You've inherited a house in Florida — and now you're staring at a property tax bill, an insurance lapse notice, and an HOA dues invoice all addressed to a deceased parent. Selling an inherited Florida house isn't impossible, but it's not the same as a regular sale. Probate court is usually involved. Heirs need to agree. The clock is ticking on every monthly carrying cost. Here's the actual step-by-step process — what comes first, what slows you down, and the realistic timeline from death to closing.

Step 1: Determine If the House Is in Probate

In Florida, a house generally has to go through probate before it can be sold — unless title was held in a way that avoids probate (joint tenancy with right of survivorship, tenancy by the entirety, a revocable living trust, or a "Lady Bird" enhanced life-estate deed). The first call you should make is to a Florida probate attorney to confirm which path applies.

If title was held solely in the deceased's name with no beneficiary deed or trust, you'll need to open formal probate in the county where the deceased lived. Florida has two main probate types: Summary Administration (for smaller estates under $75,000 or where the deceased has been gone more than 2 years) and Formal Administration (the standard route for everything else).

Probate timelines vary widely. Summary Administration can wrap in 30 to 60 days if uncontested. Formal Administration takes 4 to 12 months on average. That's the window during which property taxes, insurance, HOA dues, and (often) mortgage payments continue to accrue against the estate.

Step 2: Identify the Personal Representative

A Florida probate court issues Letters of Administration to a personal representative (sometimes called an executor in other states). That person is the only one legally allowed to sign a contract to sell the house, and the Letters are the only proof a title company will accept that the signature has authority.

If there's a will, it usually names a personal representative. If there's no will, Florida statute determines priority — typically the surviving spouse first, then the heirs by majority interest.

You can sign a purchase contract before Letters are issued, contingent on the personal representative receiving them. We do this all the time at our inherited-house program — the contract gets signed during probate, and closing happens the moment the Letters come through.

Step 3: Get the House Cleaned Out — Or Don't

This is where well-meaning families burn months they didn't need to burn. The assumption is that you have to empty the house before you can sell it. That's only true if you're listing it on the MLS to retail buyers, who want to walk through clean rooms and picture themselves living there.

A cash buyer doesn't care. We buy houses fully furnished, half-cleaned-out, or hoarder-style packed. Take what matters to you — family photos, jewelry, paperwork, the china. Leave everything else. We handle the cleanout after closing.

If you do want to do an estate sale, expect 2 to 4 weeks of prep and sorting time, plus a weekend or two for the sale itself. Estate sales typically net 10-30% of replacement value on furniture and household goods — sometimes less. Many families decide it's not worth the time after running the math.

Step 4: Get All Heirs on the Same Page

If the personal representative has the authority under the will to sell without heir consent, the legal answer is one signature. Practically, though, you almost always want all the heirs informed and aligned. Selling Mom's house behind a sibling's back is a recipe for the kind of family rupture that lasts decades.

Common heir disagreements: one sibling wants to keep the house, one wants to sell at any price, one wants to list at $50K over market because they "feel" it's worth that. These disputes can stall an estate sale for months.

A cash offer can actually help here. It gives all the heirs one independent number to react to — not a price you negotiated with your sister, but a take-it-or-leave-it from a third party. Many disputes resolve when the abstract "what's it worth?" question becomes a concrete "here's an offer, do we take it?"

Step 5: Decide How to Sell — MLS vs. Cash Buyer

Two main paths. Traditional MLS listing: hire a Florida realtor, prep the house for showings (paint, deep clean, minor repairs), list at market price, wait 60 to 120 days for an offer, negotiate inspection-period concessions, wait another 30 to 45 days for the buyer's mortgage to close. Realtor commission runs 5-6%, plus seller-side closing costs run another 1-2%. Net: roughly market price minus 8-10% in costs, after 90 to 180 days.

Cash buyer: skip the prep, the showings, the inspection-renegotiation, and the lender appraisal. Get an offer in 24 hours, close in 14 to 21 days. The trade-off is that the offer comes in below full retail — usually 70-85% of after-repair-value — because the buyer is absorbing holding costs, rehab costs, and resale risk.

Which is better depends on your situation. If the house is in good condition, the heirs aren't in a rush, and you can hold for 6 months while it sits on the market, the MLS will usually net more. If the house needs work, the heirs want it done, and every month the property sits costs the estate money, a cash sale often nets more after holding costs and price-reduction negotiations.

Step 6: Handle Liens, Mortgages, and Open Property Taxes

Most inherited Florida houses come with at least one financial encumbrance attached: an outstanding mortgage, unpaid property taxes, HOA arrears, sometimes a Medicaid recovery lien from the deceased's end-of-life care.

The title company researches all of this during escrow. At closing, each lien gets paid off in priority order out of the sale proceeds. The remaining equity goes to the estate, which then distributes per the will or per Florida intestacy statute.

You don't need to pay anything out of pocket — the liens come out of the sale, not your wallet. The only situation where heirs end up owing money is when the liens exceed the property's value, which is uncommon but possible. In that case, options include a short-sale negotiation with the lien holders or disclaiming the inheritance entirely (talk to the probate attorney).

Common Pitfalls That Slow Things Down

Waiting too long to start probate. Every month the estate sits in limbo, property taxes accrue, insurance lapses, and the house deteriorates. File the probate petition within a few weeks of the death.

Trying to sell informally before Letters are issued. A title company won't close without proof of authority. Get the Letters first, or sign a contract contingent on Letters being issued.

Skipping the title search. Hidden liens — Medicaid recovery, judgment liens, old mechanic's liens — can surface at the last minute and blow up a closing. Run a full title search early, not late.

Family disagreements that don't get mediated. If you have heirs at odds, get the probate attorney or a family-mediation lawyer involved early. Don't let it become a 12-month standoff.

Selling an inherited Florida house is a logistics puzzle as much as a financial decision. The fastest path — and usually the least stressful — is a probate attorney plus a buyer who already knows how to work within probate timelines, handles cleanouts, and pays cash at closing.