Selling a House in Probate in Pensacola: What Florida Requires
Quick answer, as of October 2026. You can sell an inherited house in Florida, but not until the court says who has authority to sign. That document is called Letters of Administration, and no binding contract should be signed before it exists. Which path you take depends on the estate's value. As of 1 July 2026, Florida doubled the summary administration limit from $75,000 to $150,000 under CS/HB 1337, which amended Florida Statute 735.201. Summary administration usually runs 1 to 3 months. Formal administration usually runs 6 to 12 months, and the 3-month creditor claim period inside it is the delay nobody can shortcut. Homestead property follows a separate set of rules and often passes outside the estate entirely.
Reviewed and updated October 2026 by Christina Leavenworth, REALTOR®, Probate Specialist and Certified Divorce Real Estate Agent, The Christina Leavenworth Team at Levin Rinke Realty. I am a REALTOR®, not an attorney, and this is general information rather than legal advice. Every estate is different and you should confirm your own situation with a Florida probate attorney. Sources: Florida Statutes 735.201, 733.613 and 732.901, and CS/HB 1337 (Chapter 2026-57).
What a probate specialist actually does, and why it matters here
Most agents will tell you they can sell an inherited house. Fewer have sat in a room with three siblings who don't agree, a personal representative who hasn't been appointed yet, and a title underwriter asking for a document nobody has heard of.
That's the real work. A probate sale is not a harder version of a normal sale. It's a different sale, with a court in the middle of it and a clock that isn't yours.
Here's what changes. In a normal sale the owner signs. In a probate sale, the person who signs has to be appointed by a judge first, and the buyer's title company will want proof. The common way these fall apart is simple. The family goes under contract early, the Letters take longer than anyone expected, the buyer gets tired of waiting and walks, and the house ends up selling for less the second time around.
So the first thing I do on a probate listing isn't pricing. It's finding out where the estate actually is in the process, and whether we're allowed to be selling yet.
The Florida rules that decide your timeline
Four things set the pace. None of them are negotiable.
The will has to be deposited within 10 days. Under Florida Statute 732.901, whoever has the original will must deposit it with the clerk of court in the county where the estate belongs, within 10 days of learning the person died. For Pensacola and the rest of Escambia County that's the Escambia County Clerk. For Gulf Breeze, Pace, Milton and Navarre it's the Santa Rosa County Clerk in Milton. This one trips people up constantly, because the original has to go to the clerk even if nobody has opened a probate case yet.
Which administration you qualify for sets everything else. This is where the 2026 change matters.
| Summary administration | Formal administration |
|---|
| When it applies | Estate value is $150,000 or less, or the person died more than 2 years ago | Everything above that |
| Typical length | 1 to 3 months | 6 to 12 months |
| Personal representative appointed? | No, the court distributes directly | Yes, with Letters of Administration |
| 3-month creditor period? | Generally no | Yes, and it must run out |
That $150,000 number is new. It was $75,000 until 1 July 2026, when CS/HB 1337 doubled it. If you're reading an article or talking to someone still working off the old figure, a good number of estates that used to need the long path now qualify for the short one. Worth asking about directly.
Two things do not count toward that $150,000: homestead property passing to a surviving spouse or heirs, and exempt personal property under Florida Statute 732.402. So an estate can look far larger than $150,000 on paper and still qualify, because the house itself may not be in the calculation at all.
The creditor period is the real delay. In formal administration the personal representative publishes a notice to creditors, and creditors get 3 months to file claims. The case cannot close until that window runs out. You can often sell the house during it. You usually cannot distribute the money.
Whether the will grants a power of sale decides if you need a court order. If the will includes a power of sale clause, the personal representative can sell without separate court authorization under Florida Statute 733.613(2). If there's no will, or the will is silent on it, you need a petition for authority to sell under 733.613(1), with notice to interested persons. That's weeks of difference, and it's determined by language written years ago that nobody in the family has read.
Homestead is the part that surprises everyone
In Florida, homestead property is treated differently from everything else in the estate. It often passes directly to the heirs outside of probate, which means the personal representative may not control it at all.
Practically, two things follow. The court usually needs to issue an Order Determining Homestead Status, which establishes who actually holds title. And every heir with an interest has to sign the deed at closing.
If that's four siblings in three states, start locating them now. Not at closing. Tracking down a distant heir, explaining the situation and getting them in front of a notary can take longer than every other part of the sale put together.
What I'd tell you to do this week
Get the original will to the clerk if that hasn't happened. Find out whether the estate qualifies for summary administration under the new $150,000 limit, because that single answer changes your timeline from months to weeks. Ask the attorney whether the will has a power of sale clause. And hold off on signing anything with a buyer until the authority to sign exists.
Then, separately from the legal track, deal with the house. Inherited homes in this market are often ten or twenty years behind on updates, full of belongings, and carrying insurance and tax bills every month they sit. In Escambia and Santa Rosa County the roof age question alone can decide whether a buyer can get coverage, which decides who can afford to buy it.
That's a pricing and preparation conversation, and it's worth having early, because the estate is paying to hold the property the entire time probate runs. If you want the broader picture on seller costs, I broke those down in my guide to selling your home in Pensacola.
Your situation has details this page can't know. The only way to get a real answer is to look at the actual will, the actual property, and the actual numbers together.
If you're in the middle of this
A probate sale is a legal process and a house, running on two different clocks. The legal side belongs to the attorney. The house, the pricing, the timing and the buyers are mine, and getting those two tracks lined up is most of what determines whether this takes four months or fourteen.
I hold the Probate Specialist designation and I work these sales across Pensacola, Gulf Breeze, Pace, Milton, Navarre and Perdido Key. Over 22 years I've sold more than 1,300 homes here, and my team was RealTrends Verified #1 in Pensacola among medium-sized teams for 2025.
If you're handling an estate right now and you're not sure what you're allowed to do yet, that's the call to make before anything else. Text or call me at (850) 786-3996 and we'll figure out where you actually stand. No pressure, and if the answer is "wait three weeks and talk to your attorney first," I'll tell you that.
Have you been through a probate sale in Northwest Florida? What caught you off guard? I'd like to hear it.
Christina Leavenworth, licensed in Florida as Christina Brunet-Sabastia. REALTOR®, The Christina Leavenworth Team at Levin Rinke Realty, 220 W Garden St, Pensacola, FL 32502. (850) 786-3996. Probate Specialist, Certified Divorce Real Estate Agent, Military Relocation Professional (MRP). I am not an attorney and nothing here is legal advice.