Being named executor sounds like an honor until you realize it's a job — one you do while grieving, for no pay, with your siblings as the board of directors. Here's the house part of that job, start to finish.
You can't sell anything as "executor" until a court says you're the executor. In Texas that means probating the will — typically in the county where your person lived, McKinney for Collin County, downtown Dallas for Dallas County — and receiving letters testamentary. Texas mercifully favors independent administration: if the will provides for it (most do) or the heirs agree, you can sell the house without court approval for each step. Title companies will want to see the letters and the will's terms before they'll insure a sale, so this isn't optional paperwork — it's the key that unlocks everything. A probate attorney gets a clean case through in weeks. Budget for that; it's an estate expense, not yours.
The estate's house is usually a vacant house, with all the risks that carries: lapsing insurance, code letters, an unwatched roof. Keep utilities on, tell the insurer it's vacant (unpleasant premium, but a denied claim is worse), collect the mail, and photograph everything for the inventory. Taxes and insurance get paid by the estate — keep the receipts; your accounting to the beneficiaries depends on them.
Most estate-sale pain isn't legal, it's familial: one heir wants top dollar no matter how long it takes, one wants it done by Christmas, one wants the house itself, and one hasn't answered a text since the funeral. Two rules keep you out of the crossfire. Put the decision framework in writing early — "we'll get the fix-and-list number and a written as-is offer, compare them as a group, and decide by the 15th." And never sell estate property below defensible value without everyone's signature; as executor you owe the beneficiaries a fiduciary duty, and a documented market comparison is your shield. If one heir wants the house, an appraisal-based buyout inside the estate is often the cleanest deal in the whole process.
Everything from the inherited-house playbook applies, with one added weight: every month the estate stays open costs money and patience, and you're the one signing the accounting. A renovation project run by an executor with a day job, funded by an estate account, approved by four siblings — that's a specific kind of misery. Plenty of executors take a modestly lower as-is number to close the estate months sooner, and no beneficiary who's watched the process begrudges it. Get both numbers in writing and let the family see the same paper you see.
Get a written as-is number the whole family can look at — close on the estate's timeline.
This article is general information for Texas property owners, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Laws change and facts matter — consult your own attorney, CPA, or advisor about your situation. Any offer examples are illustrations, not commitments.