I Inherited a House in Georgia, But I Live Out of State: What Should I Do?

If you inherited a house in Georgia but you live in another state, you’re not alone. This happens all the time, and it can create some unique challenges when you’re trying to manage a property from hundreds—or even thousands—of miles away.

I’m Brad, the Probate House Guy. I’m an active real estate investor and a licensed real estate agent in Georgia, and over the last 10 years, I’ve helped more than 300 sellers with their properties, whether that meant buying the house for cash or helping them sell it traditionally.

Now, I’m not an attorney, and I don’t claim to be one. So don’t take anything I say as legal advice. Every probate situation is different, and I highly recommend talking with a probate attorney or real estate attorney about your specific circumstances.

With that said, let’s talk about what happens when you inherit a house in Georgia but live out of state.

What Are the Challenges of Managing an Inherited House in Georgia From Out of State?

The good news is that you don’t necessarily have to be physically present in Georgia to handle everything.

The bad news? There can still be a lot of things that need to be taken care of.

Some of the biggest challenges include:

• Maintaining the property
• Keeping up with insurance
• Managing utilities
• Securing the house
• Handling showings
• Cleaning out the property
• Dealing with probate paperwork
• Finding trustworthy people locally to help

When you live out of state, even simple things can become more complicated because you can’t just drive over to the property when something needs to be done.

Can You Handle Georgia Probate From Out of State?

One thing that has made the probate process easier from a distance is that, in many situations, you can handle much of the process without physically coming to Georgia.

From a probate perspective, you may be able to get sworn in as an executor or administrator through a video conference call in many Georgia municipalities. Paperwork can also be submitted remotely, and there are different ways to get documents notarized and sent to the appropriate people.

That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll never have to come to Georgia.

Sometimes, it may simply be easier or less complicated to come here, especially when there are issues with paperwork or something gets kicked back by the court.

For example, I’m helping my aunt right now with probating my grandfather’s estate. She’s the executor, and my dad and I are helping her. There have been things that have gotten kicked back, sometimes because of something as simple as a typo.

That can mean making another trip to the court and dealing with more paperwork.

So, while a lot of the probate process can be handled remotely, you still need to be prepared for some back-and-forth.

How Do You Maintain an Inherited House in Georgia?

Once you know you’ve inherited a house, one of the first things you need to think about is securing the property.

Make sure the house is locked and that you have a key.

I highly recommend putting a lockbox on the property. That gives you and your trusted local contacts a way to access the house when necessary without everyone needing to have their own key.

Turn Off the Water at the Main Shutoff

If the house is vacant, I would make sure the water is turned off at the street or at the main shutoff in the basement, crawl space, or wherever that main shutoff happens to be.

You don’t want water running through a vacant house when nobody is there.

Trust me on this one. I’ve had vacant houses flood because of plumbing failures, and it is not fun.

You end up having to bring everything in to dry the place out and then reconstruct whatever was damaged. It becomes a huge, expensive mess.

If you’ve inherited a vacant house in Georgia, that’s something you want to think about right away.

What Should You Do With Utilities on an Inherited House?

If the person who owned the house has passed away, contact the utility companies and let them know.

Depending on the situation, they may allow you to continue paying the existing account, send the bills to you, or transfer the utilities into your name.

I would recommend keeping the utilities on.

For example, you can have the water service available while still keeping the water shut off at the main valve inside the house. That way, if someone needs to go into the property and use the water, they can turn it on temporarily and then shut it back off before leaving.

I’m a stickler about this because I’ve seen houses flood.

I’ve actually driven five minutes down the road after leaving a house and thought, Did I turn the water off?

You know that feeling when you leave the oven on or wonder whether you left the hair dryer plugged in? You turn around and go back.

I’ve done that with water more than once.

Protect the House From Georgia’s Weather

Georgia can get hot and humid during the summer, and it can get cold enough during the winter for pipes to freeze.

That means you need to think about how you’re maintaining the temperature and humidity inside the property.

During the summer, keeping the air conditioning running can help prevent excessive humidity from building up inside the house.

Humidity can lead to mold, and the last thing you want is to inherit a house, leave it sitting vacant, and then discover mold throughout the property when you’re finally ready to sell it.

If you don’t want to run the air conditioner, another option Brad discusses is using dehumidifiers, preferably ones that can drain directly into a sink so you don’t have to constantly empty the water reservoir.

During the winter, you want to keep the heat on as well. You don’t necessarily have to keep the house particularly warm, but you want it warm enough to help prevent the pipes from freezing.

Need Help Managing an Inherited House in Georgia From Out of State?

If you’re dealing with an inherited house in Georgia and trying to figure out how to manage the property from out of state, we’d be happy to talk with you about your options. Simply fill out the form on this page. A member of our team will be in touch with you as soon as possible.

Check Your Insurance Policy on a Vacant Inherited House

Here’s another thing that a lot of people don’t realize: a vacant house can create insurance issues.

If you’ve inherited a property and it’s sitting vacant, read your insurance policy carefully.

Vacancy may be an exclusion in your policy, or your insurance company may have specific requirements for vacant properties.

I used to be a licensed insurance adjuster in Florida and Georgia many years ago, so I learned about this in insurance school.

You need to make sure your policy actually covers a vacant house.

There may also be requirements that someone checks on the property periodically—perhaps once a week, every other week, or according to whatever terms your policy requires.

Imagine you live in another state and something happens to the house. Maybe a tree falls on it, or there’s another unexpected problem.

If nobody is checking on the property, you might not discover the damage until weeks later.

And depending on the terms of the policy, you could potentially have an insurance problem because of the vacancy or because the property wasn’t being checked as required.

That’s why it’s important to understand your insurance coverage instead of assuming your existing homeowners policy automatically covers everything.

Cleaning Out an Inherited House

Another huge issue with probate and estate properties is cleaning everything out.

In my experience, the majority of the houses we buy come with stuff in them.

That makes sense. When someone passes away, the family may go through the house and take the things they want, but there can still be a tremendous amount of furniture, household items, clothing, and other belongings left behind.

And if you’re living out of state, cleaning out the property becomes even more difficult.

You may not have the time.

You may not have the patience.

You may not want the stuff.

And you may not want to spend thousands of dollars hiring someone to remove everything.

Do You Need an Estate Sale?

I’m going to get some estate sale companies barking at me for saying this, but I don’t always recommend having an estate sale.

Sometimes they’re simply not worth the hassle.

Even if an estate sale company handles the actual sale, the process can take time and create another thing for the family to manage.

In my own family’s situation with my grandfather’s house, we’re going through the property and figuring out what family members want to keep.

For example, my son wants some of my grandmother’s lighthouses that she collected during their travels.

So we’ll go through the house, take the things the family wants, and then deal with everything that’s left.

For the remaining stuff, we’ll have junk removal companies take care of it, and some items can be donated.

That can be a much simpler way to deal with the property when the goal is ultimately to get the house ready for sale.

Why Cleaning Matters If You’re Selling an Inherited House

If you’re planning to list an inherited house for sale, you generally want the property cleaned out—or at least mostly cleaned out—before putting it on the market.

You don’t want buyers walking into a house that’s packed full of belongings and clutter.

Clutter affects how buyers perceive a property.

If you’re already dealing with probate, an inherited house, and everything else that comes along with settling an estate, the last thing you may want is to spend weeks sorting through every single item in the house.

That’s where having the right people around you can make a big difference.

How to Handle Probate When You Live Out of State

As I mentioned earlier, you can handle a lot of the probate process remotely.

You may also be able to have someone local help with getting documents to the court while you handle signing and notarizing documents wherever you live.

The key is organization and having people you trust locally.

And that’s really the bigger point when you’re dealing with an inherited property from another state.

You can’t do everything yourself.

Delegate the Work to Someone You Trust

If you live out of state, find someone local who you trust to check on the house.

That person can make sure everything looks okay and can let you know if there’s a problem.

This is another reason I recommend putting a lockbox on the property.

Your trusted person isn’t necessarily going to be available 24/7, 365 days a year.

They might have a doctor’s appointment. They might be working. They might simply be unavailable when somebody needs access to the house.

With a lockbox, you can provide the code to the appropriate person so they can get the key, access the property, and lock everything back up when they’re finished.

And if you don’t want someone to have the code permanently, you can always change it afterward.

There are even digital lockboxes available where you can change the code remotely from your phone.

Find Reliable Local Contractors

You’ll probably need to hire people to help maintain the house.

That could mean:

• Landscapers
• Cleaners
• Junk removal companies
• Roofers
• Handymen
• Other contractors

If you don’t know anyone in the area, ask people you trust for referrals.

And if you really don’t know where to start, you can reach out to us.

After 10 years in this business, I’ve built up what I jokingly call my own personal “rolodex.”

I know people who can do all kinds of things around houses because I’ve renovated and flipped hundreds of properties over the years.

And I don’t just hire some random person off the street.

Usually, someone I know has worked with them first, or I’ll give them a smaller job and see how they perform. Once they’ve proven themselves, I’ll give them more work.

That’s important when you’re managing an inherited house from out of state because you need people you can trust when you can’t physically be there yourself.

What Are Your Options for an Inherited House in Georgia?

At the end of the day, dealing with an inherited property in Georgia when you live out of state can be complicated.

You’ve got probate.

You’ve got maintenance.

You’ve got insurance.

You’ve got utilities.

You’ve got the stuff inside the house.

And you’ve got all the little things that come up when you’re responsible for a property that’s hundreds of miles away.

But you don’t necessarily have to handle all of it yourself.

Depending on your situation, you may have several options.

You could keep the property.

You could clean it out and list it for sale.

Or, if you’re looking for a simpler solution, you can talk with us about making a cash offer on the house.

We’ve bought hundreds of houses for cash over the last 10 years, and we try to make the process as easy as possible.

I’m also a licensed real estate agent in Georgia, so if selling the property traditionally makes more sense for your situation, I’m happy to talk with you about listing it for sale as well.

Either way, the goal is to help you understand your options so you can figure out what makes sense for your inherited property.

Need Help With Your Inherited House in Georgia?

If you’ve inherited a house in Georgia but live out of state, you don’t have to figure everything out by yourself.

Whether you need to talk through managing the property, selling it, or simply understanding what options may be available, reach out to us.

Fill out the form on the page. A member of our team will be in touch with you as soon as possible.