Inherited & Probate

Inheriting a house is rarely the straightforward asset it sounds like. Before anything can be sold there are questions of who has authority to sell, whether the estate must go through probate, and what happens when several siblings own it jointly and do not agree. On top of that sits a house that usually needs work and is often still full of a lifetime of belongings.

Start with the question of authority — until you know whether you can sign, nothing else matters. One point worth knowing early: an inherited property's tax basis generally steps up to its value at the date of death, which frequently means far less capital gains exposure than people fear.