Probate real estate in Richmond, VA: selling a house in probate

Step 1: Qualify as executor or administrator

Probate in Virginia begins at the Circuit Court clerk's probate office in the city or county where the deceased lived:

• Richmond: John Marshall Courts Building, 400 N. 9th Street
• Henrico: Henrico County Courts Building, 4309 E. Parham Road
• Hanover: Hanover Courthouse complex, 7530 County Complex Road
• Chesterfield: Chesterfield Circuit Court, 9500 Courthouse Road

If there's a will, the named executor brings the original will, a certified death certificate, and an estimate of the estate's value, and the clerk admits the will to probate and issues a certificate of qualification (often called "letters"). If there's no will, a family member qualifies as administrator under the same process. The clerk may require a surety bond unless the will waives it, and non-resident fiduciaries usually need one regardless.

This takes an appointment and an afternoon. Many families do it within a couple of weeks of the death.

Step 2: Figure out who has authority to sell the house

This is the step families most often get wrong, because Virginia treats real estate differently from everything else in the estate.

Real estate vests in the heirs or devisees at death. The executor controls the bank accounts, the car, the personal property — but the house belongs to whoever inherits it from the moment of death, subject to the estate's administration. Whether the executor can sign the deed depends entirely on the will:

Situation	Who signs the deed
Will grants the executor a power of sale	The executor, once qualified
Will leaves the house to named people, no power of sale	Those devisees — all of them
No will (intestate)	The heirs at law under Va. Code § 64.2-200 — all of them
An heir is a minor, incapacitated, or missing	Court involvement, usually through a guardian ad litem or a suit
Estate is insolvent and the house must be sold to pay debts	The personal representative, with a power of sale or a court order

Most attorney-drafted wills include a power of sale. Many handwritten and form wills don't. We read the will with you (and with the settlement agent) before anyone signs a contract so the right names are on the deed from the start.

Step 3: The estate's obligations run alongside the sale

Selling the house does not require finishing probate. But the fiduciary's deadlines keep running, and it helps to know them:

• Within 30 days of qualifying: file a list of heirs with the clerk and send written notice of probate to the beneficiaries and heirs.
• Within 4 months: file an inventory of the estate's assets with the Commissioner of Accounts — the attorney appointed by the Circuit Court to supervise estates. The house goes on the inventory at its date-of-death value.
• Within 16 months: file the first accounting showing money in and out, including the house sale proceeds.
• Pay debts and taxes in the statutory order before distributing to heirs.
• Close the estate after the final accounting is approved — commonly 12–18 months for a simple estate.

The house sale proceeds go to the estate account (if the executor sold under a power of sale) or directly to the heirs (if they conveyed the house themselves), and the accounting reflects whichever happened.

The one-year creditor rule

Virginia gives an estate's creditors a path to real estate that heirs have sold within one year of the death, if the estate's personal property can't cover its debts. Title insurance companies know this rule well and handle it routinely: having the qualified executor or administrator join in the deed, obtaining an indemnity from the heirs, or holding a modest reserve until the year passes. It is a paperwork step, not a reason to wait a year to sell — and the carrying costs of an empty house for a year are far more than any of these tools cost.

Taxes and costs

• No Virginia inheritance or estate tax.
• Virginia probate tax: $0.10 per $100 of the probate estate's value, plus up to a third of that locally.
• Capital gains: the house gets a stepped-up basis to its date-of-death value, so a sale near that value produces little or no gain.
• Property taxes and utilities keep accruing on a vacant house. Richmond's real estate tax is $1.20 per $100; unpaid amounts are settled from the proceeds at closing.
• Commissioner of Accounts fees for the inventory and accounting, and the clerk's fees.

None of our costs come out of the estate: we pay the standard closing costs, and there's no commission.

Why executors sell probate houses to a cash buyer

Executors have a fiduciary duty to get fair value for the house, and a written offer with a clear explanation of the reasoning is easy to document in the accounting. Beyond that, the practical advantages are large:

• No repairs or cleanout. The executor doesn't have to spend estate money (or personal money) fixing a house before selling it, and doesn't have to organize an estate sale or a dumpster. We buy it with the contents.
• No showings of a house full of a family's belongings.
• A closing date that fits the estate, whether that's a few weeks or a few months.
• Coordination with your attorney and the settlement agent on who signs, the one-year rule, and how proceeds are disbursed.
• Remote everything for out-of-state executors.
• Certainty. No buyer financing to fail after the estate has been waiting.

If the house is in good condition and the heirs are in no hurry, a listing may net the estate more, and we'll say so. For the many probate houses that need work and have carrying costs piling up, a cash sale is often the most defensible choice an executor can make.

Start the conversation

Tell us about the house or call or text (804) 331-8443. We'll ask where the estate stands — whether anyone has qualified, whether there's a will, who the heirs are — and none of it needs to be figured out before you call. We'll look at the house, send a written offer, and coordinate with your attorney and settlement agent from there. For a fuller walkthrough with timelines, read our Richmond probate guide, and for the heir's-eye view see selling an inherited house.