You do not have to wait for probate to finish. In most District estates the house is sold in the middle of the process — once the personal representative has Letters of Administration, not after the estate closes.
First question: is it actually yours to sell yet?
This is where almost everyone starts in the wrong place. Inheriting a house and having the authority to sell it are two different events, and in the District they usually happen months apart.
- The property passed outside probate — a surviving joint owner, a right of survivorship, a living trust, or a transfer-on-death deed. Then it is already yours and you can list it like any other sale.
- The property is in the decedent's name alone. Then somebody has to be appointed personal representative at the Office of the Register of Wills and receive Letters of Administration before a contract can be signed. Until that document exists, no title company in the District will insure the sale.
If you are not sure which one you are in, that is a five-minute conversation, not a research project. Our walkthrough of the DC probate process lays out the whole sequence.
What is the house actually worth?
There are three different numbers attached to an inherited DC property and they are not interchangeable. Mixing them up is the single most common expensive mistake we see.
| Number | What it is | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Date-of-death value | Fair market value on the day the person died | The estate inventory under D.C. Code § 20–711, and your cost basis |
| Today's market value | What a buyer would pay now, in current condition | Deciding whether and how to sell |
| The DC tax assessment | OTR's assessed value for property tax | Property tax. Almost nothing else. |
We prepare a written, supportable opinion of both the date-of-death value and today's value, and we do it whether or not you ever list with us. More on how the valuation works.
The quiet cost of leaving it empty
This is the DC-specific fact that costs families the most money, and almost nobody mentions it until it has already happened. The District taxes empty houses punitively.
| Class | Rate per $100 of assessed value |
|---|---|
| Class 1 — occupied residential | $0.85 |
| Class 3 — vacant | $5.00 |
| Class 4 — blighted | $10.00 |
On a $650,000 house, that is roughly $5,500 a year at the occupied rate against roughly $32,500 a year if it gets classified vacant. Add insurance — most homeowner policies restrict or void coverage on a property that has been unoccupied for 30 or 60 days, and a vacant-property policy costs materially more — plus utilities kept on to prevent frozen pipes, plus lawn and snow compliance, and an empty DC row house can quietly cost four figures a month before anyone has made a decision.
"It needs too much work to sell"
We hear this on nearly every first call, and it is usually not true in the District. DC has a deep, competitive buyer pool for as-is houses — renovators, builders, and owner-occupants who specifically want a project in a good location and cannot find one.
You are generally not expected to renovate an inherited house. What matters far more than condition is pricing and exposure. A dated, cluttered row house in a strong DC neighborhood, priced correctly and shown to the whole market, routinely outperforms the same house after $60,000 of guessed-at improvements.
You also do not have to empty it first. Clearing out the house covers what is genuinely worth doing and what is money you will not get back.
What it costs to sell in DC
Straight answer, so you can do the arithmetic yourself:
- Deed transfer tax — in the District this is customarily paid by the seller: 1.1% of consideration or fair market value for residential transfers under $400,000, and 1.45% on the entire amount at $400,000 or above. The buyer customarily pays recordation tax. Both are negotiable in the contract.
- Brokerage commission — negotiable, and agreed in writing before we do anything. Following the 2024 NAR settlement changes, what the seller offers a buyer's agent is a separate, explicitly negotiated decision.
- Settlement, title, and estate-specific costs — title work on an estate sale takes longer and sometimes costs more, because the title company has to satisfy itself on the chain of authority.
- Capital gains — inherited property generally receives a stepped-up basis to date-of-death value, which is why that number matters so much. Ask your CPA how it applies to you; we are not the right people to answer that.
When the heirs do not agree
Three siblings, one house, three different plans. This is the most common reason a DC estate property sits for two years, and it is rarely really about the house.
What we can do is make the decision factual instead of emotional: one written valuation, one clear picture of what each path nets each person after costs, delivered to everyone at the same time so nobody feels managed. A number that everyone has seen at once resolves a surprising share of these. More on heirs who disagree.
If someone is living there
An inherited DC property with a tenant in it is a different animal, because of the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act. Some sales require a formal offer of sale to the tenant before you can sell to anyone else; many single-family cases have been exempt since 2018, with a narrow carve-out for elderly and disabled tenants.
Getting this wrong can unwind a completed sale. Read the TOPA guide for inherited DC rentals before you list — and involve a lawyer if there is any tenant at all.
What working with us actually looks like
- Send us the address. Call or text. You do not need paperwork, a case number, or a decision.
- We look at the property and the record and come back with today's value, the date-of-death value if you need it for the inventory, and what condition realistically means for the number.
- We tell you what usually happens next in the District — including the parts that argue against selling, if that is what the facts say.
- You decide, on your timeline. Some of the families we help are a year out. That is fine. We would rather be useful now and earn the listing later.
Sources: D.C. Code Title 20 (Probate); D.C. Law 25-302, the Strengthening Probate Administration Amendment Act of 2024; the Office of the Register of Wills, D.C. Superior Court Probate Division (dccourts.gov); and the D.C. Office of the Chief Financial Officer on deed transfer tax and real property tax classes (cfo.dc.gov). Rates and rules change and individual cases vary — confirm anything that affects a decision with the Register of Wills, OTR, or your own attorney or CPA.