Selling property

You must have grant of probate before selling.

As a personal representative it is your responsibility to ensure that any property within a deceased estate has been valued at an open market value.  This will have been presented to HMRC as part of the probate application.

Once you have obtained grant of probate, you are able to sell items from a deceased estate.

For many deceased estates a property will be the major asset.  As such, you will be intending to obtain a top price.

As with all items from deceased estates, such properties are considered hot property.  

We think it important to dispel the myth of a quick sale.  This typically benefits the buyer and will have little benefit to the deceased estate.

If properties have been well valued, this competitive price will attract buyers who will buy.  This is the basis of any sale, quick or not.

It is important to obtain this open market values to avoid any contentious issues. Disagreements over the obtained value of a deceased estate can happen between beneficiaries.  

If in any doubt whatsoever, as with all elements of a deceased estate, obtain legal advice.

You have a variety of routes to market to sell a property:

• Estate agents

Estate agents want to sell probate properties. Typically they are empty, possibly requiring work and can be sold quickly according to the sales agent.

As with any sale via an estate agent, you should be looking for real interest within 2 weeks. Properties are now marketed online, therefore it is imperative to ensure that the property is presented to the market and not sold off market via a database of interested parties associated with a single estate agent.

There are many reputable esate agents. You may want to consider a local independant agent with a more personal approach to selling such a very important asset.

As with any purchase via an agent, ask what you will be charged, ensure there are no hidden charges, ask about marketing, viewing and how offers are dealt with then assess your options over multiple estate agents.

• Online agent

There are a number of these in the market.
Check to see how they operate, ask about marketing, viewing and how offers are dealt with before considering their service.
If they use local estate agents to fulfill part of their service such as viewing, consider why you would not use a local estate agent from the outset.

• Public auction

If you are considering a quick sale, or indeed believe the property to be of poor standard and suitable for a cash buyer, you may want to consider property auctions.

Talk to the auctioneer, ask how they market and view the properties and how they secure a minimum value with a reserve.

Check their selling fee, any hidden fees and most important what fees are placed on the buyer.

It is not rocket science to understand that if charges are placed on a buyer the final return back to the estate will be lower.

• Sealed bids

Typically this is a lazy form of closed auction that will suit an agent. Possibly a property has been overpriced in the past and vendors told they have little or no options.

You do. You can obtain alternative valuations and look towards a public auction should you be convinced of the concept of a quick sale.

Yonderlife believe that zero selling fees are a gimmick. Check to see what charges are put onto a buyer and subsequently how much the selling price has been reduced from an open market value.

Agents are businesses and need to make money.  Ask where their income is coming from.  If it is from a buyer, they are never stupid, and will expect to pay less for the property.

As a personal representative you are a vendor, and as such, in control.

Yonderlife can guide you through your sales options.