A starting place for families in Los Angeles County. Who can decide, what the house costs to keep, and what the tax picture looks like before anyone lists it.
Most families do not get a clean handoff. Someone dies, the house is still there, and the people who inherited it are not sure who is allowed to sell, keep, or even unlock it. Use the page that matches the question you have today. You do not need all of them.
A will in a drawer is not authority to sell. In a probate, the personal representative can sign after the court issues Letters. In a trust, the successor trustee acts under the trust, usually with a certification of trust, and the court is not in the middle of the sale. If you do not know which one you are in, that is the first call with the estate attorney, not the first call with a locksmith.
Related: Can an executor sell before probate is finished? · How long probate takes · Families and executors
Read what a successor trustee does first. It is the order of work: secure the house, tell the beneficiaries, keep trust money separate, list what the trust owns, pay what is owed, then distribute. It is not the same as the seller checklist, which is for getting a probate house ready to list.
Wanting to keep it is reasonable. The question is the monthly cost, any loan still on the house, and what it takes to pay a brother or sister their share. A buyout done in the wrong order can also change the property tax. A calculator for that is next. Until it is up, start with a real value, not a guess: what is the house worth.
On an inherited house, tax is usually on the change in value after the date of death, not on the price your parents paid in 1987. That is the step-up. It is not automatic in every case, and it is not a bill I can give you. Use the inherited-sale tax worksheet, then take it to a CPA.
Property tax is a different bill. Proposition 19 limits when a child can keep a parent's low assessed value. That page is next. Do not assume the old tax bill transfers.
Sell, rent, move in, or wait. Waiting is a choice with a cost: insurance on a vacant house, the mortgage, taxes, and a house that sits. In Los Angeles, a court-confirmed probate sale is slower than a trust sale. Listing can often start once Letters are out. Closing still follows the court's path. See court-confirmed sales and when heirs disagree.
Download the one-page version (PDF). It is the same answer, one page, for a family member who will not read the whole page.