Inherited home and probate help · Orange · Seminole · Osceola
When someone passes, their home starts moving on its own. Nobody tells the family.
First Light helps families in Central Florida finish what their person left them — starting with the practical things, not a sales pitch. Once you sign a purchase or listing agreement with us, we cover your independent probate attorney's fees, so the money stays with your family for the funeral and the arrangements. You choose the attorney. No obligation to sign.
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What to do with an inherited home: five things that start moving the week after a loss
This is the list we wish someone had handed our own families. None of it requires deciding anything about the home yet.
Homeowner's insurance
Most policies stop covering a home that has been empty for 30 to 60 days. A quick call to the insurer to add a vacancy endorsement keeps the roof, the pipes and the liability covered.
Forward it now. Bills, tax notices and the insurer's own letters all go to the house.
Utilities
Keep the power and water on. A closed-up Central Florida house without air conditioning grows mold in a single summer.
The homestead exemption
It ends with the owner. The following year's tax bill is often much higher than the family expects. Worth knowing before it arrives.
Who to notify
Social Security, the mortgage or reverse-mortgage servicer (it has its own timeline), and the HOA if there is one.
Not sure what applies to you?
That is what an independent attorney is for. Once you sign a purchase or listing agreement with us, we cover that attorney's fees. You choose the attorney and you find out what is actually required.
Three paths, plainly
Families usually end up choosing one of three things. Here they are without the sales language.
Keep it
- Works when one heir wants the home and can buy out the others.
- Needs a sound roof, air conditioning and insurance.
List it
- Showings, a buyer's inspection, some repairs and a cleanout first.
- Works when the family has time and someone local.
- We do this. We fund the light preparation and are reimbursed at closing, so the family is not out of pocket.
Sell it as it is
- No repairs. Take what you want and leave the rest.
- Closing in two weeks to ninety days, on the family's schedule.
- Less than a full listing, more certainty, nothing to manage from out of state. We do this too.
We buy homes directly and we also list them. We will always tell you which hat we are wearing, in writing, before anything is signed.
How we work
Our house rules
How we found you
If we have written to you: we read your loved one's published obituary and the county's public property records. Nothing private. If you would rather we did not have your address, tell us and we will remove it the same day.
Who you would be talking to
One person, not a call center.
First Light works only with families in Orange, Seminole and Osceola counties who have inherited a home. Calls happen Tuesday to Thursday, 10am to 7pm, one attempt a day. Mail and email have no hours.
If you are an attorney or a personal representative handling an estate: we work at your pace, we do not pay or receive referral fees, and a written offer or listing proposal can be in your hands within 48 hours of a walkthrough.