Sell your house for cash · Los Angeles
Your mother’s house, three siblings, and a court date. I work directly with whoever the court has appointed, and nothing has to be cleared out. Clearing the house is the part families dread most, and it is the part I take off the list.
Nobody plans for this one. Selling a parent’s house after a death comes with a funeral, a will that may or may not be clear, and siblings in three cities who each have a different idea of what it is worth.
Meanwhile the inherited house sits there costing money. Taxes, insurance, the yard, and a set of keys nobody wants to be responsible for.
A few questions, on the form or the phone: the address, what shape it’s in, what’s going on. Maisha usually picks up. Her job is to get me to your kitchen table, not to talk you into anything.
Day 0 · a few questions
I walk it with Marco, who sells the houses I buy and sits in on every seller meeting. You get the comps, the repair estimate and all three numbers on the spot. Not a “let me run this by my team.”
All three numbers, at the table
You choose, I execute. Cash closes in about 17 days at a local title company. On path two the renovation starts and I handle every contractor, permit, photo and showing.
Cash closes in about 17 days
Selling an inherited home is one of several things you can do here, and it is not automatically the right one. Most of these options do not involve me at all. Here they are the way I would lay them out at your kitchen table.
One heir moves in, or buys out the rest at an agreed price. This is the option that keeps a family house in the family, and for some families that is worth more than the money. It works when whoever stays can carry the taxes, the insurance and the repairs alone. Selling inherited property to family inside the estate is a normal outcome, and a written offer is a fair way to set the price between siblings. Use mine for that even if the house never comes to me.
The house becomes an asset instead of a bill, and the rent can cover what it costs to keep. It also makes you a landlord, in a city with strict tenant rules, at a moment when nobody in the family has spare attention. If the house needs work, you pay for that work before the first tenant moves in. Some families do this well. It is a business, not a way of putting the decision off.
If the house is in sellable shape and the estate is not in a hurry, this is usually the option that pays the most. A listing reaches every buyer in Los Angeles, including the ones borrowing from a bank, and financed buyers generally pay more than an investor can. What it costs you is time, showings, an inspection to get through and the repairs a buyer asks for at the end. It is the right answer more often than people in my business like to admit. You can hire any agent in the city for it.
An auction gives you a fixed date and an ending, which is worth something when the heirs are spread across three states. It also gives up control of the price, and you carry the house until the date arrives. Some probate sales run through a court confirmation step that looks like an auction from the outside. Whether yours does is a question for your attorney, not for me.
A real option, and sometimes the right one. If the family is not ready, the taxes and the insurance are being paid, and the house is not costing anyone their rent money, waiting costs you the carrying costs and nothing else. Wait on purpose rather than by default. Put one person in charge of the bills and pick a month to look at it again.
There are plenty of us in Los Angeles County and you should get more than one number. Ask each buyer the same three things: does the price change after a walkthrough, who is actually closing, and what comes out of your side at escrow. A written offer you can put next to another one is worth more than the highest number said out loud.
You get one written number, a closing date you pick and nothing to clear out or repair, in exchange for a price below what a finished listing would bring, because that gap is where my profit comes from. I buy for my own account and resell, so on this path I am the buyer, not your agent. If the buyer will be an investor I bring in instead, I tell you before you sign. If the house is sound and the estate can wait, I will tell you the second path is worth more, and on that one I fund the renovation, list it, and the money comes back out of the proceeds at closing.
One closing date, one figure, and the proceeds split at escrow the way the estate directs. When the heirs are spread across states, this is usually the path that actually ends.
What it costs you. Nothing. No commission, no repair credits, and no closing costs out of your pocket.
If the house is sound and the estate is not in a hurry, funding the work first and listing it generally nets the estate more. I will show you all three numbers and you can take them back to the family.
What it costs you. My listing commission, and the renovation money comes back out of the sale proceeds at closing. Never out of your pocket.
Cash, funding or a listing, whichever the situation calls for. For when the house is not the actual problem.
What it costs you. Nothing up front. Whatever I advance, carry or pay for comes back out of the proceeds at closing, on terms you see before you sign.
With whether the court has appointed anyone yet, because that one fact decides what is possible today, and your attorney will know it in a phone call. After that it is the straightforward part: I work directly with whoever holds the authority, nothing has to be cleared out, and every sibling sees the same written number at the same time.
Often yes, and sometimes it needs court confirmation first. It depends on the authority the personal representative was granted. Ask your attorney which one applies, and I will work with either.
Yes, and this is the common shape of it. Selling an inherited house as-is means nobody in the family fronts money for repairs on a property they are trying to hand off. I price the condition in rather than asking you to fix it first.
Ask a CPA before you ask me. There is a stepped-up basis rule that often matters a great deal here and I am not qualified to apply it to your situation. I will not guess at a number that changes what you owe.
Only that you may not need me. Selling inherited property to family inside the estate is a normal outcome, and a written offer is a fair way to set the price between siblings. Use mine for that even if the house never comes to me.
Whoever holds the authority to sell signs. In practice a written number that everyone can see is what gets the family to the same answer, which is why I put it in writing early.
No. Take what matters and leave the rest. Clearing a house that has been lived in for forty years is the part families dread most, and it is the part I take off the list.
Not to me. The cash offer takes it as it stands, and deferred maintenance is priced into the number rather than being a reason to walk away.
Start with the address
You’ll know all three numbers before I leave your kitchen. And if listing it the ordinary way is the better move for you, I’ll say so out loud.
Maisha or I answer these ourselves, usually the same day.
Or skip all this:
(323) 363-2731That’s my line. Maisha or I pick it up.
This form can’t send yet, so nothing was submitted.
Or skip all this:
(323) 363-2731That’s my line. Maisha or I pick it up.
