In Richland County, it takes anywhere between 8 to 12 months. This doesn’t mean you can’t sell an inherited house if you have the legal authority to do so. Since you don’t need to wait the full year, you can sell it to a professional cash buyer like High Noon Home Buyers. Before considering a sale, you will need to go through the process of being appointed the Personal Representative (Executor). Once appointed, you can legally sell the property before probate is closed. If you sell through a cash buyer, you can walk away clean without ever having to deal with ongoing property taxes or holding costs again.
I had arrived early in the morning at a house in Columbia that was an inherited property. Standing on the porch swing awaiting my arrival was the daughter who inherited the property about three months prior. The house belonged to her parents. Her mother passed away after living in the home alone for the last five years of her life. “When my father passed, she wanted to stay here until she passed herself. And now I’ve had this house,” she told me. “It’s been three months since she passed and I don’t know if I can hang onto this much longer”.
She had a mug of coffee in her hand. But she set it down to hand me over some papers. The latest property tax bill. An invoice for a quote on an HVAC system repair. What she was facing was thousands of dollars worth of expenses. I’ve seen these papers so many times along with the looks of frustration and defeat on the faces of clients. But leave it to my team and I at High Noon Home Buyers to turn those looks into some kind of relief.
After double checking that she was the executor of her parents’ estate (and yes I always do a double-check for proof), we decided to go over the property together. She certainly got her cash offer in Columbia after we’ve checked the place from top to bottom. Imagine the look of satisfaction on her face knowing she didn’t have to go one more month worrying about the money dwindling out of the estate bank account.
If you’re contemplating the idea of selling an inherited property, I’d be remiss if I didn’t provide you with an explanation of how it all works. Here in Richland County, the probate process starts through the Richland County Probate Court in Columbia. They handle the estate administration, executor appointments, and creditor claims. Let’s go over what usually happens in the first 30 days:
I also want to talk about the 8-month creditor period. I’ve had one client in Dentsville vent to me about this. South Carolina requires creditors to file claims against the estate within this 8 month period after notice publication. Want to know one of the reasons why probate takes so long in the state? It happens to be this creditor period.
The client said to me one day, “My father had credit card debt around the time he died. There were also medical bills, personal loans he had to pay off, and who knows what else.” I could hear the frustration in his voice. Yes, creditors will have the opportunity to collect such things as well as tax obligations as well. On top of that, there’s the family disputes, complicated estates, and anything else that can drag this out longer.
Finding home buyers in Dentsville via the traditional route is going to be a nightmare. For that reason, if you have the legal authority to sell the house, my team and I can get a deal done even if the probate process is taking more time than it needs to.
Yes. I have been asked questions like this several times. One recent client thought she had to wait a year before she had to finally sell the home she inherited from her late grandmother. Yet, I told her that she had the authority to sell at any time so long as she had the Letters of Administration in her hand. Just like that, the property was sold in about a week and a half.
Even if probate closes, you can sell the inherited property to us in as-is condition. It’s one more reason why High Noon Home Buyers is the best option for you instead of going the traditional route. I also think it’s the best option for the estate as well considering how much money can be lost just for waiting alone.
Now that I mentioned the traditional route being a nightmare, I think I should elaborate further on why it is that way. The traditional sale may seem like the easy route to take. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I have walked through many houses from a duplex in Irmo to a single-family home that was on the outskirts of