Selling an Inherited House in Rochester, NY

What you can do before letters issue

New York's small-estate shortcut does not help here. Voluntary administration under Article 13 of the Surrogate's Court Procedure Act covers estates of $50,000 or less in personal property, and real property held in the decedent's sole name is expressly excluded. If there is a house in their name alone, a full probate or administration proceeding is required no matter how modest the rest of the estate is. That surprises a lot of families, and it is better to learn it in week one.

What you can do straight away: secure the house and confirm the insurance situation (see the vacant house page — an empty inherited house is usually both), keep the heat on, gather the deed and any mortgage statements, and get a real number so the family is deciding with information rather than opinions.

You can also sign a purchase contract before letters issue, with closing conditioned on their issuance. That is common and it is often the sensible move: it locks the number and the terms while the court queue runs, instead of starting the search afterwards. Your attorney will tell you whether it fits your particular estate.

When siblings have to agree

The hardest part of most inherited-house sales is not legal. It is that three people have three different ideas of what the house is worth, and at least one of them is based on what a neighbour's house sold for in a different condition.

What helps, in order. First, a single written number that everyone can see, with the repair estimate attached — an argument about a vague figure runs forever, and an argument about an itemised one usually ends. Second, naming who is actually paying the carrying costs right now, because that person is on a different clock from everyone else and the resentment builds quietly. Third, agreeing the decision rule before the numbers arrive: are you taking the highest number, the fastest close, or the least work? Families who settle that first tend to be fine.

If one heir wants to keep the house and the others want out, that is a buyout, not a sale, and it usually needs financing plus a valuation everyone accepts. We will give you a written number for that purpose and tell you plainly that we are not the right buyer for it.

The mortgage, and the tax question

An inherited house often still has a mortgage, and payments do not pause because the owner died. Contact the servicer early; a successor in interest who inherits the property generally has the right to information about the loan and to be considered for loss-mitigation options. If payments are behind, read the foreclosure page too — an estate can go into foreclosure like anyone else.

On tax: inherited property generally receives a stepped-up cost basis to its value at the date of death, which often means little or no capital gains tax when it is sold soon afterwards at roughly that value. That single sentence is the extent of what we will tell you about it. The details depend on the estate, on how title was held, and on your own position — confirm it with a CPA before you rely on it.

Selling from out of state

Most inherited Rochester houses are sold by somebody who does not live here, and it is genuinely routine. You do not need to fly in.

The walkthrough can be handled by a neighbour, a relative or a locksmith letting us in. Documents are signed and notarised where you are and couriered, or signed remotely where the county will accept it — your closing attorney decides which, since acceptance of remote notarisation varies. Keys go in a lockbox. We have closed plenty of these without meeting the seller in person until afterwards, if at all.

Two things to plan for. New York requires non-resident sellers of New York real property to file a form and pay estimated state tax at closing; your attorney handles it, but it comes out of proceeds, so build it into the number in your head. And if the house is empty and out of state, the winter risk is somebody else's to notice, which is the single strongest argument for not carrying it through another Rochester February.

How we handle it

• We will give you a written number before letters issue, so the family is deciding with a real figure rather than an argument.
• We can sign a contract now and close when Surrogate's Court issues letters — the court queue runs in parallel instead of afterwards.
• Nothing needs clearing out. Take the photographs and the documents; we handle the rest of the house, contents included.

Questions