Selling estate and probate property in Tennessee

An estate is settled by a personal representative. If there is a will, that is the executor named in it. If there is no will, the court appoints an administrator, usually a close family member. Either way, the authority comes from a court order called letters: letters testamentary for an executor, letters of administration for an administrator.

In most Tennessee counties, probate is handled by the chancery court, and the clerk and master issues the letters. A few counties route probate to a different court under local law, so check with the clerk in the county where the person lived.[1]

This is the part that surprises families. In Tennessee, real estate does not automatically go into the estate. At the moment of death it passes to the heirs (if there is no will) or to the people the will names, unless the will says the real estate should be handled as part of the estate. The personal representative takes charge of the personal property, and can only reach the real estate in limited situations, such as when the other assets cannot pay the estate's debts.[2]

That leaves three common ways the house gets sold:

Which of these fits your family depends on the will, the debts and whether the heirs agree. That is a question for the estate's attorney, and it is worth asking early, because it decides who signs the listing or auction agreement and who signs at closing.

Personal property is simpler. Tennessee lets a personal representative sell the estate's personal property at a public or private sale without a court order, unless the will limits that power or the item was left to a specific person. The personal representative can hire someone to run the sale, such as an auctioneer, and the reasonable cost of the sale is an estate expense.[6]

Some assets have their own paperwork. Vehicles need a title transfer (covered below). Firearms have federal and state rules that are worth reading before anything changes hands; see selling firearms and collections from an estate. Boats, trailers, equipment and aircraft are covered in selling vehicles, equipment, boats and aircraft.

Ordinary furniture and household goods rarely justify a specialist auction. An estate-sale company or a donation pickup is usually the better fit for those, and we will tell you so.

The Tennessee Department of Revenue lays out three paths, depending on the family's situation:

• There is an executor or administrator. The personal representative signs the title as seller and provides the probated will or the letters to the county clerk.[11]
• No will, no estate opened, no surviving spouse. All of the heirs sign an Affidavit of Inheritance (form RV-F1310501), stating that the person left no estate that needed administration and no letters were issued. In that situation a vehicle can be transferred without opening an estate.[12]
• There is a surviving spouse. The spouse can have the title and registration changed into their own name, at no cost within the first year after the death.[13]

Once the right person can sign the title, a vehicle can be sold like any other, and a licensed auction firm that sells vehicles will handle the title paperwork with the buyer.

Tennessee does not set one fixed length for an estate. What it sets are a handful of deadlines that shape when money can move:

For estates with personal property worth $50,000 or less, Tennessee offers a simpler small-estate process. Since 2023 it works through limited letters rather than the older affidavit. Heirs can generally file 45 days after the death, no notice to creditors is published, and the limited letters stay open for one year.[10]

The small-estate process covers personal property only. It gives no authority over real estate, so if the house is part of the picture, one of the paths above still applies.

Most estate fights are really about two questions: what is it worth, and is someone getting a better deal than everyone else? The fastest way to calm both is to put the same written numbers in front of every heir and sell in the open, where buyers set the price by bidding against each other.

When family members end up co-owning inherited land and cannot agree, any co-owner can ask a Tennessee court to divide the property, and the court can order it sold if it cannot be fairly divided or a sale is clearly better for the owners.[15] Tennessee has also adopted a heirs' property law that adds protections when relatives inherit land together. Both are court processes run through an attorney; our guide to land and property with multiple owners explains them in more depth.

An estate rarely has just one kind of asset, and no single auctioneer is the best seller of all of them. A firm that gets top dollar for farmland is not necessarily the one gun collectors follow. FALCO looks at what the estate holds and routes each piece to the licensed Tennessee firm that sells that kind of asset best.

• Real estate is sold by a licensed real estate firm. In Tennessee, conducting an auction of real property requires both an auctioneer license and a real estate broker or affiliate broker license.[16]
• A written contract comes first. Tennessee auctioneers must have a written contract with the seller before the sale, and must hold auction proceeds in an escrow or trust account rather than mixing them with their own money.[17]
• Proceeds go to the estate, with a written record of what each item sold for. That record is exactly what an executor wants when it is time to account to the court and the heirs.