“The house has been sitting for years already. How long is this going to take?” If you are asking how long to sell inherited house property in Texas, you are probably not asking because things are going well. You are asking because you want to know if it is going to sit for years more.
I’m Raul Bolufe. My company buys inherited houses and the shares of individual heirs across Texas. I’m not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. It is what we have seen on our deals.
Here is the honest answer on how long to sell inherited house deals in our files. If we are buying your share, we pay you in 3 to 5 days. If we are buying the whole property, it usually takes 21 to 30 days. When the paper or the people get in the way, it can run longer. After one phone call, I can usually tell you which end you are on. This guide walks through the deals from our own files, fastest to slowest, and what made the difference. Names are left out.
How long does it take to sell an inherited house in Texas?
It depends on two things, and neither one is the house.
The first is paper. Is there a trust, a finished probate, a death certificate, a clean record at the county? The second is people. Do the heirs agree, can we find them, and is anybody living in the house who does not want to leave?
When the paper is ready and the people agree, how long to sell inherited house property comes down to how fast everybody can sign. That can be a couple of weeks. When one paper is missing or one person says no, it can stretch into months.
The house itself almost never sets the pace. A house with a roof falling in can close fast. A nice house with a family fight can sit.
Why are there two clocks when you sell an inherited house?
This is the thing about how long to sell inherited house deals that confuses almost everybody.
There are two clocks running. One is how long it takes for you to get paid for your share. The other is how long it takes for the whole house to be sold.
They are not the same clock. On most of our deals, the heirs who want out get paid early. The months after that belong to us. The holdout, the eviction, the lien, the county. By then you are already done.
So when you read how long to sell inherited house deals took below, watch when the family got paid, not just when the house sold.
How fast can you sell an inherited house?
Here are the fastest answers to how long to sell inherited house property that we have seen.
Porter, Montgomery County. A couple of weeks. Half the house sat in a trust. The trustee signed a deed, our runner drove it to the county clerk that same afternoon, and the check went in the mail the same day. No heir hunt. Nobody had to prove who the family was.
Shraderville Road, Shepherd. A few weeks to every deed recorded. Nine heirs spread across Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Arkansas, six acres of land, and a county tax sale on the calendar. All nine deeds were recorded a few weeks after the first call.
And one more that does not fit the usual pattern. Woodbranch. One heir, probate already finished, the property already in his name. I made him a cash offer, he took it, and we closed through a title company. A normal, quick sale. When there is nothing to fix, how long to sell inherited house property is about the same as any other house.
What makes an inherited house sale fast?
Look at those deals. When how long to sell inherited house property came down to a couple of weeks, it was for the same few reasons.
- The paperwork already existed. In Porter, a trust meant the trustee could just sign. In Woodbranch, the probate was done. There was no family tree to prove.
- The people agreed. Nine heirs on Shraderville sounds slow. But they said yes, and nine heirs who agree is just nine notary appointments.
- The notary went to them. A hospital room in Fort Worth. Heirs in four states on Shraderville. Nobody had to drive to the house.
- Everyone could be found. When the family can give us a city and a phone number for each heir, the notaries go out fast. One heir nobody can reach is a slow deal.
- There was a deadline. Shraderville had a tax sale date. Nothing gets a family’s phones working like a date on a county notice.
We also get title reports back fast because of our own team, and that is a big part of why heirs on our deals get paid quickly. The title report is the first thing that tells us who has to sign, and that answer drives how long to sell inherited house deals take.
What does a middle of the road sale look like?
Some answers to how long to sell inherited house deals land in between. Here are two.
Walnut Ave, Odessa. A little over a month. Three sisters who had not spoken in ten years. One signed from a hospital bed. The other two signed a couple of weeks later. A family friend living there took cash to move out. A little over a month from the first message to a sold house.
Maywood Drive, Houston. A few months. Three sisters, all in agreement. That should have been fast. But there was no death certificate. The circumstances of the father’s death had involved a police report, and the certificate was not sitting in a drawer. That one piece of paper was most of the wait.
Maywood is the one I point to when people ask how long to sell inherited house property when everybody already agrees. Agreement is not the only thing. The paper has to be there too.
Why do some inherited house sales take months?
Now the slow ones, where how long to sell inherited house property stretched into months. Every one of them was slow for a reason that had nothing to do with the heirs who wanted out.
Boss Gaston Road, Richmond. More than half a year. One heir was sure he owned the whole house. He owned a fraction. It took months for the math to land, and once he saw that the taxes came off of his part too, we closed.
W Hammon, Montgomery County. The better part of a year. The house went to a grandmother’s grandkids, and we bought from them. Then came a stack of HOA violations, someone living in the house who was not leaving, a formal eviction, and a huge cleanup.
West Columbia, Brazoria County. The better part of a year. A six figure lien, a demolition order, and one relative who would not answer anything. Our attorney filed, she signed, and we sold it.
Here is what slowed them down, in plain words.
- One person who does not agree. Boss Gaston waited on one heir who believed the house was all his. West Columbia waited on a relative whose certified letter sat at the post office for weeks.
- Someone living in the house. W Hammon needed a formal eviction. That runs on the court’s calendar, not mine.
- A missing document. Maywood waited on a death certificate.
- A lawsuit. When someone will not answer at all, the outside attorneys we work with ask a court to sort it out. That adds months.
- The county. Some county clerks take deeds online. San Jacinto County does not, so the supervisor at our notary company drove all nine Shraderville deeds to the clerk in person. Customer service is alive in Texas. It is just not fast.
How long to sell inherited house shares when you only own a piece?
This is the part I want you to take with you.
If you are one heir and you want out, your clock is usually short. Look at who got paid when.
- On Boss Gaston, the heirs who wanted out signed and were paid in the spring. The heir who was sure he owned the whole house did not come around until summer. It did not slow them down one bit.
- On Walnut Ave, the first sister was paid soon after her deed recorded, before her sisters had decided anything.
- In West Columbia, the heirs who wanted to sell signed in January. The lawsuit, the lien and the demolition order took until summer. Those were our months, not theirs.
- On W Hammon, the grandkids signed and were done before the eviction even started.
On Shraderville, I will be straight with you. The nine deeds recorded in a few weeks, but the payments waited until one last document, the affidavit of heirship, recorded too. Our team texted every heir to explain the delay and apologize for it.
So how long to sell inherited house shares really depends on which clock you are on. If you only own a piece, you are usually on the short one. Here is more on how to sell your share of an inherited house in Texas.
Does probate change how long it takes?
Probate can change how long to sell inherited house property takes, but maybe not the way you think.
If probate is already done and the house is in your name, like Woodbranch, it can be the fastest kind of deal there is. If probate has not started, starting it is the slow road. Families tell me about calling a lawyer, hearing a price they did not have, and hanging up. Then the house sits.
On most of our deals, nobody went to probate at all. We used an affidavit of heirship instead, and the slow part was finding the facts, not the paperwork. Old marriages, death dates, and two witnesses who knew the family long enough. Here is what an affidavit of heirship is in Texas.
If you want the bigger picture on the court side, read about the Texas probate process from the heir’s side. If nobody in your family wants to go to court, here is how we sell an inherited house without probate in Texas.
Do back taxes, liens or a tax sale slow it down?
Liens and violations slow down the house. They do not have to slow down you.
Once you sell to us, liens and violations become our problem. We call, we negotiate, we pay. In West Columbia, the six figure lien settled for a small fraction, and the city lifted the demolition order. But getting there took calls, and calls take weeks. That time is our side of how long to sell inherited house deals take, not yours.
Property taxes and IRS liens are different. Those get paid, not negotiated. But you are not the one paying them. If back taxes are what worries you most, read how we handle an inherited house with back taxes in Texas.
A tax sale date is the one thing that can speed a deal up. On Shraderville, the sale date got everybody’s attention. We dealt with the county while the heirs signed, and the land never went to auction.
Does it take longer if the heirs live far apart?
Not on our deals. Distance is the easiest problem we solve.
On Shraderville, the heirs were spread across Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Arkansas, and the distance never held anybody up. On Walnut Ave, the first sister signed from a hospital room in Fort Worth, hundreds of miles from the house.
A mobile notary goes to each heir. Nobody drives to the courthouse. When people ask me how long to sell inherited house shares when the family is scattered, I tell them the miles are not what slows it down. The quiet cousin who will not pick up the phone is.
Fast vs slow, side by side
Here is how long to sell inherited house deals took in this guide, side by side. It is not a promise about yours. It is what we saw.
| Fast deals | Slow deals | |
|---|---|---|
| How long, in plain words | A couple of weeks to a little over a month. | A few months to the better part of a year. |
| Paperwork | A trust, a finished probate, or a family that knew the history. | A missing death certificate, or a title question nobody could answer. |
| The people | Heirs who said yes and could be found. | One heir who said no, or would not answer at all. |
| The house | Empty, or the person living there agreed to move. | Someone living there who would not leave, so an eviction. |
| Liens and violations | None, or a tax sale date that got everyone moving. | HOA letters, a big lien, a demolition order. |
| Examples from our files | Porter, Shraderville, Woodbranch. | Maywood, Boss Gaston, W Hammon, West Columbia. |
| When the heirs who wanted out got paid | Early. | Usually still early. The slow part was ours. |
How can you make the sale go faster?
You cannot control your cousin. You can control a few things.
- Find your papers now. The death certificate, any will, any trust document, any probate paperwork. If you have them on the first call, we skip a step.
- Tell us who lives there. Anyone living in the house, even a family friend, changes the plan.
- Tell us about every letter. Lien letters, city notices, HOA letters, and above all any sale date.
- Make the heir list. Every child, every grandchild of a child who passed, with a city and a phone number if you have it.
- Answer the notary. The day the notary calls, pick up. That is the fastest part of how long to sell inherited house deals, and it is the part that is all yours.
Surprises are what turn a few weeks into a few months. The families who tell us everything up front are the ones who finish first.
What this means for you
- Ask two how long to sell inherited house questions. How long until I get paid? How long until the house sells? The first answer is usually the short one.
- The families who sell fast have their papers ready. A death certificate, a trust document, a probate that is already done. Find yours now.
- Tell us on the first call about anyone living in the house, any lien letter, and any sale date.
- A holdout slows the house down. It does not have to slow you down.
- Liens, taxes, violations and demolition orders are ours once you sell. You do not wait on those. We do.
The short version
- How long to sell inherited house deals take runs on two clocks. Your payment, and the whole house.
- Fast: a trust, a finished probate, heirs who agree and can be found. A couple of weeks to a few weeks.
- Middle: an estranged family with someone living there, or a missing death certificate. A little over a month to a few months.
- Slow: a holdout, an eviction, HOA violations, a big lien or a lawsuit. Many months.
- Distance does not slow it down. A notary goes to each heir.
- The slow parts are our problem once you sell.
If you want to sell the whole place instead of just your piece, here is how we buy inherited houses for cash in Texas.
Frequently asked questions
How fast can I get paid for my share of an inherited house?
On our deals, the heirs who wanted out were usually paid early, often within a few weeks, even when the whole house took much longer. It depends on the paperwork and on whether we need anything else from you after you sign.
Why did my payment wait until after I signed?
On our deals, we pay after the deed records at the county. Sometimes we also wait on one last document, like the affidavit of heirship. On Shraderville, that is what held the payments, and our team texted every heir to explain it.
Does it take longer if one heir will not sign?
It takes longer for the whole house. It does not change how long to sell inherited house shares takes for you. On Boss Gaston, the heirs who wanted out were paid months before the last heir agreed.
Can I sell faster if probate is already done?
On our deals, yes. Woodbranch had probate finished and the property in the heir’s name, and it was a normal, quick sale through a title company.
Does someone living in the house slow it down?
Usually, yes. On W Hammon, the person living there would not leave, and it took a formal eviction. On Walnut Ave, a family friend living there took cash to move out, and it went much faster.
Do I have to wait for the liens to be paid before I get my money?
Not on our deals. Once you sell to us, the liens and violations are our problem. Property taxes and IRS liens get paid, not negotiated, and we pay them, not you.
If you want a straight answer on how long to sell inherited house property like yours will take, call or text me at 936-380-6384, or fill out the form. Tell me the address and who passed away, and I will tell you which of these deals yours probably looks like. If the house is in West Texas, we also wrote a page on how we buy inherited houses in Odessa.
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About the author
Raul Bolufe has bought and sold real estate since 2012, closed more than 800 deals, and paid more than 100 heirs for their share of inherited property across Texas and Florida. He hosts the Flipping Miami Podcast. More at raulbolufe.com.
Read next
- How to sell your share of an inherited house in Texas, even if the other heirs won’t
- Can I Sell My Share of an Inherited House Without My Siblings’ Permission in Texas?
- He Said He Owns the Whole Inherited House. He Owned a Fraction of It.