Each year, thousands of people pass away in Kentucky, and their estates and accumulated assets are resolved in various ways. This process can vary significantly depending on the size of the estate, and, most importantly, the deceased’s estate plan.
When the deceased person has created a will or estate plan, the probate process generally goes according to those wishes and instructions. But the court controls the process when a person dies without a will. If the deceased person owned a home or property, this will result in a probate sale.
What is a probate sale?
In a probate sale, the court takes responsibility for disposing of the house or other property formerly belonging to a person who died without a will. The court oversees the property sold, and the resulting monies will be distributed to any heirs after appropriate taxes and debts are settled.
How does a probate sale differ from a normal sale?
Generally, a probate sale is a far more drawn-out process than a regular sale. In a probate sale, an administrator for the estate will hire a realtor to put the house up and will receive an offer like normal. However, the process has to pause for the court to approve the offer before it can be completed. This can take as long as a month.
From the buyer side, there are pluses and minuses to a probate sale. Probate sales often result in a lower-than-normal sale price in the plus column. But a probate sale will take longer than the average sale, so if time is a factor, a probate sale is likely not the best option.
Homes sold in probate sales also carry a little more risk of unforeseen problems or necessary repairs. Getting complete information about the home’s history in a probate sale is generally harder.
A probate sale occurs when a person with assets dies without a will. The process of a probate sale differs in several ways from a conventional sale, and it’s important to understand those differences.