Last updated September 3, 2026
Probate House Buyers in Palm Beach County
Short answer: the people advertising to buy probate houses for cash are investors, and their offer is a price for speed and certainty. PBP Real Estate is not one of them — we are a licensed brokerage, we do not buy houses, and we get paid out of the closing when the estate sells.
That means we can put a cash offer and an open-market sale side by side and show the personal representative what each one nets. Before choosing either, get a written opinion of value; it is also the document that protects the personal representative if a beneficiary questions the sale later.
The two ways an estate home sells
| Cash or investor sale | Open-market sale | |
|---|---|---|
| What you are buying | Speed, certainty, no repairs, no showings | Price competition among buyers |
| Who the buyer is | An investor or wholesaler pricing for resale profit and risk | Anyone, including owner-occupiers who pay to live there |
| Condition | As-is, usually with no repair requests | As-is is normal for estates; condition is disclosed |
| Timing after authority to sign | Days to a few weeks | See the closed-sale timings below |
| Cost to the estate | The discount to market, which is not itemised anywhere | Commission and standard closing costs, itemised on the closing statement |
| Evidence for the file | One offer, so the record is thin unless value is documented separately | Documented market exposure plus the offers received |
We do not publish a figure for what investors typically offer against market value, because we have no verified dataset of off-market probate offers and we will not print a number we cannot source. What we can measure is what estate-type property actually did on the open market, and that is the half of the comparison most sellers are missing when they decide.
What listed homes did here over the last twelve months
| Palm Beach County: how long closed sales took | Houses | Condos and townhouses |
|---|---|---|
| Sold within 30 days | 5,090 (42%), median cut 2.4% | 2,813 (29%), median cut 3.5% |
| 31 to 90 days | 3,463 (28%), median cut 6.8% | 2,766 (29%), median cut 8.2% |
| 91 to 180 days | 2,161 (18%), median cut 9.8% | 2,174 (23%), median cut 12.3% |
| More than 180 days | 1,447 (12%), median cut 12.3% | 1,896 (20%), median cut 16.4% |
Based on information from BeachesMLS, retrieved September 3, 2026, covering the 28 Palm Beach County cities in our coverage area, over the twelve months to that date. Closed-sale figures cover the 23 of those cities whose closed data is complete in this pull; the remainder are excluded rather than counted as zero. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Listings are provided for consumers’ personal, non-commercial use and may not be used for any purpose other than to identify prospective properties consumers may be interested in purchasing.
Two things in that table matter to an estate. First, speed and price are not opposites: 42% of houses closed from a contract found within 30 days, and that group gave up a median 2.4% against its original asking price, while houses that ran past 180 days gave up 12.3%. Condominiums run harder, from 3.5% to 16.4%. Second, pricing to the evidence at the start is what produces both. These figures describe homes that eventually sold, so they understate what happens to homes that never do — today 1,077 of the 3,457 houses on the market here (31%) have already been listed more than 90 days, and 38% of the 5,288 condominiums.
The carrying cost nobody puts in the comparison
An estate pays for every day the property is held: property taxes, insurance that is often more expensive because the house is vacant, association dues, utilities kept on for access and humidity control, lawn and pool maintenance, and any mortgage still running. Those costs come out of what the beneficiaries receive, and they are the legitimate argument for a fast sale. The way to use them is arithmetic, not anxiety: work out the monthly carry, multiply by the extra weeks a listed sale would realistically take, and compare that number against the gap between the cash offer and a defensible market price. Sometimes the cash offer wins. Often it does not, and the estate can see which by looking.
What the personal representative has to be able to defend
A personal representative owes duties to the beneficiaries and to the estate’s creditors. In practice that means being able to show two things about a sale: that the price was supported by evidence, and that the property was exposed to the market in a normal way, unless the estate had a documented reason not to. A written opinion of value with comparable sales attached does the first. A record of how the property was marketed and what offers came in does the second. Whether your letters of administration also require court approval or notice to beneficiaries before a sale is a question for your probate attorney, and the answer differs by case.
Date-of-death value is a different document
Estates usually need two value figures, and confusing them causes real problems. The date-of-death opinion of value supports the estate’s filings and the beneficiaries’ tax basis; it is built from comparable closings in the six to twelve months before the date of death, and sales that happened afterward are not used simply because they exist now. The current opinion of value is what the property will sell for today, and that is the pricing decision. We prepare both, state the effective date of value on the face of each, and hand them to the estate’s attorney and CPA in the form they ask for.
What we do for an estate
- Confirm who can sign. Nothing is listed before the court has appointed someone with authority, and we will not ask you to sign anything before that.
- Prepare the opinion of value. By hand, from BeachesMLS data, with the comparables attached.
- Price the two options. Cash offers we solicit against a defensible market price, both net of costs and carrying cost.
- Deal with the contents. Estate sale companies, clean-out crews and donation pickups we have used ourselves, coordinated around the beneficiaries’ access.
- Run the sale. Marketing, showings scheduled around the family, offer presentation, and every deadline tracked to closing alongside the attorney.
Where to go next
If you are earlier than this, start with the full picture on selling a probate or inherited house in Palm Beach County, or read whether you need probate to sell a parent’s house in Florida and how long probate takes in Palm Beach County. City pages: Boca Raton, Delray Beach, West Palm Beach, Palm Beach Gardens and Royal Palm Beach. If the property is in Broward, see probate and inherited property in Broward County.
Who is doing the work
Gia Freer, our Broker of Record, has been licensed in Florida since 2000 and prepares every opinion of value we issue personally. PBP Real Estate works with probate attorneys across Palm Beach County and handles the real-estate side of an estate only; we do not practice law, we do not buy houses, and we are paid out of the closing when the sale completes.
Real-estate process only. This page explains how estate property sales work in practice. It is not legal or tax advice and it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Appointment of a personal representative, the form of administration, creditor claims and homestead questions belong with a Florida probate attorney, and tax basis questions with a CPA. We work with both every week and can refer you.
Start with a written opinion of value
Every decision an estate makes turns on what the property is actually worth. Gia Freer prepares a written opinion of value by hand from our own BeachesMLS data, with the comparable sales attached, and states the effective date of value on the face of it so a date-of-death figure can never be mistaken for a current one. No automated estimate is published on this site.
Request an opinion of value or call (561) 395-8418. There is no cost to the conversation and we will tell you if the estate does not need us yet.
Probate sale questions in Palm Beach County
Who buys probate houses in Palm Beach County?
Two different groups. Investors and wholesalers buy for cash, as-is, and price for their own profit and risk. Ordinary buyers, including owner-occupiers, buy estate homes on the open market and generally pay more for the same house. PBP Real Estate does not buy houses. We are a licensed brokerage, so we can bring you both sets of offers and show the estate what each one nets after costs.
Should an estate sell to a cash buyer or list the property?
It depends on what the estate is optimising for, and the honest answer is that nobody can tell you without a written opinion of value and a carrying-cost figure. A cash sale buys speed and certainty and avoids repairs and showings. A listed sale usually produces the higher gross price. Across the 28 Palm Beach County cities we cover, 42% of houses that closed in the last twelve months went under contract within 30 days, and that group gave up a median 2.4% against its original asking price, so a listed sale is not automatically slow.
Can a personal representative accept the first cash offer?
Sometimes, but the duty runs to the beneficiaries and the estate's creditors, not to convenience. A personal representative who sells below market without evidence of value invites objection, and the paperwork the court and the beneficiaries want to see is a documented opinion of value and a record of how the property was exposed to the market. Your probate attorney will tell you what your specific letters of administration require, including whether court approval is needed.
Do we have to repair or clean out the house first?
No. Estate homes sell in as-is condition every week in Palm Beach County, with the condition disclosed. Where money is worth spending is usually cleaning, access and photography, not renovation. The right question is what a repair returns against carrying the property for the extra weeks it takes, and that is a comparison we will run with you before you spend anything.
How fast can an estate home actually sell here?
The court timetable normally binds before the market does: nothing can be listed until someone has authority to sign. Once the property is on the market, 42% of houses and 29% of condominiums that closed here in the last twelve months found their contract within 30 days. Condominiums then add association approval, which can add weeks after a contract.
What does the estate pay to sell?
Standard seller closing costs and the agreed commission come out of the closing proceeds, not out of pocket, and are settled on the closing statement. A cash offer is not free of costs either: the discount to market is the price, and it is usually larger than the commission it saves.
Families we have helped through an estate sale
PBP Real Estate holds 96 Google reviews at an average of 5.0 out of 5. Every quote below is a verbatim excerpt from a public review on that profile, shortened only where marked.
Gia and John from PBP Real Estate exceeded expectations in selling my mother's Delray Beach condo, which had previously failed to sell with another firm. Despite being in New York, I experienced excellent communication and responsiveness via phone, text, and email, making the remote process, including the closing, stress-free.
★★★★★ Robert S. · Google review, December 2024
I needed to sell my mothers home from out of state and Gia made the whole process very easy. She helped me getting the right people to get the house emptied and cleaned.
★★★★★ Roger D. · Google review, December 2024
We live in Ohio and had to sell a home in South Florida that needed a lot of work. She is extremely knowledgable and very helpful when it came to what should be done and what could be left alone to get us the most profit. Gia has a large network of reliable contractors.
★★★★★ A Google reviewer · Google review, April 2020
Read all 96 reviews on Google or see more on our about page.