The Baby Boomer generation is expected to inherit a whopping total of $27 trillion, with a sizable portionof that wealth coming from family real estate. This means that a lot of people will be inheriting houses, and they may want to know how they can sell them. If you’re one of these people, or you’re someone who has inherited a house from a deceased loved one, and you’re unsure of how to go about doing this, don’t worry. Here are the five steps to selling your inherited home.

1. Identify the Property’s Rightful Owner

This is actually the trickiest step. Unless you were one of the lucky few whose loved ones managed to write a will before passing, or if the deed to the property doesn’t include joint tenancy with survivorship language, then you may be unsure who the rightful owner of the home’s title is. If you can’t find the proper heir, you don’t have a clear title, and the property can’t sell. This can get even more complicated if you’re dealing with things like multiple heirs or marriages, or if the heirs won’t work together to find the owner. The more complicated the family story, the more involved the process is.

Thankfully, our in-house title experts work with title companies and family members to make the process simpler. We have helped many quickly resolve their title disputes and settle their estates. If you sell your title to us, we will work with real estate attorneys to prepare the necessary documents for free. We’ll make sure the title is clear so you won’t have any future liabilities. We pay cash, and based on your situation, we will usually close on the property in 10 to 30 days.

2. Prepare a Vacant Home Insurance Policy

Once the rightful heir has been discovered, they will be tasked with maintaining the property. This includes getting a vacant home insurance policy in order to protect the property from liabilities, as well as utilities upkeep, lawn maintenance, disposing house contents, and paying property taxes. While keeping up with the sale of an inherited home can be stressful, it is important to ensure that basic care is taken to protect your vacant home.

When it comes to appraising the inherited home, using the open market is one possible solution. However, your best bet is usually to sell the home to an investor. There are five major reasons for this: the cash is good, it quickens the sale, it makes the sale a surer bet, you can sell the property as-is, and it’s the most convenient option.

If you’re hoping that your inherited house is excluded from the home sale tax, then you’re in for some bad news: you can only benefit from the exclusion if you’ve owned a house for the last two years. While you can certainly live on the property until you qualify for this exclusion, most people want to sell their inherited house immediately. Thankfully, if you do sell your inherited house, you can take advantage of the stepped-up tax basis. The proceeds are usually calculated using the property’s purchase as well as improvements made to it. However, the tax basis for a house that’s been inherited means the basis is its market value at the time of the owner’s death. This means that inheritors don’t have to owe too much in taxes if the house is greatly appreciated.

If you have inherited a house, then hopefully selling it is relatively simple and straightforward. But we can tell you that it usually isn’t. The aforementioned title problems is one of the most common hurdles people often have to go through when attempting to sell the house to a company like ours. Other common issues include such unknown liens, illegal deeds, missing heirs, undiscovered wills, and errors in the public record.

Selling an inherited house is usually a complicated mess of family relations, emotion, legal work. Dealing with an estate left behind by a deceased loved one is always stressful. It doesn’t help that relatives, despite meaning well, may not be organized as you would’ve hoped. And unexpected developments such as hidden marriages and unknown children complicate the process even further. If you inherit a house, ask yourself if A) there’s a will, B) you have a family tree, and C) there are tax issues. Also, don’t forget that we’re here to help. If you’re looking to sell your inherited house or are just going over your options, call us, and we’ll give you a no-obligation offer in 24 hours or less, as well as work with you on these options.