Selling a house to a family member as executor of estate?

The reason I suggested using a lawyer but not a realtor is to avoid the 5-6% commission. If you are comfortable selling to your aunt, it would save the time and hassle of selling on the open market. Also, it would likely be quicker so you could save several months of taxes, insurance, etc. The attorney can handle the title search too. It sounds as though the aunt is willing to pay a lot of the costs associated with the sale, and that's a bonus

Mike, just to clarify, I know you are selling but, I wouldn't let your Auntie not buy insurance. This would not necessarily come up because it is family. Her buying it will protect you from any future issues if she wants to not pay or get more of a discount because of something coming up.

You will need a title company even if you use an attorney, at least where I live they are the ones that do everything, your attorney would have one they work with.

I’m curious— why does Aunt want the house? What are her plans, exactly?

Has Aunt always been in love with the house and the location? Is she planning to move in? Is she a nice aunt whom you would like to work with and see living in the home?

Or is she actually planning to flip the house, make a profit? Is she a bit of an operator, a user, even?

Lowballing a recently bereaved close relative seems tacky to me.

Go with a realtor. They will make sure everything is done legally. Then put it on the market. Accept offers from strangers. Let your aunt see the offers. Then let her make you an offer. If you want to give her a ‘family discount’ then so be it. At least this way everyone knows what the real fair market value is.

On the disclosure my understanding is if you did not actually live on the property, you - whether you are the Executor or the heir to the property- cannot do a disclosure or attest to the condition of the property. Like you cannot state the stove works as you were not there to use the stove for cooking. So you cannot sign off on any disclosure.

Mike, so you are both the Executor and 100% the heir as per the terms of the will? Is that the situation?
If so, right now what exactly is the status on the Estate…… like has it actually gotten past the asset / debt establishment part and it has gone onto to the distribution stage; all debts on the house, like property taxes
& utilities are all current, no delinquency; and now it’s past the distribution part of probate so the title on the house is actually in your name and it’s been recorded at the courthouse as such and tax collector has it that you are set to get or getting the tax bill in your name? If all this has been done - especially all the recordings at the courthouse- then it’s your legal property and you can sell it to whomever. If not, then you still have steps on probate that has to be done before it can be legally sold.

Personally I think she is totally taking advantage of you….55K below what the legal appraisal shows, well dear, you are getting screwed. Unless this house is beyond fixable with blight notices and has some sort of historic district requirements on renovations, right now in most cities in the US there is no real inventory of homes. You should be able to sell it for at a minimum the appraisal value or even its FMV as per a Realtor listing. Even if it’s a real POS house if the land value in the area is high I bet that alone will create a bid war if land itself is in an desired area.

I have 2 suggestions for you:
- contact 3 different Realtors who do listings in the area where the house is (like you drive around and find homes for sale nearby or you can do this on-line as well) and say you are interested in possibly selling an inherited property. If they are MLS affiliated (most are) they have a program to do comparables and give you an anticipated listing report which shows price. If you give each of them a copy of the inspection, they can factor that into the anticipated listing as well. Then it more a matter of which Realtor seem best for the situation. I’d go with one that has a low DOM (days on market) score for the price point.
- look at past 5 years of tax assessor/collector bills. It will be dividend into 2 sections….. land and improvements (this is the house and outbuilding, like a garage). What is going on with land value on its own past 5 years? Is it steadily or rapidly increasing in value? Imo if so, that land value is the baseline lowest possible price for the property PLUS whatever you’ve fronted on it’s costs and have not been repaid from the assets of the Estate. So if land value $98,765 & you fronted $12,345, selling it to her for $ 111,110.00 and she pays all Act of Sale costs. So how far is off is this from the $figure she wants to pay?

iTRR suggestions are solid. A good title company will have a real estate atty affiliated with them, so paperwork will be tight. However, I think going this route works best for someone used to doing real estate transactions, who knows how to read a land description, Warranty Deed, what’s what in Act of Sale, how escrow works. If that’s not you, I’d get a Realtor to do a listing and everything goes through them. It is 3% of the proceeds from the Act of Sale paid to the Realtor. Well worth it, imo, especially if costs to go to closing need to shift to be paid by the buyer. Also better Realtors have a short list of property investors who buy “as is” properties. Real buyers with cash or line of credit to buy, not the “we buy house for cash” folks which are total sketch. An investor might be fine on paying more than your Aunt too.
Good luck whatever paths you take.

Your aunt is a scammer. Put it on the market and use a realtor.

So i just need a real estate lawyer.

Mike, an appraisal gives you the fair market value of the house as it is. All of the repairs required remove value from the FMV. That's the whole point of them. To ensure that you are not over paying for a fixer upper. It may well be worth a few hundred dollars to hire your own home inspector, in the event that you cannot come to terms with Auntie. (Of course, this only applies if your appraiser actually walked the property and did not do the appraisel based on drive-by and comps.)

We never use a realtor, we do have an awesome title company that we use. They handle everything except price negotiations, even when a realtor is involved. We never use an attorney but, we always buy title insurance.

Please do not skip title insurance, it is a guarantee that the property is free and clear, it also fights any legal actions should a neighbor or someone that says they have a claim, it stops you being drug into any future issues. Best money spent when buying any property, ever.

That would be my first stop in your shoes. A good one will be willing to explain how appraisals and inspections work. Explaining in detail how a home is valued. They will also guide you on what needs to be done legally with the deed. Interview a couple to find the one you can best work with.

If you aren't willing to do it your Auntie's way, tell her no. You don't have to give her a discount on an already adjusted price for needed repairs.

You will want to attach the appraisal and inspection to the full disclosure statement and make her sign and get it notarized as a package that these issues are known to both parties and she understands that repairs can be greater then they appear and she fully agrees that she is buying as-is and has no future recourse.

Business is business and you need to protect yourself, especially from family. This sale has no part of family relations, it is a business transaction and should be handled as such. Period.

At the end of the day, only you can decide what you are willing to do. A contract is a mutually agreed upon document. So, you both must come to a mutually agreed upon deal to avoid any potential for resentment. Best of luck getting this done to everyone's satisfaction.

Mike, I'm sorry for your loss.   I know that there's a difference and higher level of loneliness after both parents are gone, especially when you're the last one left in the immediate family.

Some thoughts:

1.  I wouldn't rely on Zillow or any of the online estimates; that's all they are, and they don't always reflect actual values.   I interviewed realtors in the area, who knew the area and the unique characteristics of lake communities.  Their estimates weren't necessarily anywhere near the online estimates, which I suspect are based on various factors and algorithms, w/o necessarily considering local issues (such as the benefit of being in walking distance of a lake with beach privileges.)

I would get estimates from 3 or 4 realtors with experience in that area (and that experience can be so unique), and if your aunt's offer is range consistent, go for it.

2.   I would definitely rely on a realtor to handle the transaction.  I have in the past insisted on reviewing the title work ordered before the transaction, and in fact caught an error made by the realtor who failed to determine that my property was in 2 parcels.  Had she prevailed, I would have gained title only to part of the property.  My father's property was also two adjacent parcels, which we didn't know until we got the title work.    Missing that could have meant that he didn't really own the property in its entirety.

3.   I understand that boundary surveys are no longer standard.   If your aunt wants one, it's a good idea to get it, especially if the property isn't fenced and there's no existing boundary survey.

4.   Fixing up and maintaining a house while doing so is a real challenge, especially unless you're very closely located to it.  Vacant houses cost more to be insured; there are yard maintenance issues, possibility of theft, and other concerns.  (One neighbor caught some woman digging up plants at my father's house.    She wasn't aware that the house was vacant; she just decided she wanted those plants!)

5.  If the house is in a cold weather area, consider having the water temporarily shut off through the city or county  water department.  Drain all the faucets after doing so.   The risk of frozen pipes isn't worth the inconvenience of bringing water if you need to visit the home in the meantime.

6.   Personally, my thoughts are that if you get comparable estimates, go for the offer from your aunt.   Even if there's some distance between her offer and realtor's estimates, remember that this is a bona fide offer.  Putting the house on the market would involve people in and out, and you have no way of knowing whether any of them have had or may have Covid 19.  

Realtors can post photos or videos, and that would help, but I personally am not comfortable with people going through a house during a pandemic, even if there's no appreciable chance of viral spread.   It's more a matter of respect and not taking chances.

8.   You may get better offers, but there's no idea if the offers would be as close to your aunt's offer.  And she seems to be enthused about it, just lacking in the steps to make it happen.   That's an important factor.

9.  One very good reason to involve a real estate attorney is to review the title work, especially since there has been work done.    Your profile doesn't indicate the state in which the house is, and what used to be called mechanic's liens statutes vary.    This is the best reason for title work, to ensure that no liens from any work done before the death and subsequently thereafter have been filed.

When I worked for law firms that handled foreclosure suits on commercial loans, we let the foreclosure period run for 3 months (state statute for filing property liens) to flush out any contractors, subs, or others who may have done done work and filed liens.  Those liens had to be extinguished before clear title could be transferred.

All in all, assuming her offer is close to estimates, I'd say go for it!

Get the realtor. Sell it for what you like if there is no medicaid recovery, no bills outstanding that would eat the entire estate, and you are the only beneficiary of the estate.
The realtor protects you and protects your interests.
It is my opinion that you should ALSO get a Trust and Estate attorney who will advise you on issues like this. The last place you want to trust for legal and monatary questions is social media. You want a trained professional.
In settling my brothr's trust and his estate I was in the same position you are. I got that attorney and while I only needed one and one half hours of her time, and put out less than 1,000 of the estate's funds on this, she was invaluable in advice to me.
Best of luck to you. This sounds like a great deal for you and for your aunt. Now get a good realtor to do your papers and nothing will pop up in a few months to ruin both this sale and you and your Aunt's relationship.
Best of luck to you.

As newbie wife says. And no, you are not responsible if something happens 8 months down the road. You should sell house "as is" then Aunt can't complain. She can get insurance to cover anything that may happen.

Be aware that it is not always wise to sell to relatives. If anything goes wrong, you will hear about it for the rest of your life. So I would make sure all the Ts and Is are crossed and dotted and that means a lawyer. You may need one anyway to transfer the deed over to you and then her.

You don't need a realtor since it's a sale between family members, but you should definitely use a lawyer who is well versed in real estate transactions to draw up the paperwork, file the deeds, etc. The first thing you need to have done by the lawyer is to have the house deed transferred to your name. and have the deed filed. Then, h/she can take care of the sale to your aunt or your aunt can hire her own lawyer to do this at her expense. If your aunt's lawyer does the paperwork involved in the sale, you might want to have your lawyer look over the paperwork prepared by her lawyer so you can be sure all is in order. As to being liable for repirs after the house is sold, you re not liable. The paperwork should indicate that the house is being sold "as is." If this were a regular real estate transaction involving realtors, the seller has to disclose any known defects to the buyer, and would there would only be problems if there is something they failed to disclose.