Inherited a house in Shasta County? Do not list it yet.

The house is full of someone else’s life and none of your plans. That is normal. What is not useful is listing it next week because the lockbox feels like progress.

What is actually on the table

• Title. Is it in the estate, a trust, or joint tenancy? If you cannot sell it yet, an agent cannot either. A cash buyer cannot skip a broken chain of title. The title company has to write it clean.
• People. One sibling wants to keep it. One wants out. One lives two states away and is tired of the conversation. A listing with three decision-makers and a 90-day clock is how houses sit.
• Condition. Houses that have been closed up grow surprises: roofs, pests, a water heater that gave up in February, a garage of things nobody wants to sort.
• Money. There may be a mortgage. There are always taxes and insurance. Vacant houses are not free to hold.

The three honest paths

Keep it, if someone will live in it or you have the reserves to be a landlord. List it, if title is clean, the house can show, and everyone who has to sign will sign. Sell it as-is, if you want the estate done and the stuff left behind.

Silverkey makes cash offers on occupied houses, vacant houses, and houses full of belongings. You do not have to clean it out for him. You do have to be the person who can sign.

Prop 19 and the rest of the tax conversation

California changed the parent-to-child property tax rules. Whether you keep the low tax basis depends on facts a CPA should look at — not a cash buyer and not a blog post. Get that answer before you decide “we should just keep it.”

If the decision is to sell, the walk-away number on this site is a better starting point than an asking price pulled from a neighboring ranch that was remodeled in 2022.