Selling house in the estate or after disposition-pros & cons

Is the house specifically willed to anyone?

Assuming no... generally speaking... if the desire is to get rid of the house... it's best to do it as soon as practical. Why wait?

Would either heir want the house or more importantly have any feelings toward the house?

The fact is old people's homes are usually not worth the normal market rate, they are often very dated. So this brings up a lot of emotions as people get pissed their sister can't make what they thought it's worth to sell it.

If you may sell it without any emotional or legal issues, it's more fair to sell it first then distribute the funds. You can also most thoroughly divide the estate evenly that way. One of the problems is if the estate is said to be split evenly, it's hard to estimate what the house is worth. While you'd think everyone would just be happy getting something, that's rarely how it works and you often have someone get very pissed off they were slighted.

So it can often times make it a lot easier to put the house in one heir's name that is most fair and forgiving, and have them sell it or do as they wish while giving everyone else more liquid assets such as cash.

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there are two heirs

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if there's any chance both will not agree, i'd go ahead and sell it and divide the $. if you disagree, both heirs ultimately lose.

My friend just went through this with her sister and incredibly stupid brother. The house was paid for with no debt and the brother saw $$$$. There was some cash left in the estate, so I advised the girls to sell the house to the brother. He could pay them with his portion of the remaining assests and cash.

He has his house, and they got to walk away.

Get the house appraised.

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I advised the girls to sell the house to the brother. He could pay them with his portion of the remaining assets and cash.

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Twice in my family a group has inherited a house and had trouble selling because one hardheaded sibling thought it was worth "way more than that."

I both times suggested the hold out buy out everyone and, if the house was really so much more valuable, sell it at a huge profit and laugh in everyone's face.

But, but , but. They wouldn't put their money where there mouth was.

The holdout in our settings were the brokest ones in the bunch. You'd think they would need money and say sell it for whatever and give my my money, but I think a big reason they are the brokest in the bunch is that they are the most stupid and make poor decisions.

Co-ownership is often a miserable experience that leads to a lawsuit.