Selling an inherited house in Maryland: how probate really works

Most of the calls we get about inherited houses start the same way. A parent has passed, the house in Silver Spring or Wheaton has been in the family for fifty years, and nobody is sure what they’re allowed to do with it. Can you sell it now? Do you have to wait for probate to finish? Who signs the contract? Here’s how it actually works in Maryland, in plain terms.

None of this is legal advice. It’s what we’ve learned buying estate houses across Montgomery County and the rest of the state, and it should at least help you ask the right questions.

Probate starts at the Register of Wills

In Maryland, an estate is opened with the Register of Wills in the county where the person lived. For a Silver Spring house that means the Montgomery County Register of Wills in Rockville. Someone, usually the person named in the will and otherwise a close relative, petitions to be appointed personal representative. Once appointed, they receive letters of administration, the document that gives them legal authority to act for the estate. Banks, title companies, and buyers will all want to see it.

If there’s no will, Maryland’s intestacy rules decide who inherits and who has priority to serve as personal representative. That adds a step, but it doesn’t block a sale.

Who can actually sell the house

The personal representative. In most Maryland estates the house is an estate asset the personal representative has authority to sell once appointed, and the proceeds flow into the estate before they’re distributed to heirs. If the will spells out a power of sale, cleaner still. Where it gets slow is disagreement: if several siblings inherit and one won’t sign off, expect the orphans’ court to get involved, and expect months. Sorting that out before putting the house on the market saves everyone money and grief.

The timeline, honestly

Getting appointed usually takes a few weeks from filing. After that, Maryland gives creditors six months from the date of death to file claims against the estate. That six month window worries people, but here’s the practical part: you can usually put the house under contract, and often close, inside it. The title company runs the sale under estate rules and the money simply sits in the estate account until distributions are proper. What you can’t do is skip the appointment. No letters, no valid deed.

A regular estate typically stays open nine months to a year, sometimes longer if the house sits unsold. Which is one honest argument for selling early: an empty house generates bills the entire time the estate stays open. Utilities, insurance (vacant house policies cost more), lawn care, and in some jurisdictions a vacant property registration fee.

Small estates and modified administration

Maryland has two shortcuts. A small estate applies when probate assets are under $50,000 (or $100,000 when the surviving spouse is the only heir), which almost never covers a house in Montgomery County. Modified administration is the useful one: when the heirs are close family and everyone consents, the estate can close on a streamlined schedule with far less court paperwork. Ask the Register of Wills staff about it when you file. They’re genuinely helpful, and asking costs nothing.

The taxes heirs actually pay

Two different taxes get confused constantly. Maryland’s inheritance tax is 10 percent, but spouses, children, grandchildren, parents, siblings, and their spouses are exempt, so most families never pay it. Nieces, nephews, and friends who inherit generally do. Capital gains works in your favor: inherited property gets a stepped up basis, meaning gain is measured from the value at the date of death rather than what your parents paid decades ago. Sell a house for roughly what it was worth when you inherited it and the taxable gain is close to zero, even if Mom paid $38,000 for it in 1974. Confirm your numbers with an accountant, but don’t let fear of taxes freeze the estate.

The house itself is usually the hard part

The legal process is paperwork. The heavy part is the house: fifty years of belongings, deferred maintenance, a kitchen from the Carter administration. Heirs often assume they must clear it out and fix it up before anyone will buy it. You don’t. We buy estate houses with the contents in place. Take the photo albums and the things that matter, leave the rest, including the freezer in the basement nobody wants to open.

The math on renovating first rarely favors heirs anyway. A 1952 brick colonial in Four Corners might need $90,000 of work to reach retail condition, paid out of pocket by people who live out of state, managed long distance, across six months of carrying costs. Some families take that on and do fine. Most tell us afterward that they wanted the simple exit.

What we do

We buy inherited houses in Silver Springand across Maryland for cash, as-is, on the estate’s timeline. We work around the appointment date, put the offer in writing with the math shown, and a licensed Maryland title company runs the closing under estate rules. The full process is on our how it workspage, and your rights, including Maryland’s 2025 wholesale disclosure law, are covered in our FAQ. If listing the house would clearly net the estate more and the family has the time, we’ll say so. The principals here are licensed Maryland agents, and that comparison costs you nothing.