If you are reading this, someone has died and a house is now your responsibility.
I want to be straightforward rather than delicate about that, because most executors tell me the same thing: they were handed a role they never asked for, with legal duties they did not know existed, while grieving.
This is what actually has to happen, in order, and where the property fits into it.
The direct answer
An inherited home usually cannot be sold immediately. The estate trustee needs the legal authority to deal with the property first, which in most cases means probate. Meanwhile, the two things worth doing straight away are securing the property and getting a documented valuation as at the date of death.
Almost everything else can wait until you have your footing.
First: you are an executor, and that is a legal role
The person named in the will as executor becomes the estate trustee. It is not honorary. You have duties to the estate and to the beneficiaries, and decisions you make about the property can be questioned later.
That is not a reason to be afraid of it. It is a reason to keep records, to get proper advice, and to be able to show that decisions were made on evidence rather than convenience. An estate lawyer is not optional in my view, and a good one saves more than they cost.
Nothing in this guide is legal or tax advice. It is the real estate part of the picture, written so you know what questions to ask the professionals who do advise you.
Do these things early
Secure the property. Locks, alarm codes, and keys. Find out who else has one.
Tell the insurer. This is the one people miss, and it matters enormously. A vacant home is a different risk, and many policies restrict or void coverage once a property has been empty for a set period. Call the insurer, tell them the situation, and get the arrangement in writing. An uninsured loss on an estate property is a genuine disaster.
Keep it maintained. Heat on in winter, water shut off if appropriate, lawn cut, mail collected or forwarded. A house that looks unoccupied attracts problems, and a frozen pipe in an empty house can destroy far more value than the sale price you were arguing about.
Get a date of death valuation. More on this below, and it should happen early.
Find the paperwork. Deed, survey, tax bills, utility accounts, mortgage statements, and any documents about work done on the house.
Why the date of death valuation matters so much
When someone dies, the estate is generally treated for tax purposes as having disposed of their property at fair market value on that date. The gain from that date until the actual sale is what may be taxable to the estate.
Which means the number you record as the date of death value is not a formality. It is the baseline everything is measured from, and it can also be needed for the probate application.
A written valuation supported by comparable sales from around that date is far more defensible than a figure recalled months later. I am happy to prepare one, and if the estate is large or complicated your lawyer may prefer a formal appraisal from a designated appraiser. Either way, do it early, while the evidence from that period is easy to gather.
Probate, and what it does to your timeline
In Ontario, the certificate of appointment of estate trustee is what confirms the trustee's authority to deal with estate assets. Most sales of an inherited property need it, because the buyer's lawyer needs to know that the person signing can actually transfer title.
The practical consequences:
You can usually list before probate is complete. Marketing a property and negotiating an offer is generally fine.
Closing is the part that waits. The agreement needs a closing date that is realistic given where the probate application actually is, and sometimes an extension provision. This is a conversation between your lawyer and the buyer's lawyer, and it is much easier when raised up front rather than discovered late.
Timelines vary and are not in your control. Plan around that rather than assuming speed.
Confirm what applies to your estate with your lawyer. Estates differ, some assets pass outside the estate, and a joint tenancy is a different situation entirely.
Clearing out a lifetime of belongings
This is the part nobody warns executors about, and it is usually the longest single stage.
A few things that help:
Do not throw anything out quickly. Documents, jewellery, and small items of real value turn up inside furniture, books, and coat pockets. Slow is genuinely faster here.
Give beneficiaries a defined window to identify what they want, and write down what goes where. Ambiguity about belongings causes more family conflict than the sale price does, and it is entirely avoidable with a list.
Get help with the volume. Estate clearing and auction services exist for this, and for most families the cost is worth what it saves in weeks of effort during a hard period.
Keep receipts for everything. Estate expenses matter for the accounting you will eventually have to provide.
Preparing an inherited home for sale
The temptation is to renovate. For most estates, that is the wrong call.
The money has to come from the estate, decisions need beneficiary agreement, and buyers of older homes frequently intend to update to their own taste anyway. A kitchen chosen by an executor is rarely a kitchen a buyer pays a premium for.
What is worth doing: clearing it out completely, deep cleaning, minor repairs, and paint if the walls are marked or very dated. That is usually where the return is.
Sold as-is is a legitimate and common approach for estate properties, and there is a real buyer pool for it. What it does not do is remove your disclosure obligations.
What you have to disclose
Executors are in an awkward spot here, because you frequently did not live in the house and genuinely do not know its history.
The general rule in Ontario is that a seller must disclose known latent defects, meaning serious problems a buyer could not reasonably discover through a normal inspection. Patent defects, the visible ones, are the buyer's to find.
The honest position for an executor is usually exactly that: disclose what you know, be clear about what you do not know, and do not guess. Tell me anything you have learned from family, from paperwork, or from the house itself, and we will handle it deliberately. Older homes often have things worth flagging, and older wiring in particular can affect a buyer's ability to get insurance and therefore financing.
If someone is living in the property
If there is a tenant, the tenancy generally continues with the property and Ontario's residential tenancy rules apply regardless of the fact that it is an estate. Selling a tenanted property has its own rules about notice and showings, and getting this wrong is expensive. I wrote about buying and selling a tenanted property separately.
If a family member is living there without a formal tenancy, that is a legal question for the estate lawyer and worth resolving before the property is listed rather than after.
What I actually do for estates
Executors usually want two things: a defensible process and fewer decisions to carry alone.
So: a documented date of death valuation with the comparable sales that support it. A written recommendation on preparation, including what is not worth doing. Coordination with the estate lawyer around the probate timeline so the closing date is realistic. Referrals for clearing, cleaning, and repairs. And a marketing and pricing plan you can show beneficiaries, with the evidence behind it, so decisions are transparent to everyone with an interest.
Where families disagree, having the same clear information in front of everyone tends to reduce the temperature. That is not always enough, but it helps more often than not.
The takeaway
Secure and insure the property first. Get a documented date of death valuation early. Get the probate application moving and build the sale timeline around it rather than hoping. Clear the house patiently. Prepare it modestly rather than renovating it. Disclose what you know and be honest about what you do not.
If you are dealing with an estate property in Burlington, Hamilton, or Niagara and want someone who understands the executor's position and will work with your lawyer rather than around them, that is a call I am glad to take. There is no urgency from my end, and I will tell you honestly if listing should wait.