What to Do With a House After Someone Dies

Help settling an estate or dealing with inherited property

When someone dies and leaves a home, personal property, or other real estate, the people responsible for the estate often need several different professionals — not one company that handles everything. The order matters: for example, a property is usually appraised before it's listed for sale, and a cleanout typically happens after an estate sale removes anything of value.

Estate Resources organizes those services by state, county, and type of help so families can find professionals who serve the area where the property is located.

Common services needed after someone dies, in the order they're usually needed

1. Date-of-death, estate appraisal, and retrospective valuation

Before real estate is sold or the estate is settled, an appraiser typically establishes the property's fair market value as of a specific date — often the date of death. That kind of assignment is a date-of-death, estate, or retrospective valuation. It is not the same thing as a realtor's current list price. The written value is often needed for probate filings, IRS reporting, and stepped-up basis for taxes, and it is usually needed before the estate decides whether to sell, keep, or rent the property.

Stepped-up basis is the reset of an inherited property's tax basis to its fair market value on the date the owner died, instead of the original purchase price. That can be essential. Without a documented date-of-death value, heirs may be looking at capital gains on decades of appreciation. With it, they are generally taxed only on the change in value after the date of death.

For example: a house bought 30 years ago for $100,000 might be worth $490,000 when someone dies. If the family sells it three months later for $500,000, the taxable gain is typically measured from the $490,000 date-of-death value — $10,000 — not from the original $100,000. That difference can mean the difference of potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes. A date-of-death appraisal is how that $490,000 value is documented.

2. Probate or estate administration

A probate attorney helps executors, administrators, trustees, and families navigate the legal process of transferring property and settling the estate. Whether probate is required at all often depends on how the property was titled — assets held in a living trust, or with a valid transfer-on-death deed, may bypass probate entirely, while property held solely in the deceased's name typically requires the court process.

Many states offer a simplified process for smaller estates below a certain value threshold, which can move faster than full probate administration. An attorney can determine early on which path applies, which is often one of the first things a family needs to know before other decisions — like selling the home — can move forward.

Probate timelines, thresholds, and requirements vary significantly by state, so the right first step is usually a conversation with a local probate attorney rather than assuming a national timeline applies.

3. Estate sales and household contents

Estate sale companies evaluate, price, market, and sell furniture, collectibles, antiques, and other household goods remaining in a home — usually once the estate's legal status is clear enough to authorize a sale. This differs from a garage sale in that estate sale companies typically research and price individual items, which matters when a home contains antiques or collectibles that require some expertise to value correctly.

Many estate sale companies work on a percentage of what sells rather than an upfront flat fee, which can make the service accessible even when the estate has little cash on hand — though fee structures vary by company, so it's worth asking directly.

An estate sale can also surface items with real value that a family might otherwise overlook or discard, which is one reason some families use a specialist rather than handling household contents themselves.

4. Estate cleanout and junk removal

Once anything of value has been sold, donated, or distributed to heirs, a cleanout or junk-removal company empties whatever remains — old furniture, trash, and general clutter — so the property is ready to list, rent, or hand over to new owners.

Cleanout scope can vary a lot depending on the property's condition. A home that's been lived in for decades, or where an owner wasn't able to maintain it in later years, may need significantly more work than a well-kept property, and some situations involve materials that require special handling.

This step often has to happen before a property is ready to be listed or shown, which is why it's typically sequenced after the estate sale and before a real estate agent gets involved.

5. Selling inherited or probate real estate

Real estate agents experienced with inherited and probate property help prepare, price, and market the home once it's ready to sell. This work can differ from a typical home sale — probate sales sometimes involve court confirmation of the sale price, and inherited homes are often sold as-is, with disclosure requirements that can differ from a standard owner-occupied sale.

Pricing an inherited property often starts from the date-of-death appraisal value, since heirs may also want to understand the property's appreciation since that date for their own tax planning, separate from the current listing price.

An agent familiar with inherited and probate sales can also help a family weigh whether to sell as-is versus investing in repairs first, which isn't always the obvious choice depending on the estate's finances and timeline.

6. Managing an inherited property

If heirs or an estate aren't ready to sell — whether due to sentimental attachment, an uncertain market, or disagreement among multiple heirs — a property manager can oversee maintenance, place and manage tenants, and handle the property as a rental until a final decision is made.

This path often comes up when a property is inherited by multiple heirs who don't agree on selling right away, or when the family wants rental income while deciding whether or when to sell.

A property manager can also help protect the property's condition and value in the meantime, which matters if the eventual plan is to sell once the market or the family's circumstances are more favorable.

Find the right help where the property is located

Estate services are local. The professionals available, the real estate market, and the probate process can vary significantly by county. Choose a state, then a county, to find estate-related services in that specific area.

Estate Resources is a directory and referral resource, not a law firm, tax advisor, appraisal company, or real estate brokerage. Listings are a starting point, not endorsements.

Common questions