How Soon Can You Sell an Inherited House in Miami-Dade?

How long before you can sell an inherited house in Miami-Dade County?

You generally cannot close on an inherited Miami-Dade house until a Florida probate court gives someone legal authority to sign the deed. With formal administration, that authority — Letters of Administration — typically arrives within a few weeks of filing, and the full case runs about six to twelve months. With summary administration, there is no personal representative at all, and the court's order distributing the property usually lands in roughly two to three months. As of July 1, 2026, Florida raised the summary administration ceiling from $75,000 to $150,000, which moves a meaningful number of Miami-Dade estates onto the faster track.


By Pedro Casanova | August 19, 2026

Here's the part most heirs get wrong: they think probate has to finish before the house can sell. It doesn't.


What has to happen first is narrower than that. Someone has to hold court-issued authority to sign on behalf of the estate. Until that exists, no Florida title company will insure the transaction, and without title insurance, the sale doesn't close. That's the actual gate — not the end of the case.


This is one of the most common questions I get from Miami-Dade families right now, and the anxiety underneath it is almost always the same. The house is sitting empty. The insurance is uncertain. The tax bill is about to change. And nobody in the family knows whether they're looking at three months or a year.


Let me walk you through what actually determines your timeline.

The two probate paths — and why yours matters more than anything else

Florida gives you two routes, and which one your estate qualifies for drives everything.


Formal administration is standard probate. The court appoints a personal representative and issues Letters of Administration — the document title companies actually want to see. Those letters usually come through within a few weeks of filing, assuming the petition is clean and nobody objects. Once you have them, you can list and sell during the administration, not after it. The full case typically closes out in six to twelve months, but the sale doesn't have to wait that long.


One wrinkle worth checking early: whether the will grants a specific power of sale. If it does, the personal representative can sell without a separate court order. If it doesn't, you'll need court authorization or confirmation on the sale itself, which adds time. Read the will before you assume.


Summary administration is the abbreviated version. No personal representative is appointed. The court simply enters an order distributing the assets, and that order — once recorded — is what transfers title. It typically runs two to three months instead of six to twelve.


The eligibility rules changed this summer, and this is the piece most people haven't caught up on. Under CS/HB 1337 (Chapter 2026-57), signed April 29, 2026, Florida raised the summary administration threshold in Fla. Stat. 735.201 from $75,000 to $150,000 for deaths occurring on or after July 1, 2026. The same bill raised the disposition-without-administration ceiling for certain intestate personal property from $10,000 to $20,000.


Two things to be precise about here, because they trip people up:

• The new $150,000 ceiling applies to deaths on or after July 1, 2026. If your parent passed in March, the old $75,000 limit governs your case.
  
  
• The threshold measures non-exempt assets. Florida homestead property that passes to protected heirs is generally treated as exempt, which is why a Kendall or Cutler Bay house worth $600,000 can still sit inside a summary administration. This is exactly the analysis you want a Florida probate attorney running — not a guess.
  
  

There's also a second door into summary administration that has nothing to do with value: if the decedent died more than two years ago, the estate qualifies regardless of size.


The practical catch with summary administration: because no personal representative is appointed, nobody holds Letters of Administration. Some title companies get uncomfortable when there's no fiduciary to sign. The order of distribution and a recorded deed from the beneficiaries usually resolve it, but it's worth confirming with your title company before you go under contract rather than three days before closing.

What the three-month creditor period actually does to your closing date

You'll hear "three-month creditor period" thrown around constantly, and it causes a lot of unnecessary panic.


Under Fla. Stat. 733.702 and 733.2121, the personal representative publishes a notice to creditors — once a week for two consecutive weeks in a newspaper of general circulation in the county — and creditors then have three months from first publication to file claims or be barred. A creditor who gets served directly has a bit longer: the later of that three-month window or 30 days from service.


That period does not freeze your ability to sell. What it affects is distribution of the proceeds. You can absolutely close on the house in month two and hold the net proceeds in the estate account while the claims window runs. Buyers don't care about the creditor period. Title companies care about authority to convey.


Where it does bite: if there are unpaid medical bills, a Medicaid recovery claim, or an outstanding mortgage, those get satisfied before the heirs see money. Selling early doesn't change what's owed — it just changes when the asset becomes liquid.

The Miami-Dade-specific costs of waiting

Every month the house sits in limbo, it costs the estate money. Here's what I tell every family in this situation to check in the first two weeks:

• Insurance. A homeowner's policy does not automatically transfer at death, and most carriers treat a home as vacant after 30 to 60 days of no occupancy — at which point coverage can be restricted or void. In a hurricane-exposed market, an uninsured empty house is the single largest risk in this entire process. Call the carrier immediately and ask about a vacancy endorsement or a dedicated vacant-home policy.
  
  
• The homestead exemption and Save Our Homes cap. If the owner passed after January 1, the exemption generally carries through that tax year, but it expires the following January 1. Unless an heir makes the home their permanent residence and files their own application by the March 1 deadline with the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser, the property gets reassessed at full market value. On a house that's been capped for twenty years, that jump can be brutal. A surviving spouse is the exception — the exemption and cap carry over automatically.
  
  
• Condo association obligations. If the inherited property is a condo, dues and any special assessment installments keep accruing against the unit regardless of probate status. Associations here are quick to lien. When you do sell, the association has 10 business days under Fla. Stat. 718.116(8) to produce the estoppel certificate, and the fee is capped by statute. Order it early — estoppel delays are one of the most common reasons Miami-Dade condo closings slip.
  
  
• Deferred maintenance. Roofs and A/C systems don't wait for the court. Neither do code enforcement officers.
  
  

Selling as-is versus fixing it up

Most inherited Miami-Dade homes come with two decades of deferred maintenance and a family that lives in three different states. That combination usually points toward selling as-is.


The market matters here too. As of early August 2026, Miami is running roughly 4.8 months of single-family inventory and about 12 months of condo inventory, with homes averaging around 113 days on market. That's a buyer's market — meaningfully so on the condo side. In a market like this, a half-finished renovation on an estate property rarely returns what it costs.


The tax math usually supports moving quickly, too. Inherited property gets a stepped-up basis to fair market value as of the date of death, and it receives long-term capital gains treatment no matter how fast you sell. Sell within a year of the date of death at close to appraised value, and the taxable gain is often minimal. Hold it for five years while the family debates, and you're taxed on five years of appreciation with none of the Section 121 primary-residence exclusion unless someone actually lives there for two of the previous five years.


Florida has no state estate or inheritance tax, and the federal estate tax exemption is $15 million per person for 2026, so the vast majority of Miami-Dade estates owe nothing at the federal level either.


None of that means you should dump the house at the first offer. It means the carrying cost of indecision is higher than most families assume, and speed has real financial value here. Whether an as-is sale or a light pre-list cleanup nets you more depends on the property's condition, the submarket, and how the comps in your specific pocket of Kendall, Palmetto Bay, or Homestead are actually trading — which is a conversation, not a formula.

When siblings don't agree

Inherited Florida property is usually titled to the heirs as tenants in common, and any co-owner can file a partition action under Chapter 64 of the Florida Statutes. You don't need your siblings' consent to start one.


Filing isn't the same as forcing a sale, though — and this is where a lot of online advice is flatly wrong. Florida adopted the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act in 2020, now Chapter 64, Part II, and it governs exactly this situation: inherited property held by family members as tenants in common. Under the UPHPA the court orders an appraisal first, then gives the co-owners who want to keep the property a buyout option — the right to purchase the shares of the ones who want out, at their proportional share of that appraised value. Only if nobody takes the buyout does the case move forward, and even then the court prefers dividing the property in kind over ordering it sold.


So a sibling who wants their money out can absolutely force the issue. What they can't do is unilaterally put the house on the market over everyone else's objection.


Either way, a partition suit is slow, expensive, and it typically costs the family more than the disagreement was worth. The two solutions that work far more often are a buyout, priced off a formal appraisal, or an agreement to list with a pre-set floor price everyone signs off on in advance. I've mediated more of these than I'd like to admit, and the deals that hold together are the ones where the number came from an independent valuation instead of from one sibling's opinion.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I sell an inherited house in Florida before probate is finished?


Yes. Once the court issues Letters of Administration in a formal administration — or enters and records the order of distribution in a summary administration — the property can be listed and sold during the case. What you cannot do is close before that authority exists, because the title company won't insure the transfer.


Do all inherited Miami-Dade properties have to go through probate?


No. Property held in a living trust, owned jointly with rights of survivorship, or transferred by a lady bird (enhanced life estate) deed passes outside probate entirely. Check the deed and any trust documents before you file anything — a surprising number of families open a probate case they never needed.


How much did Florida's summary administration limit change in 2026?


CS/HB 1337 raised the ceiling in Fla. Stat. 735.201 from $75,000 to $150,000 in non-exempt assets, effective for deaths on or after July 1, 2026. Estates where the decedent died more than two years ago still qualify regardless of value.


Who pays the property taxes and insurance while the house is in probate?


The estate does. Paying valid expenses of the estate — including property taxes, insurance premiums, association dues, and mortgage payments — is one of the personal representative's core duties, and those costs come out of estate funds before heirs are paid.


Will I owe capital gains tax on an inherited Miami-Dade home?


Only on appreciation that occurs after the date of death, because the basis steps up to fair market value on that date. Sell soon after inheriting at close to appraised value and the taxable gain is frequently small. Confirm your specific numbers with a CPA before you sign anything.

The timeline on an inherited Miami-Dade house is rarely as long as families fear — but the cost of waiting to find out is real, and it compounds every month the property sits vacant and uninsured.


If you're an heir or executor trying to figure out what your property is worth today and what a realistic sale timeline looks like alongside your probate case, I offer a free selling strategy session. No pressure, no obligation — just a straight read on where you stand. You can grab a time here: https://calendly.com/pedro-place/realestateconsultation


One note: I'm a broker, not an attorney or a CPA. The probate path your estate qualifies for and the tax treatment of your specific sale are questions for a Florida probate attorney and your accountant. What I can tell you is what the property will bring, how fast, and what it's costing you to wait.

About Pedro Casanova


Pedro Casanova is a real estate broker that leads The KREN Group real estate team serving the Southeast Florida area. They specialize in helping people build wealth through real estate by helping buyers and sellers maximize their opportunity in every transaction. Connect with the team at www.thekrengroup.com.


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