Do you have to go through probate to sell an inherited house in Texas?
Not always — Texas gives you more shortcuts than most states. If there’s a will and no unpaid debts, a muniment of title can clear the house to the heirs in weeks instead of opening a full estate. With no will, families often use an affidavit of heirship, and a home the owner set up with a recorded transfer-on-death deed skips probate entirely (Tex. Est. Code ch. 114). Which path you’re on decides how fast you can actually sign a sale.
What is the small estate affidavit limit in Texas?
$75,000, not counting the homestead, under Tex. Est. Code §205.001. The small estate affidavit is the tool for a modest estate with no will, but note it’s limited — for a house, the affidavit of heirship or muniment of title is usually the cleaner route to marketable title.
How long does Texas probate take?
The common route — independent administration — typically wraps in about six months, and it’s lighter-touch than court-supervised probate in most states. A muniment of title can be faster still. The point: you usually can’t deliver clear title to a buyer until the right instrument is on record, so start it early.
Will you owe capital gains tax when you sell?
Usually very little. An inherited home gets a stepped-up basis to its fair market value on the date of death (IRC §1014), so if you sell near that value there’s almost no taxable gain — even in no-income-tax Texas, this is the rule that quietly makes selling an inherited house simpler than people expect.
The honest math on an inherited Texas house
While the estate clears, the house keeps costing money — and in Texas that bite is property tax. With no state income tax, Texas leans hard on property taxes (among the highest effective rates in the country), so a vacant inherited home can run well over $500 a month in tax alone, plus insurance, utilities, and upkeep on a place nobody lives in.
Because the stepped-up basis usually erases capital-gains tax either way, the real comparison isn’t tax — it’s carrying costs and agent commission (about 6%) against a clean cash sale that closes in days once you’re legally cleared to sell. For a lot of Texas heirs, what you actually keep ends up close, without the months of bleed.