How much time does it take to sell assets from an estate with no will?
Transcript:
Hi, I'm Jonathan Barlow, probate attorney at Clear Council Law Group. One of our readers recently asked a question. He said, "I'm the administrator of my father's estate, and my father left no will." The reader was wondering when he's free to sell his house during the probate process. Once you're appointed as the administrator of the estate, then you are actually free at that point to begin the process of selling the house. You can hire a real estate agent to list the house for sale, and begin to immediately market the house for sale. At any time after the appointment of the administrator, you're given that power and authority by the court.
The process goes pretty much like the normal sale of a house, where you will look for someone that's interested to purchase the house. They will eventually make an offer to you, you as the administrator of the estate would either accept the offer, make a counter-offer, whatever you want to do to reach terms on the sale of the house.
Once you've agreed with a potential buyer on the sale of the house and how much they're going to pay for it, there are generally, there are 2 ways that you can have that sale finished or closed. The first way is the traditional way in probate process, which requires that the sale or the contract to sell the house be approved by the probate court. And actually when it goes into the probate court for the hearing, it begins a bid process, where other people in the audience there at court or those people that watch these listings, will come to court and can actually bid up the sale price there in open court. That's of benefit to the estate because it could raise the amount of money that comes into the estate from the sale. It's also kind of an administrative hassle, though, because then the sale could be delayed because of a new buyer coming into the picture.
More recently the Nevada legislature passed a legislation about 5 years ago that allows for sales of houses in probate to occur outside of the hearing process. So it no longer requires a hearing. And this is a process that not many people are familiar with, but it's a great benefit to the estate. Essentially you'd do the same process where you'd get a contract that's agreed upon, and a sale price that's agreed upon between you the administrator of the estate and the buyer. And you then just give notice to all the interested parties, to your siblings, to whoever else has an interest in the estate. And this is called independent administration of the estate. And assuming none of the interested persons object to the sale or to the sale price, you're then free within 2 weeks to close on the sale of the house. It doesn't require a court hearing, there are no bids taken. And this is a benefit to the state because the attorney's time can be decreased, plus less attorney's fees. And it's also administratively easier to sell a house through an independent administration of an estate sale.
So, in conclusion, as the administrator of the estate, you're fully authorized to sell a house immediately upon your appointment, and you can do it either one of 2 ways. Under the old process of having it confirmed by the probate court, doing a bid process. Or the newer way of under independent administration of the estate where it can be done without the bid process.
