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You choose an agent much as any seller would, with three probate twists: you must be honest with the agent and buyers about the wait for the grant of probate, you will need to prove your authority to sell, and every personal representative needs to agree the agent and the price. This guide covers what the agent will ask for, what the different fee models cost, and the small print worth reading before you sign.
A common misconception is that nothing can happen with the house until the grant of probate arrives. In fact, you can instruct an estate agent, put the property on the market and accept an offer before the grant is issued. What you cannot do is exchange contracts or complete the sale until the grant is in your hands.
Starting early often makes sense. Marketing, viewings and finding a buyer all take time anyway, so running that process while you wait for the grant can shorten the overall journey considerably. The full sale process, from first decision to completion, is covered in our pillar guide to selling an inherited house.
Be upfront about the probate wait
Tell the agent it is a probate sale, and tell them where your application stands. GOV.UK says you will usually get probate within 12 weeks of submitting the application, and the Ministry of Justice's Family Court Statistics Quarterly for January to March 2026 put the mean time from submission to grant at 5 weeks and the median at 1 week, with a digital application that is not stopped taking around 2 weeks. The Ministry publishes no separate average for paper applications. An agent who knows this can set buyers' expectations honestly, which keeps them committed rather than surprised. See our guide to probate waiting times in 2026 for the current picture.
Expect the agent to request three things before marketing begins.
None of this is difficult, but gathering it before your first agent meeting saves a round of chasing later.
Broadly, you are choosing between a traditional local agent and a fixed-fee online agent, and between paying on success or paying upfront.
If you live far from the property, pay for hands
Many executors are selling a parent's house a long drive away. In that situation, a full-service local agent who can hold the keys, accompany every viewing, and keep an eye on an empty property is often worth the percentage fee many times over. An online agent's savings evaporate quickly if you are making a three-hour round trip for each viewing.
Before you sign a sole agency agreement, check three terms. They take five minutes to read and can save the estate real money.
If a term looks wrong, ask for it to be changed. Agents amend these agreements more often than people expect, particularly for a chain-free probate instruction they want to win.
Agent valuations are free market appraisals: an experienced local view of what the property might achieve. Invite two or three agents to value the property, both to triangulate the price and to compare the agents themselves.
Two honest cautions. First, an agent's appraisal is not the same thing as the formal probate valuation used for inheritance tax, which values the property at the date of death and may need to be defensible to HMRC. Our guide to valuing property for probate explains that separate exercise. Second, agents sometimes flatter the number to win the instruction. A valuation noticeably higher than the others is not necessarily good news; it may simply lead to months on the market followed by a price reduction. Ask each agent to justify their figure with recent comparable sales.
Probate properties have a genuine advantage: they are chain-free. There is no onward purchase that can collapse, which makes them attractive to buyers and can support the price.
Pulling the other way, buyers discount for condition. A house that has been lived in by an elderly person for decades often shows its age, and buyers price in the work, sometimes generously in their own favour. As executor you will need to decide between selling as-is and accepting the condition discount, or doing light, low-cost preparation to help the property show better. Our guide to preparing a probate house for viewings works through that decision. Ask each valuing agent for their view; good local agents know what buyers in that street will and will not pay for.
Most probate properties sit empty during the sale, which raises practical questions worth settling with the agent at instruction.
A good agent will take these questions in their stride. If one looks surprised by them, that tells you something useful about their experience with probate sales.
If there is more than one executor or administrator, all of you should agree the choice of agent and the asking price before the agency agreement is signed. Legally you act together, and practically, a disagreement discovered after the house is on the market is painful to unwind.
A short conversation covering three questions usually settles it: which agent, at what asking price, and who will be the single point of contact for the agent. Agents work far better with one named executor to call than with three people to please.
Once the sale is agreed, the legal work begins. Our guide to conveyancing for a probate sale picks up the story from there.
Yes. You can instruct an agent, market the property and accept an offer before the grant of probate is issued. You cannot exchange contracts or complete until the grant arrives. Tell the agent it is a probate sale and share your expected grant timing so buyers are set up honestly from the start.
Yes, an Energy Performance Certificate is required before the property can be marketed. Check the gov.uk EPC register first, because certificates are valid for 10 years and one may already exist. If not, you will need a new assessment, which the agent can usually arrange. No official body publishes a price for one — assessors set their own fees — so get a couple of quotes.
The same as any sale. Traditional agents charge a percentage of the sale price plus VAT for sole agency, usually on a no-sale-no-fee basis; multi-agency costs more; fixed-fee online agents are cheaper but do less of the work, which matters if you live far from the property and cannot conduct viewings yourself. No official body publishes an average commission rate, so compare written quotes from two or three agents rather than working from a figure you have read somewhere.
No. An agent's valuation is a free marketing appraisal of what the property might sell for now. The probate valuation is a formal figure at the date of death, used for inheritance tax, and may need to withstand HMRC scrutiny. Get two or three agent appraisals, and be aware that agents may flatter the number to win the instruction.
Watch three terms: the tie-in length, the notice period, and whether the agreement grants "sole selling rights", which means the agent gets paid even if you find the buyer yourself. "Sole agency" is the alternative. All three are negotiable, and all executors should agree the agent and asking price before signing.
Not necessarily. Probate properties are chain-free, which buyers find attractive. However, buyers do discount for condition, since inherited homes are often dated. Executors should decide between selling as-is and accepting a condition discount, or doing light preparation to help the property show better.