Selling an inherited house in Pennsylvania

Nobody can sell until letters are granted

An inherited house cannot be sold until the Register of Wills grants letters, because until then nobody holds the authority to sell or transfer estate property. This is the step families skip: before a valuation, before an offer, before a clear-out, somebody has to be appointed. You apply in the county where the person lived. With a will you are granted letters testamentary. Without one, letters of administration.

It does not matter that everyone in the family agrees, that the house is standing empty, or that a buyer is ready. There is nobody yet with the power to convey it. Getting appointed is the first useful thing you can do, and everything else waits on it.

What 20 Pa.C.S. § 3351 permits

Once letters exist, the question is what the personal representative may do without going back to court. Section 3351 answers it: a personal representative may sell real property that is not specifically devised without court approval, unless the will says otherwise.

That single sentence carries two conditions, and both have to hold:

• The property is not specifically devised. It falls into the general estate rather than being left to a named person.
• The will does not say otherwise. A will can restrict the power to sell, so the will has to be read before anyone relies on § 3351.

Where both hold, a court order is not required for the sale. Where either fails, do not assume anything: that is the point at which a probate attorney earns their fee.

Specifically devised property is a different case

If the will leaves the house to a named person, that person is the devisee and the property is specifically devised. Section 3351 does not hand the personal representative authority to sell it. The devisee has to join in the sale.

In practice this is what turns an inherited house into a family argument. One sibling is named in the will, the others are not, and the others discover that the estate cannot simply sell the property and divide the proceeds. Reading the will properly at the start avoids months of the wrong conversation.

Where there is no will at all, there is no specific devise either, because nobody was named. The property falls into the estate and passes under the intestate rules instead, which is a different question with its own answer: who inherits, and in what shares.

Inheritance tax on the house

Real estate is taxed like every other asset. Pennsylvania has no exempt amount, so the tax applies from the first dollar, and the rate depends on the relationship of the person inheriting to the person who died:

• Surviving spouse: 0%.
• Parent inheriting from a child aged 21 or younger, and a child aged 21 or younger inheriting from a parent: 0%.
• Direct descendants and lineal heirs, including stepchildren: 4.5%.
• Siblings: 12%.
• Everyone else: 15%.

Pay within three months of the date of death and you take a 5% discount, which the statute caps at 5% of the tax paid or the tax due, whichever is less. The tax is delinquent after nine months and interest for 2026 runs at 7%. The return is form REV-1500, filed in duplicate with the county Register of Wills.

Selling the property does not remove the tax. It converts an asset that is hard to divide into one that is easy to divide, which is often the real reason a family sells.

The order of operations

In the order that actually works, rather than the order people usually attempt:

1. Someone applies to the county Register of Wills and is granted letters.
2. Read the will. Establish whether the property is specifically devised and whether the will restricts the power to sell.
3. Confirm who has to sign: the personal representative alone under § 3351, or the personal representative together with the devisee.
4. Deal with the estate’s obligations. The grant is advertised once a week for three successive weeks under 20 Pa.C.S. § 3162, and the creditor window closes one year after the first complete advertisement, not one year after the death.
5. Work out the inheritance tax position, including whether the three-month discount is still reachable.
6. Then decide how to sell, and to whom.

When a direct sale is the wrong choice

A direct sale trades price for certainty. There is no listing, no showings, no repairs and no financing contingency, and in return the number is lower than a well-prepared house would fetch on the open market.

So if the property is in reasonable condition, the family agrees, and nobody needs the money quickly, list it. You will almost certainly do better. Selling directly makes sense when the house needs work the estate cannot fund, when it is a long way from everyone involved, when it has been sitting empty and costing money, or when the family simply wants it finished.

We would rather tell you that now than have you find out later.

When you need a lawyer instead of us

Get a probate attorney if beneficiaries disagree about the sale, if the will restricts the power to sell, if title is unclear or names people who have themselves died, if there is a mortgage or a lien the estate cannot cover, or if the property sits in a different state from the estate.

We are not a law firm and we do not give legal advice. If you want to understand the sequence first, read how probate works in Pennsylvania.