Inherited a House in Washington? What to Do in the First 30 Days

If you have just inherited a house in Washington, you may feel pressure to decide within days what to do with it. You can let that pressure go. The house is not going anywhere, and the market will still be there next month. But there are a handful of practical things that should happen in the first 30 days to protect the property, protect the estate, and keep every option open. I have been a Snohomish County broker since 2003, and I have watched families handle this well and handle it badly. The difference is rarely money. It is taking the right small steps in the right order.

The checklist below is not legal advice and it is not tax advice. It is the plain-spoken to-do list I would give a friend: what to handle first, what not to do yet, and who to call when the question gets bigger than a real estate broker should answer.

Week one: secure the property and document it

If no one is living in the home, the first job is to make sure it is secure. Change the locks or have them rekeyed, check that doors and windows latch, and make it obvious the house is being looked after. An empty house draws attention, and the weeks right after a death are the easiest time for that attention to turn into a break-in.

Walk the whole property, inside and out, and take dated photos and video as you go. The condition of the home and its contents will matter later, whether the estate is being settled, the home is being sold, or an heir decides to move in. Photos taken now become evidence you will be glad you have.

If the weather is cold, keep the heat at a reasonable level, or shut off and properly drain the water system, so you do not come back to a burst pipe and a big, avoidable repair bill. A quick call to a local plumber or handyperson is a small expense next to that.

Keep insurance and the mortgage moving

Homeowners insurance does not pause because the owner has passed. If there is a mortgage, the lender will expect the home to stay insured, and a vacant house carries its own risks. Call the current insurance agent, explain the situation, and make sure coverage stays in force while the estate is sorted out, which may mean a vacant-home endorsement or a vacant-home policy.

The mortgage does not disappear either. The loan stays with the property, and keeping payments current protects the equity in the estate while everyone figures out what comes next. Federal law generally prevents a lender from forcing the loan to be paid off simply because the home passed to heirs, but you should still contact the lender, let them know what happened, and keep making payments where the estate can cover them. If that is a struggle, say so early, ideally with the estate attorney in the conversation.

Property taxes keep rolling on as well. In Washington they come due in two equal installments, the first half by April 30 and the second half by October 31. The tax attaches to the property, not the person, so it keeps accruing whether the home is occupied or empty, and unpaid taxes become a lien. In Snohomish County you can check exactly what is owed in a couple of minutes on the county Treasurer's online property tax search.

Gather the papers in one place

Start a folder, paper or digital, with the essentials: a death certificate, the will and any trust documents, the deed, the most recent mortgage statement, the homeowners insurance policy, and the latest property tax bill. Add anything unusual you find, like a reverse mortgage statement, a lien, or a notice from a lender. You do not need to understand every document today. You need to know what exists and where it is, because every professional you talk to next will ask for some version of this list.

One Washington rule worth knowing: a will generally must be filed with the court, or delivered to the person named as personal representative, within 30 days of the death coming to light, even if full probate turns out not to be needed. That is an attorney-level detail, and the cleanest way to get it right is to let the estate attorney handle the filing.

Find out who actually has the authority to act

This is the step where heirs most often stumble, so let me be direct: being the child of the homeowner, or being named in the will, does not by itself give you the right to sell the house, sign a listing agreement, or transfer the deed. In Washington, authority to deal with estate real estate usually runs through a court-appointed personal representative, documented with letters testamentary when there was a will, and letters of administration when there was not.

If the home was held in joint tenancy with right of survivorship, a community property agreement, a trust, or a transfer-on-death deed, title may pass automatically and probate may not be needed at all. Which bucket your situation falls into is a question for a Washington estate attorney, not for a real estate agent, and I do not pretend otherwise. My job starts once the authority question is settled. I work alongside your attorney and the title company so the right person signs the right documents at the right time.

Do not move or remove things yet

The contents of the home are part of the estate too. Before anyone starts clearing closets, hauling furniture to donation, or selling the truck in the driveway, understand that a personal representative answers for estate assets to the court and to the beneficiaries. Sorting personal property is a normal part of the job, but it should happen with a record of what went where, and large disposals should wait until the estate plan is clear.

Apply the same patience to big decisions. Do not sign anything as an heir, do not accept an offer on the house, and do not put the home on the market until the authority question is answered. That is the most common source of trouble I see in inherited property sales, and it is entirely avoidable.

Build your team and get current numbers

You do not need an army of advisors, but you do need the right few: a Washington estate attorney, a CPA or tax professional, your insurance agent, and, when the time comes, a local real estate broker. Each one answers a different question, and none of them can answer for the others. I am happy to be your real estate person, and I will never pretend to be the attorney or the tax person.

For the real estate side, the number that matters is what the home is worth today, not what it cost in 1998 or what it was worth when the owner passed. Recent NWMLS market reports put Snohomish County's median sold price around $700,000 as of October 2026, with homes averaging roughly 37 days on market and active inventory up more than a third from a year earlier. Marysville's median sale price was about $618,000 over the three months ending in September, and Everett's residential median sat near $660,000 in October, both below year-ago levels. Plain English: buyers have more choices than they did last year, prices are roughly flat to slightly down, and clean, well-priced homes still sell.

There are also different kinds of value, and they serve different purposes. A comparative market analysis, which a broker prepares, supports a realistic listing price. An appraisal, which a lender orders, supports financing. A date-of-death valuation can matter for estate and tax purposes. Do not try to make one do another's job.

And a few tax basics worth knowing at a general, educational level before you make plans: inherited property generally takes a stepped-up basis to its fair market value at the date of death, which can matter for federal capital gains if the home is later sold. Washington does not impose an inheritance tax on beneficiaries, but a qualifying estate may owe Washington estate tax, and a property transferred by inheritance is generally exempt from the state's real estate excise tax, while a later sale by the heirs is not. Those are the sort of rules a CPA and an estate attorney should walk through with you in detail, because your specific situation is exactly where generalizations break down.

The honest summary

The first 30 days are about steadiness, not speed. Secure the property. Keep insurance and payments moving. Gather the papers. Find out who has legal authority. Build a small team you trust. Every big decision gets easier once those five things are done, because you will finally be choosing from facts instead of from worry.

Knowledge creates confidence. That holds for a first-time buyer, a move-up seller, and an heir trying to figure out what to do with the family home. Take it one step at a time, and call someone local when you are ready.