Probate and estate sales
Probate Real Estate in Salt Lake County
You did not plan to be doing this. Someone died, the house is part of the estate, and a court process you have never seen is now on your list. We handle the real estate half of it, at the pace the court and the family actually move.
-
A conversation, at no charge
Call before anything is decided. We will tell you where the property stands, what condition it is in relative to the market, and whether selling is even the right move for this estate. If it is not, we will say so and you owe us nothing.
-
Your options on the property, side by side
A written market analysis on the house as it sits today, and what it would likely bring after work. Sell as-is, sell after repairs, rent it, or keep it in the family. You see the numbers behind each one before you pick.
-
We carry it from clear-out to closing
Once the estate decides to sell, the property becomes our workload. Scheduling the clear-out and being on site to let people in, photography, listing, showings, offers, inspection response, and the paperwork title and the court both want. You approve decisions rather than chase them.
-
The estate settles
We close, title disburses to the estate, and you keep a clean record of what the property sold for and why. One less open file, and one less thing the family has to argue about later.
The house is the part that stalls.
Most of an estate closes with paperwork. Accounts transfer. Vehicles retitle. Belongings get divided, eventually. The house is different. It has a value someone has to defend, a condition someone has to deal with, and usually more than one person with a strong opinion about both.
It also keeps spending. Utilities, insurance, property taxes, a yard nobody is cutting, and a furnace nobody is watching. Every month the property sits unresolved, the estate is a little smaller and the family is a little more tired of the subject.
Most people doing this are doing it for the first time, while grieving, often from another state, often because they happened to be the one named. That is the situation we work in. We are not going to treat it like a normal listing, because it is not one.
What probate real estate actually involves.
- Authority
- Before a house can be sold, somebody has to hold the legal right to sell it. In Utah that is normally a personal representative appointed through the court. Your attorney handles the appointment. We work with whatever authority you have, and we will tell you plainly when we think you do not have it yet.
- A defensible number
- Heirs, the court, and sometimes a tax return all care what the property was worth. We write a market analysis on the actual house with the comparable sales attached, so the number has something behind it when a sibling asks where it came from.
- Condition
- Estate homes usually carry decades of belongings and deferred maintenance. Some should be cleared and repaired first. Some should go to market exactly as they stand. That is an arithmetic question, not a taste question, and we run it with you before anyone hires anyone.
- Disclosure
- You may have never lived in this house and cannot answer half of what a seller disclosure asks. Utah lets a seller disclose what they actually know. We will not let you guess on a form to make a page look complete.
- People
- Four heirs, four ideas about the house, and one group text that has stopped being productive. We keep everyone in front of the same comps and the same written offers, so the conversation stays about numbers.
- What is not ours
- We are real estate agents, not attorneys or accountants. We do not give legal or tax advice and we do not file anything with the court. Your probate attorney does that. If the estate does not have one yet, get one before signing anything, including anything from us.
What it costs, and what it does not.
The first conversation costs nothing. So does the market analysis, whether or not the estate ends up listing with us.
If the property sells with us, our fee is a commission, agreed in writing before we start and paid from the proceeds at closing. Nothing comes out of your pocket in advance, and nothing is owed if the house does not sell. Commissions in Utah are negotiable, and ours is negotiable too. You will know the estate's net number, not just the asking price, before the sign goes up.
What we never bill for: the valuation, the walkthroughs, the calls with your attorney, or explaining the same thing a second time to a sibling in another time zone.
What is not ours to charge or to waive: court filing fees, attorney fees, title and escrow costs, the payoff on any loan against the property, delinquent taxes, and whatever the clear-out and repairs come to. Those are estate expenses paid to other people. We will estimate them with you before the estate commits, and we will tell you which repairs are not worth doing.
Read this part first
Who this is not for.
- Estates with no real property. If what is left is bank accounts, a vehicle, and belongings, the estate needs a probate attorney and nothing we sell. We would be a phone call you did not need to make.
- Families who have already agreed to keep the home. Someone is moving in, or the family is holding it for now. That is frequently the better outcome, and nothing on this page improves on it. We are not going to try to talk you out of it.
- Property outside the valley. We work Salt Lake County and the counties around it. An estate home in St. George, or in another state, deserves an agent who walks those streets, and we will help you find one rather than pretend the distance does not matter.
- Anyone who needs a guaranteed price on a guaranteed date. Probate runs on the court calendar and on the buyer pool, and neither one answers to us. If somebody has promised the estate a closing date before the property is even listed, that is a sales tactic, not a plan.
- Families who need the disagreement settled. We can keep every heir looking at the same facts. We cannot resolve a dispute between heirs, and while one is live the attorneys work and we wait. Hiring an agent will not shorten that.
Questions we get every week.
Can a house be sold while it is still in probate?
Usually yes, once the court has appointed a personal representative with authority to sell. Exactly when that happens, and how much authority it carries, is a call for your probate attorney rather than for us. What we can do in the meantime is get the property valued and ready, so it can list the week the authority is in place instead of a month after.
Do we have to empty the house before selling it?
Not always. Some estate homes net more cleared and lightly repaired. Others sell as-is to buyers who expect the work and price it in. We walk the property with you and price it both ways so the decision is arithmetic instead of guesswork. Take what the family wants out first; the rest is a logistics problem, and logistics problems are solvable.
How long does a probate sale take in Salt Lake County?
Longer than a standard sale, because the court sets part of the pace and the family sets another part. Once authority is in place, the marketing and closing look much like any other transaction. We will not hand you a date before we know the case, and you should be careful with anyone who does.
Several heirs are involved and we do not all agree. Can you still help?
We can list a property when the person with legal authority signs, and we can keep every heir looking at the same comps and the same offers so the disagreement is about facts rather than suspicion. What we cannot do is decide it for the family. Where the dispute is real, the attorneys go first and we wait.
What was the house worth on the date of death?
That specific figure usually needs a licensed appraiser, and for tax purposes the estate should have one. What we provide is a current market analysis with the comparable sales attached. It is a different document for a different purpose. Your attorney or accountant will tell you which one your case needs.
Do you buy estate homes directly?
In select cases, with our licensee status disclosed in writing before anything is signed. We will also tell you honestly when listing would net the estate more, which it often does. A direct purchase buys speed and certainty, and it is priced accordingly.
Start with one call.
Tell us where the estate is and what the house looks like. You will get a straight read on the property and an honest answer about whether you need us at all. If the right next call is to an attorney instead, we will tell you that.
Or email [email protected]. Estate calls get answered the same day.
What's your home worth?