If you’ve inherited a house in Melbourne, FL, you’re probably dealing with two things at once: grief, and a property that now needs your attention. This guide pulls together everything we’ve written about probate, taxes, pricing, and prep work into one place, so you don’t have to piece it together from a dozen different articles.
Selling a house you inherited is not the same process as selling your own home. Before you can list it or accept an offer, Florida law usually requires the estate to pass through probate, and the buyer’s title company will want proof that whoever signs the contract actually has the legal authority to sell.
Below, we cover the probate process, what happens with taxes, how to price the home, how to get it ready, and the two realistic paths for selling it: listing with an agent or accepting a guaranteed cash offer.
Understanding Florida’s Probate Process for an Inherited House
Most inherited homes in Brevard County have to go through probate before a sale can close. Probate is the court process that legally transfers the title from the deceased owner to their heirs (or confirms the executor’s authority to sell on the estate’s behalf). Florida uses two main tracks, and which one applies to your house makes a big difference in how long the process takes.
Summary Administration
Available when the estate’s non-exempt assets are worth $75,000 or less, or when the person passed away more than two years ago. It’s a shorter, less expensive process and often wraps up in a matter of weeks rather than months.
Formal Administration
Required for larger estates. The court appoints a personal representative and issues Letters of Administration, which is the document a title company will actually ask to see before closing. This route typically takes several months to a year or more, especially if creditors file claims.
One wrinkle specific to Florida: homestead property (the house the deceased lived in as their primary residence) is treated differently from other assets. It generally isn’t reachable by the estate’s creditors, but you’ll still usually need the probate court to formally determine homestead status before a title company will insure the sale.
If a formal administration is required, the personal representative also has to publish a Notice to Creditors, and creditors then have three months from the first publication to file a claim against the estate. That claim period is part of why formal probate rarely moves fast, no matter how motivated everyone is to sell.
There’s also a third, narrower option called disposition without administration. It applies only when the estate’s remaining assets don’t exceed the total of funeral expenses and the last 60 days of medical bills, and there’s no real property left to distribute other than exempt homestead. Most inherited houses in Melbourne with real equity won’t qualify for this route, but it’s worth asking your attorney about if the estate is very small.
We’ve written a full step-by-step breakdown of this process, including how to petition the court and what documents you’ll need: read our complete guide to the probate process for a house in Melbourne, FL.
Can You Sell a House While It’s Still in Probate?
Sometimes, yes. In a summary administration, the court order itself can authorize the transfer of the property directly to the heirs or a buyer. In a formal administration, the personal representative generally needs the court’s approval, or authority granted under the will, before signing a sale contract.
In practice, this means you can usually start the process, get the house appraised, clear it out, and even accept an offer, before probate is fully closed. What you can’t do is close the sale and transfer title until the personal representative has the legal authority to sign, and the title company has what it needs to insure the transaction.
This is exactly where working with a buyer who understands probate timelines helps. We routinely make a guaranteed offer while probate is still open and structure the closing date around when the court paperwork will actually be ready, instead of walking away because the file isn’t clean yet.
Inherited houses also tend to carry title issues that a typical resale doesn’t: an old mortgage lien that was never released, a code enforcement lien from the county, or a judgment against the deceased. A title company will catch these during the closing process, and they usually need to be resolved, either paid off or disputed, before the sale can close. Flagging these early with your attorney saves time later.
Tax Implications of Selling an Inherited House in Florida
Florida does not have a state estate tax or inheritance tax, so you won’t owe the state anything simply for inheriting the property. Taxes come into play at the federal level, and mainly at the point of sale.
When you inherit a house, the IRS generally resets your cost basis to the property’s fair market value on the date the previous owner passed away. This is called a stepped-up basis, and it matters because your capital gains tax, if any, is calculated on the difference between that stepped-up value and your eventual sale price, not on what the original owner paid decades ago.
In practical terms, if the house sells close to what it was worth on the date of death, there’s often little or no taxable gain. If the market climbs, or you make improvements and sell well above that value, the gain above the stepped-up basis is what gets taxed.
At closing, Florida also charges a documentary stamp tax on the deed, roughly $0.70 for every $100 of the sale price in Brevard County. This is a standard closing cost on any Florida property sale, inherited or not, and it’s typically handled by the title company at closing rather than something you calculate yourself.
Every estate is different, and tax rules change, so we always recommend confirming your specific numbers with a CPA or probate attorney before you sell. We’re happy to walk you through how a sale would work on our end, but we don’t provide tax advice.
What Happens to the Mortgage on an Inherited House
A house doesn’t come with a clean slate just because it changed hands through inheritance. If the previous owner still had a mortgage, that loan is still attached to the property, and payments still need to be made while probate is underway.
Under federal law, most lenders can’t call the loan due simply because ownership passed to an heir. Heirs are generally allowed to keep making payments under the existing loan terms, or to sell the property and use the sale proceeds to pay off the balance at closing, which is by far the most common outcome.
Where this gets tricky is when the mortgage balance is close to, or higher than, what the house is worth. In that situation, talk to the lender and an estate attorney early, since missed payments during probate can lead to foreclosure proceedings against the estate even while ownership is being sorted out.
When we make an offer on an inherited house, we factor in any existing mortgage balance and structure the closing so it’s paid off directly from the sale proceeds. You don’t need to bring cash to the table to clear the loan.
Should You Sell the House or Rent It Out Instead?
Before you commit to selling, it’s worth asking whether keeping the house as a rental makes more sense for your situation. There’s no single right answer here, it depends on your finances, how many heirs are involved, and whether anyone actually wants to manage a property in Melbourne.
Renting can work if one heir wants to stay involved long term, the house is in decent condition, and everyone with an ownership stake agrees on how income and expenses get split. It generally doesn’t work well when there are multiple heirs who live out of state, when the house needs significant repairs first, or when nobody wants to deal with tenants, maintenance calls, and property management.
A few questions tend to settle it quickly: Can the estate or the heirs cover repairs and a vacancy period before the first tenant moves in? Is everyone willing to split ongoing landlord responsibilities, or is one person going to end up doing all the work? And realistically, do you want the ongoing responsibility, or would you rather have the money now and move on?
If the honest answer is that nobody wants to be a landlord, selling, whether to an agent’s buyer or for a guaranteed cash offer, is usually the simpler path.
Pricing an Inherited Home in Melbourne
Inherited houses are often priced differently than a typical resale, mostly because the condition and the seller’s situation are different. A house that was owned for twenty or thirty years frequently has an outdated kitchen or bathroom, an aging roof, or deferred maintenance that a comparable, recently renovated home down the street doesn’t have.
A real estate agent will typically run comparable sales in your Melbourne neighborhood and adjust for condition, then suggest a list price. That number assumes you’re willing to invest time and, often, money in repairs and staging to get close to it.
We take a different approach. Rather than pricing based on a hypothetical fully-renovated version of the house, we evaluate your home’s current condition as it sits today. Every property is unique, so the guaranteed net offer we provide varies based on that condition, the lot, and what’s happening in the local Melbourne market right now.
If you’re leaning toward listing, it’s worth paying for a licensed appraisal rather than relying only on an agent’s comparative market analysis, especially if heirs disagree on value. An appraisal typically runs a few hundred dollars and gives everyone a neutral, third-party number to work from, which can also double as documentation for the estate’s tax records.
One thing worth factoring in either way: a vacant inherited house still costs money every month it sits unsold. Property taxes, insurance, utilities to keep the air conditioning running in Florida’s humidity, and lawn care all add up while probate and marketing play out.
Those carrying costs are usually paid out of the estate until probate closes, and then by whoever holds title afterward. If several heirs share ownership, it’s worth agreeing in writing on who covers the mortgage, taxes, and insurance while the house is being marketed, so it doesn’t become a source of friction later.
Preparing an Inherited House for Sale
Clearing out a loved one’s belongings is usually the hardest and most time-consuming part of the whole process, both emotionally and logistically. There’s no need to rush this if you’re planning to sell to us, since we buy houses with contents still inside, but if you’re listing traditionally, an empty, cleaned house almost always shows and sells better.
- Confirm the homeowner’s insurance policy is still active. Many policies lapse or change coverage once a house sits vacant, and an uninsured vacant property is a real risk in hurricane season.
- Keep utilities on, or at minimum keep the air conditioning running, to prevent humidity damage and mold in Florida’s climate.
- Sort belongings into what family members want to keep, what can be donated, and what needs to be hauled away.
- Get a sense of major repair needs, like roof age, AC condition, and any visible water damage, even if you don’t plan to fix them yourself.
- Locate the will, death certificate, and any existing mortgage statements. Your attorney and any buyer will need these to move forward.
If the house needs real work, foundation issues, an old roof, code violations, or just decades of wear, you don’t have to fix any of it before selling to us. We buy inherited houses as-is, contents and all, which skips this entire step.
Your Options: List With an Agent or Sell for a Guaranteed Cash Offer
Heirs generally have two realistic paths once the house is ready to sell, and the right one depends on how much time, cash, and patience you have for the process.
| Listing With an Agent | Guaranteed Cash Offer | |
|---|---|---|
| Repairs | Usually needed to compete on the open market | None, sold as-is |
| Commission & fees | Typically 5–6% of the sale price | None |
| Timeline | Weeks to months, plus buyer financing delays | Closing date on your schedule |
| Showings | Multiple showings and open houses | One walkthrough, no staging |
| Certainty | Sale can fall through on financing or inspection | Offer is guaranteed once accepted |
A net offer means the amount we quote is what you actually receive. There are no agent commissions, no hidden fees, and no seller-paid closing costs deducted afterward. If listing with a local agent makes more sense for your situation, that’s a legitimate option too. We just want you to see the real trade-offs before deciding.
You can see exactly how our process works, from the first walkthrough to the closing table, on our how we buy houses page.
When Multiple Heirs Don’t Agree
It’s common for a house to pass to siblings or several relatives at once, and it’s just as common for them not to agree on what to do with it. In Florida, all co-owners generally need to consent to a sale, or the personal representative needs court authority to sell on behalf of the estate.
If one heir wants to keep the house and others want to sell, a buyout is often the simplest fix: the heir who wants to stay refinances or pays the others their share of the value. When no one wants to keep it, getting one guaranteed offer that everyone can review together tends to resolve the disagreement faster than months of back-and-forth over listing price.
If the disagreement is more serious, an estate attorney can help mediate or, if necessary, petition the court for a partition sale. We’d rather you talk to an attorney early than end up there.
Selling As-Is: How a Guaranteed Net Offer Works
The process starts with a phone call or a form on our site. We ask about the property’s condition, the probate status, and your timeline, then schedule a walkthrough of the house in person.
After we’ve seen the property, we provide a guaranteed net offer within a day or two. There’s no obligation to accept it, and no pressure to decide on the spot.
If you accept, we work with a local title company to handle the closing, including coordinating around any remaining probate steps. You pick the closing date, whether that’s two weeks out or two months out while the estate wraps up.
On the paperwork side, the title company will typically want a certified copy of the death certificate, the probate order or Letters of Administration, and identification for whoever is signing. We help gather what’s needed and coordinate directly with your attorney so you’re not stuck chasing documents on your own.
Ready to see what your inherited house is worth to us? Get your guaranteed cash offer and decide from there, no pressure either way.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to go through probate before I can sell an inherited house in Florida?
In most cases, yes. The title company handling the sale needs proof that the person signing the contract has legal authority to sell, which usually comes from either a summary administration order or Letters of Administration from a formal probate case.
How long does probate take for a house in Melbourne or Brevard County?
A summary administration often finishes in a few weeks to a couple of months. A formal administration typically takes several months to a year or more, largely because of the three-month creditor claim period.
Will I owe capital gains tax on an inherited house I sell?
Possibly, but usually less than people expect. Your cost basis is generally stepped up to the home’s fair market value on the date of death, so tax is only owed on gains above that value. A CPA can confirm your exact numbers.
Does Florida have an inheritance tax or estate tax?
No. Florida does not levy a state inheritance tax or estate tax. Any tax exposure comes from federal capital gains rules at the time of sale, not from inheriting the property itself.
What if my siblings and I disagree about selling the house?
All co-owners typically need to agree to a sale. A buyout between heirs can resolve smaller disagreements, while an estate attorney can help mediate or pursue a partition sale if the disagreement doesn’t get resolved on its own.
Do I need to repair or clean out the house before selling it?
Not if you sell to us. We buy inherited houses as-is, including any remaining contents, so there’s no need to repair, clean, or stage anything before we make an offer.
How fast can I get a guaranteed cash offer on my inherited house?
Usually within a day or two of our walkthrough. From there, you choose the closing date, whether you need to close quickly or want to wait until probate is further along.
Can I sell the house if there’s still a mortgage on it?
Yes. The existing mortgage balance is typically paid off directly from the sale proceeds at closing. You don’t need to pay it off yourself before selling.
Should I rent the house out instead of selling it?
It depends on whether an heir wants to manage the property long term and whether everyone with a stake in the house agrees on splitting the responsibilities and income. If nobody wants to be a landlord, selling is usually simpler.
Every inherited property and every estate is a little different. If you’re not sure where to start, reach out to The Honest Home Buyers of Brevard & Orlando and we’ll walk through your specific situation with you, no obligation, no pressure.