There are three ways to sell an inherited property: through an estate agent, at auction, or directly to a specialist buyer. This hub brings them together with the tax, timing and beneficiary questions that decide between them, and with what the property costs the estate while the decision stays open.
An inherited property has three selling routes, and the right one depends on the estate rather than on the property alone. This page sets them out together, and then the questions that actually decide between them.
The routes
What are the three ways to sell an inherited property?
- Sell to a specialist buyer
A fixed date and a price that does not move, with no chain and no lender. Usually below open-market value, and the right answer when certainty matters more than the last few per cent.
- Sell through an estate agent
Normally achieves the highest price when the property is in good order and the estate is not under time pressure. It is the slowest route, and a survey can still reduce the price late on.
- Sell at auction
A fixed sale date and a committed buyer on the fall of the hammer. Suits properties that are hard to mortgage or hard to price; the estate does not know the final figure in advance.
Not deciding is its own choice, and it is not a free one: insurance, council tax once the exemption ends, maintenance and deterioration all continue while the property stands empty.
Choosing
What decides which route is right?
Four questions do most of the work. Answer these and the shortlist usually narrows to one or two.
- What does the estate need?
An IHT bill, a mortgage still running or beneficiaries waiting on distribution all push towards certainty over price.
- What condition is it in?
Serious disrepair narrows the buyers who can get a mortgage, which closes off the open market before you have chosen anything.
- What do the beneficiaries want?
Agreement makes every route easier. A genuine dispute is one of the few things that can stop a sale outright.
- How much time is there?
Nothing completes before the grant of probate. After that, the routes differ by months, not weeks.
Go deeper
Where can you compare the routes in detail?
The side-by-side comparison puts all three against each other on price, speed and certainty, including the cost of doing nothing. The pros and cons of each route covers what each one is actually like.
The running costs of an inherited property sets out what the estate pays every month while the decision is open, and the probate property process explains where in the timeline this decision sits.
Where you are
Which of these is your situation?
- Probate hasn't been granted yet
- The house is full of belongings
- The property needs work, or no lender will touch it
- I don't know whether to sell or keep it
- I need to know how long this will take
- I'm an executor and unsure what I'm responsible for
- I want to know what it will cost
- I don't understand a term I've been given
No obligation
Would you like help weighing these up?
Tell us the postcode and roughly what condition the property is in, and we will talk through the options, including the ones that do not involve selling to us.
Talk through your options