After a death, the house and the things in it need protecting first and deciding about later. Keep the home locked and insured, and leave belongings where they are until you know what the will says and who has authority. Selling, keeping the house, answering a Medicaid claim and working out the tax come after that. Each turns on how the house was titled, who the court appointed and which state it’s in.
This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Estate law varies by state and changes. Ask the court clerk, or a lawyer or tax professional, about your case.
This guide takes those questions in the order they usually come up and points to the page that goes deep on each. There is no national rule for most of this, so state rules appear only where we read them, on 5 November 2026.
Start where you are:
- The death was recent.
- You don’t know whose house it is now.
- Someone wants to sell.
- Medicaid paid for long-term care.
- You’re working out the tax.
- The house needs clearing.
The first weeks: protect it, don’t decide
The early jobs are plain, and our checklist for when someone dies puts them in order. Lock the home and car, bring in the mail, and put away cash, jewelry and medicines. Keep the heat and power on.
The mortgage, property taxes and insurance keep running. California gives an executor the duty to pay taxes and take all steps reasonably necessary to manage, protect and preserve the estate (Prob. Code 9650, read 5 Nov 2026). Ask the insurer in writing whether the policy continues and what happens if the house sits empty.
One clock runs faster. A federally insured reverse mortgage comes due when the last borrower or eligible non-borrowing spouse dies. The CFPB says heirs have 30 days from receiving the due-and-payable notice to buy, sell or hand the home over, and that it might be possible to extend that up to six months.
Whose house is it now?
Pull the recorded deed. A house doesn’t go through probate just because someone died. If the deed names a surviving joint owner with survivorship rights, a trust or a beneficiary under a transfer on death deed, the next stop may be the county recorder or the trustee. If the person owned it alone, or as a co-owner with no survivorship right, that share is normally a probate asset.
Family members can own a house and still be unable to sell it. California says title passes at death to the people named in the will or to the legal heirs (Prob. Code 7000, read 5 Nov 2026). But the record still shows the name of the person who died, and a buyer needs a paper trail from that name to the new deed. Probate usually makes that trail. Some small estate routes reach a house, but many don’t.
Who can sell, and whether a judge must approve
In a probate sale, only the person the court appointed can sign. The court’s paper proving the appointment is called letters. Being named in the will isn’t enough. Someone who held a power of attorney generally can’t sign either, because that authority ends at death.
Whether the court has to approve the sale comes down to three questions:
- Does the will give a power of sale? It can also limit a sale, forbid one, or leave the house to one person.
- What do the letters say? They may show independent, informal or supervised administration, and may carry limits.
- What does the state say? In some states a power of sale ends the question. In California it doesn’t.
In Washington, nonintervention powers allow a sale with no court order (RCW 11.68.090). In California, with limited authority or none, the court must confirm the sale even if the will authorizes it (Prob. Code 10308). Both were read 5 Nov 2026. Our guide to selling a house in probate gives nine states’ rules, the steps in order, and what happens when heirs disagree or a relative lives there.
Selling early doesn’t mean paying out early. A house can often be sold long before the estate closes, but what’s left after the mortgage and costs belongs to the estate, not yet to the executor or the heirs. If the estate can’t pay everything and owes the federal government, paying others first can make a representative personally liable, up to the amount paid (31 USC 3713(b)). When beneficiaries get paid covers the order.
If Medicaid paid for long-term care
Check this before anyone agrees a price. Federal law (42 USC 1396p) requires every state to seek repayment of nursing home and other long-term care costs paid for someone aged 55 or older, out of that person’s estate. In the state rules we read, this is a claim for money, not a taking of the deed. But if the house is most of what’s left, it may have to be sold to pay the claim, or the family may pay the claim to keep it.
Recovery has to wait, or can’t happen, while a spouse, a child under 21, or a blind or disabled child survives. Waiting isn’t the same as cancelled. Whether the house counts depends on the state: every state reaches the estate as probate law defines it, and some go further, to property that passed by joint ownership, a life estate or a living trust.
Every state must waive recovery when it would work an undue hardship, but someone has to ask, and the clock can be short: 60 days from the notice in Massachusetts and in Texas (rule text, adopted unchanged), both read 5 Nov 2026. Can Medicaid take your house covers who is protected, seven states’ rules, hardship waivers and what an executor does next.
What the tax looks like
Tax comes with a sale, and the gain is often small. The IRS says basis, the figure gain is measured from, is usually the fair market value at the date of death. In our example, a house bought for $90,000, worth $400,000 at the death and sold for $450,000 with $27,000 of selling costs shows a $23,000 gain, not $333,000. Those figures are ours, not typical amounts.
Two things can change that picture:
- How the house came to the family. A house given away during life gets no step-up. The giver’s basis generally carries over (Pub. 551), which can mean far more gain.
- Who reports the sale. IRS Pub. 559 warns that an executor may have authority to sell while title has already passed to the beneficiaries, and says to check local law for the legal owner. If the estate reports it, the sale goes on Form 1041. For 2026, an estate reaches the 20% rate at $16,250 of taxable income, and a single person at $545,500 (Rev. Proc. 2025-32).
To run your own figures, try the capital gains calculator for an inherited house. It gives an estimate, not a tax answer. That page also covers the 2026 rates and legal ways the tax can shrink. We found no federal deadline to sell.
The belongings
Until you know what the will says and who has authority, leave things where they are. Dividing belongings normally comes much later, as the executor’s job, in order shows.
Once appointed, an executor has the right and the duty to take possession or control of the property. California (Prob. Code 9650) and Minnesota (524.3-709, read 5 Nov 2026) let belongings stay with the person presumably entitled to them until they’re needed for administration.
An executor doesn’t decide who gets what. Unless the will says otherwise, a person left a particular item is entitled to that item (Minnesota 524.3-906). Some wills give the executor a choice, such as dividing household items among the children, and that power goes only as far as the will’s words. With no will, state law names the heirs. What an executor can’t do covers the limits.
When to get a lawyer
The stakes change when the estate may not be able to pay its debts or owes the IRS, an heir objects or won’t leave, the will is contested, a foreclosure, reverse mortgage or hardship deadline is running, the executor or a relative wants to buy, or title has gaps.
Your next step
Find three papers: the recorded deed, the will and, if a case is open, the letters or appointment order. Then call the probate clerk and ask what kind of authority was granted and whether selling real property needs court approval or notice.
The listing can wait, and so can the belongings. The insurance call, the locks and any mortgage payment can’t.
Sources checked on 5 November 2026.
