets.
• Renting a property is a business decision. It requires landlord responsibilities, ongoing maintenance, insurance, and tax reporting. It is not a passive income stream.
• Co-owning inherited property among multiple heirs is complicated. Disagreements about management, expenses, and eventual sale are common and can become expensive to resolve.

If keeping or renting is being considered, get a realistic picture of the carrying costs and management responsibilities before committing.

A property can be transferred to one or more heirs as part of their inheritance, either as their entire share or in combination with other assets.

What to consider:

• The transfer must be handled properly through the probate process or trust administration, not informally.
• The heir who receives the property takes it with a stepped-up cost basis (the date-of-death value), which minimizes capital gains taxes if they sell later.
• If the property is transferred to multiple heirs as co-owners, the same complexity as "keeping" applies.

Disagreement among heirs about the house is common in estate administration, and it is hard on everyone involved. One sibling may want to sell right away, another to keep the home in the family, and a third, living across the country, just wants it resolved.

A few things to keep in mind:

• The personal representative has legal authority to administer the estate, including making property decisions, based on the will and Washington State law, not by consensus.
• If heirs cannot agree: during probate the personal representative decides, under the will and the law; partition applies once the house has been distributed and the heirs own it together, when a co-owner can ask the court to divide or sell it (RCW 7.52.010).
• A real estate professional and a probate attorney can often help heirs reach a workable resolution without litigation.

For the real estate itself, you can contact the site's featured broker or featured certified appraiser directly, or hire any licensed professional you choose. For the legal side, choose a Washington-licensed probate attorney yourself.