Should our family keep or sell the inherited Georgia home?

Add it up honestly. For a typical $350,000 metro-Atlanta home:

• Mortgage payment: whatever's on the statement. Often $1,500–$2,500.
• Property taxes: $250–$450/month equivalent, depending on county and any homestead exemption that may now lapse.
• Insurance: $120–$200/month. Vacant homeriders run higher than occupied premiums — sometimes double.
• Utilities: $150–$300/month to keep the lights and water on for inspections, repairs, and theft prevention.
• Maintenance reserve: 1% of home value annually is the standard rule. On $350K, that's $290/month.

Bottom line: holding the house often costs $2,500–$4,000/month in cash out the door, before anyone takes a dollar of equity home. That math compounds for every month the family is undecided.

The single biggest financial advantage of inherited property is the stepped-up basis for capital-gains tax. When you inherit a home, your tax basis is the fair market value on the date of death — not what the deceased paid.

A house your dad bought in 1985 for $80,000 that's worth $400,000 today: if your dad had sold it, he'd owe capital gains on $320,000. If you inherit it and sell it at $400,000, you owe gains on $0.

But the step-up only works on the date of death. If you hold the house for five years and it appreciates to $500,000, you owe gains on the $100,000 increase since you inherited it. The math says: if you're going to sell, sell sooner.

“Keeping it” sounds emotional. The reality is operational. Someone has to:

• Pay the bills on time, every month, for years.
• Handle repairs — the roof, the HVAC, the water heater that's on its last year.
• If renting: tenant screening, lease agreements, eviction risk, property management at 8–12% of gross rent.
• File the estate tax return and the eventual estate K-1s to the heirs.
• Coordinate the sibling group chat every time anything changes.

If no single heir is going to take ownership of the management — or if everyone lives more than 90 minutes from the house — “keeping it” usually becomes “letting it decay” within 18 months.

Before any decision, get the real number. Not a Zillow estimate. Not a “cash for the house, today” offer. An actual comparative market analysis from a licensed Georgia real estate agent who'll come walk the property.

Most cash offers families receive cold are 30–50% below market. Some are fair (10–20% below market in exchange for speed and no repairs). Knowing the real top-of-market number lets you compare honestly.