Yes. You can. “Can I sell my share of an inherited house without everybody signing” is the question I get most, and I have paid heirs for their share while their brother was still insisting that nobody was allowed to sell.
I’m Raul Bolufe. My company buys the shares of individual heirs in inherited houses across Texas. Most of the people who call me start with some version of the same line. I want to sell my share of an inherited house, and my sister will not agree. This is what I tell them on the phone, plus two deals from this year that show exactly how it plays out.
I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. It is what we have seen, deal after deal, from people who call and say “I want to sell my share of an inherited house and be done with it.”
What you actually own
When a parent or grandparent dies without a will, the house does not go to “the family.” It goes to specific people in specific pieces. If your mother died with four kids and no husband, each of you ends up with a quarter. If one of those kids died before her and left two children of his own, those grandkids split his quarter.
Your quarter is yours. There is no line down the middle of the house. You do not own the back bedroom. You own a piece of the whole thing, and so does everyone else.
And here is the part nobody tells you. Your piece is yours to sell, which is the whole answer to “can I sell my share of an inherited house on my own.” Every deal we do starts with one heir signing a deed for their own share, alone, with a notary, and nobody else’s signature on it. What you cannot do by yourself is sell the whole house, because you do not own the whole house.
So when your brother says “we all have to agree,” he is half right. You all have to agree to sell everything. Nobody has to agree for you to sell your part.
Why the house is stuck
If it is that simple, why has the house been sitting there for six years with the taxes unpaid?
Because a normal buyer does not want a quarter of a house. A bank will not lend on it. A realtor will not list it. Your brother will not buy it because he thinks he already owns it. So your share has had no market, and no market means no price, and no price means you gave up.
That is the gap my company fills. We buy the share nobody else will buy, at a price that accounts for the mess, and then we deal with your brother, the taxes, and whatever else is attached to the house.
Deal one: eight heirs, one holdout, Odessa
This summer we bought a house in Odessa that had passed down through four generations. The man on the deed died decades ago. By the time we traced it, the house belonged to eight of his descendants, most holding about a seventh each, two of them holding half of that.
Six of the eight said yes fast. We sent mobile notaries to four different cities, Odessa, Longview, Azle, and Brownsville, on the same two days. One heir signed at the RV shop where he works. Six deeds recorded within a week. Four of the heirs were paid the day after recording and the other two the next morning, because the first day hit the daily limit on the payment app.
The seventh heir could not be found. He was 32, had moved around, and the family had no number for him. Our realtor tracked down his mother, he called us, he signed, and he was paid four days later.
The eighth heir was the holdout. She lived in Lubbock. She hung up on us twice. She told a relative she thought we were a scam. When I finally got her on the phone myself, she said she did not want any money, then she said she would not sign because she did not want her paperwork messed up, then she said she was not an heir at all. Her daughter is an attorney, so she brought her in.
None of that stopped the other seven from selling. They were paid and done while she was still deciding.
What happened to her is the part people ask about. Our attorney sent a letter, then a process server, then a court filing. She was, in her nephew’s words, “very pissed” when she was served. A week later the same nephew called to say she was okay with selling her share and had mailed a reply to the attorney. As I write this, a deed package with a prepaid return label is on its way to her. She never wanted money. She wanted to be sure it was real.
Deal two: the lien that scared the family off, West Columbia
In Brazoria County, a woman texted us about her late mother’s house. She had already given up. There was a $146,000 government lien on the property, and the family’s plan was to let the city take it. On top of that, the city had a demolition order on the house.
Here is what we do that most families do not know is possible. Once you sell us your share, the liens and the violations become our problem, not yours. We call the lien holder, we negotiate, we get it reduced, we get the demolition order lifted, and we pay what it takes to clear the title. We have knocked a $36,000 child support lien down to $5,000 on one deal, and a $25,000 one down to $4,000 on another. A big number on a lien letter is a starting point, not a verdict.
So we pulled title, made the family an offer, and the cooperating heirs signed in January. That took two tries, because on the first night a storm rolled through, the family was in three different places, and the only notary willing to drive was an hour and a half away. The woman coordinating for the family was doing it from her couch after knee surgery.
One relative in Pearland ignored everything. The certified letter sat at the post office for weeks with a notice on her door, and she never picked it up. That is when we stop mailing and start sending a person. As I told my team, a process server is a human being who knocks on the door and hands you the paper. It is very hard to ignore.
Our attorney filed. About five weeks later, she signed. And she signed for free. She had never wanted money. She had not believed she was an heir or that any of this was real. Once the paperwork made it real, she was done fighting. We cleared the lien and the demolition order and sold the house in July. Small deal for us. For the family, it was the difference between walking away with nothing and walking away with cash, and one of them left us a review that said we “helped my family solve a chapter in our life.”
What happens to the sibling who will not sell
I get asked this in two different tones. Sometimes it is “will my sister be okay,” and sometimes it is “what happens to that jerk.” Same answer either way.
Once you sell to us, we own your share and your sibling still owns theirs. We are now co-owners. We make them the same kind of offer we made you. Most take it within a few weeks, because the alternative is co-owning a house with a company that is paying the back taxes, recording paperwork, and sending certified mail.
If they refuse to respond at all, our attorneys ask a court to sort it out. That takes a few months when the other side does not fight, and in our experience almost nobody fights. People settle once they are served, because at that point they understand the house is going to be sold either way and they may as well get paid for their piece.
Your sibling does not lose their share. They get bought out or they get their cut when the house sells. What they lose is the ability to hold everyone else hostage.
And sometimes the holdout is not greedy at all. Twice this year the last heir standing turned out to be someone who did not believe they were an heir, thought the whole thing was a scam, and did not want a dime. One of them signed for nothing once a lawyer’s letter convinced her it was real. We would have paid her. The other one has the deed package in her hands right now and is making up her mind.
What do I get if I sell my share of an inherited house?
People want a number before they call. I understand that. Here is the honest version.
It depends on the size of the deal, the property, the condition, how many heirs there are, and how much has to be cleaned up to sell it. Taxes, liens, violations, an occupant who will not leave, an heir nobody can find. All of that comes off the top before anyone gets paid, and we take those problems on so you do not have to. For most heirs, the number is a few hundred to a few thousand dollars, paid within days of the deed recording, with no fees and no waiting on the rest of the family.
I will give you the actual number on the phone. If it does not work for you, you have lost 15 minutes.
What you should do before you call anyone
- Find the death certificate, or at least the date and county of death.
- Write down every person who could be an heir, including children of siblings who have died, and where they live. Guessing is fine. We verify.
- Pull up the county appraisal district page for the property and screenshot the owner name and the tax balance.
- Do not sign anything from a relative or the tax office until someone has explained what it does.
- If there is a lien letter, a code violation, or a demolition notice, do not panic and do not give the house away. Send it to us. That is a normal Tuesday for my team.
Then call or text me at 936-380-6384, or fill out the form. Tell me the address and who died. I will tell you within a day what your share is worth.
Questions people ask
Will my siblings find out if I sell my share of an inherited house?
After we record the deed, yes. We are their co-owner at that point and we contact them to make an offer. Before that, it is your business.
Can they undo it after I sell my share of an inherited house?
Not in our experience. A signed and recorded deed for your share is done. That is why we record before we pay.
Can I sell my share of an inherited house if I am not sure I am an heir?
Send us what you have. We trace the family through records. On the Odessa deal our team found one heir the family had lost track of and another who was a great-grandchild nobody had counted.
What happens to the liens and the back taxes when I sell my share of an inherited house?
Ours, once you sell. We negotiate them, we pay them, we clear the title. You do not write a check to anyone.
Can I sell my share of an inherited house in Florida?
We buy heir shares in Florida too. Call and I will walk you through it.
Does the holdout get punished?
No, and we are not trying to. They get the same offer everyone else got. The only thing that changes is that ignoring us stops working.
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.