You Inherited a House in Florida and Don’t Know What to Do

I'm Kady. I help Florida families who've ended up with a property they're not sure what to do with. Some want to keep it, some need to sell, and a lot of people honestly just want someone to explain what's going on without a sales pitch. So that's what this is. No pressure - I promise. Just the plain-English version of what happens when you inherit a house in Florida, and the options you actually have.

01It's Okay to Feel Overwhelmed

Most people who call me open with some version of "I'm sorry, I don't even really know what I'm asking." Please don't apologize. Inheriting a house is genuinely confusing, and it almost always shows up at the worst possible time - while you're planning a funeral, sorting through a lifetime of belongings, and trying to hold the rest of your life together.

And it's not just the paperwork. There's the guilt of thinking about money right after a loss. The sibling who wants to keep it and the one who needs to sell. The house three hours away that you can't keep driving to. The insurance and the property taxes quietly draining your bank account every single month. If any of that sounds familiar, you're not doing anything wrong - you're just carrying a lot at once.

02Do You Have to Go Through Probate?

Here's the thing that trips most people up: even if the will clearly says "I leave the house to my daughter," that daughter usually can't just sell it the next day. In Florida, when a home is titled only in the name of the person who passed, it has to go through probate - the court process that officially moves ownership to the living. Until that happens, no one has the legal authority to sign the deed.

There are a few happy exceptions where you can skip probate entirely. You generally don't need it if the house was:

• Held in a living trust,
• Set up with a Lady Bird deed or transfer-on-death deed,
• Or owned jointly with right of survivorship (for example, with a spouse who's still living).

If none of those apply, you'll go through one of Florida's two probate tracks - and which one matters a lot for how long this takes:

I'm not an attorney, and I'd never pretend to be - for your exact situation, a Florida probate attorney is who you want (many handle uncontested cases for a flat fee). But knowing which track you're likely on helps you understand the timeline before you make any decisions.

03The Probate-to-Sale Path, Step by Step

When you can see the whole path laid out, it feels a lot less scary. Here's roughly how it goes from "I inherited a house" to "it's sold and settled":

One important Florida detail on that "secure it" step: our humidity is no joke. An empty house here can grow mold within weeks, and many insurance policies add a "vacancy" clause after 30–60 days that can leave a sitting home under-covered. So if the house is going to be empty for a while, tell the insurer, keep some air moving, and don't let it sit ignored. It's one of the quiet ways an inherited house starts costing you money.

04What About Taxes? (Better News Than You Think)

This is the part that keeps people up at night, and honestly, it's usually where I get to give good news. Two things work in your favor in Florida:

Florida has no estate or inheritance tax

Our state constitution actually prohibits it. So you won't pay a state "death tax" on the house. And the federal estate tax? It only kicks in on estates worth more than $15 million per person - which means for almost every family I talk to, it simply doesn't apply.

The "step-up in basis" usually erases capital gains

This one's a gift, and a lot of people have never heard of it. When you inherit a house, the IRS "resets" its value for tax purposes to what it was worth on the day the person passed - not what they originally paid decades ago. That reset is called the step-up in basis.

Here's why it matters: say your mom bought her home for $60,000 in 1990, and it's worth $360,000 now. If she'd sold it while living, she might have owed tax on $300,000 of gain. But because you inherited it, your "starting point" becomes $360,000. Sell it soon after for around that price, and there's little or no capital gain to be taxed at all.

05Your Four Real Options

Once the legal side is moving, it comes down to a very human question: what do you actually want to do with this house? There's no wrong answer here - only the one that fits your life, your family, and your finances. Here are the four paths, honestly laid out:

If you're leaning toward keeping or listing and the house is in good shape, that may well be your best move - and I'll tell you so honestly, even though I'm a buyer. But if the property is out of town, hasn't been updated in decades, is full of a lifetime of belongings, or is costing you money every month you hold it, an as-is sale usually takes the most weight off your shoulders.

06When Siblings Don't Agree

If you inherited the house with your brothers or sisters, you already know this can get tender fast. One of you wants to keep Mom's house exactly as it is. One of you lives out of state and just needs their share. One of you has been quietly paying the taxes and is running out of patience. All of those feelings are valid, and all of them are sitting on top of grief.

A few things that tend to help families get through it:

• Name the feelings before the money. Most fights aren't really about dollars - they're about memories, fairness, and feeling heard. Say that part out loud first.
• Get one neutral number everyone trusts. A fair market value (and a real cash offer) gives everyone the same starting point instead of guesses.
• Consider a clean sale and split. When keeping it isn't realistic for everyone, selling and dividing the proceeds is often the fairest, least resentful path - nobody's stuck being the landlord or the one left holding the bills.
• Let a third party handle the logistics. Sometimes it's easier when the clean-out, the paperwork, and the timeline aren't any one sibling's job to nag about.

07Selling As-Is: What It Really Means

"As-is" gets thrown around a lot, so let me tell you plainly what it means when you sell an inherited house to a local buyer like me - and what it saves you:

• You don't fix anything. Old roof, dated kitchen, that bathroom nobody's touched since 1985 - none of it matters. I buy it exactly as it stands.
• You don't clean it out. This is the big one for inherited homes. You can take what's meaningful to you and leave the rest. You don't have to sort through every drawer of a lifetime. A good buyer handles the clear-out.
• No agent fees or commissions. A traditional sale can cost 6% in commission plus closing costs. An as-is cash sale skips the commissions entirely.
• No showings, no strangers walking through. Especially comforting when it's a family home and you're still grieving.
• You choose the closing date. Need to wait for probate to finish, or for a sibling to fly in? We close when you're ready - sometimes in as little as a week or two once you're clear to sell.

The honest trade-off: an as-is cash offer is typically below what a fully renovated, listed home might fetch on a good day. What you're trading that difference for is speed, certainty, zero repair costs, and not having to lift a finger. For a lot of families - especially with an out-of-town or run-down house - that trade is more than worth it. For others, listing makes more sense. I'll always give you my honest read on which is which.

08Questions People Ask Me

A gentle note: I'm a Florida home buyer, not an attorney, accountant, or financial advisor, and this article is general information - not legal or tax advice for your specific situation. Please talk with a licensed Florida probate attorney and a CPA about your family's circumstances. If you're feeling overwhelmed, that's normal, and you don't have to sort it out alone.